This morning we turned our working site design and logo over to the server development team. And tonight I read: “the visual design may be the first test of a site’s credibility. If it fails on this criterion, Web users are likely to abandon the site and seek other sources of information and services” (Fogg, Soohoo, and Danielson qtd in Warnick, Rhetoric Online 34).
Um, great! I guess this is not surprising, but it does add quite an element of pressure to what has already become one of our more challenging tasks. For most of us, the web page is a new genre whose conventions and strategies feel alternately intuitive and alien. Yet I think any one of us could easily speak or write a persuasive mission statement about the Harlot project… the trick will be in the translation. And clearly, the stakes of design are high.
Speaking of, a special shout-out to my good friend James for his brilliant (and patient) work on Harlot’s forthcoming logo…. coming soon to a blog space near you!