No, not my brain people..everyone’s brain! So what does the brain have to do with web design?  Everything actually!  You see, people deal with all the information coming to them in different ways.  Some prefer reading, while others prefer watching.  Some like detail and precision while others like pictures and examples.

Being a designer myself, it’s no surprise that I prefer pictures/videos/audio when I want to learn or read something interesting.  I have a strong affinity for video, pictures, and audiobooks – thats just how I like to be entertained. I have friends and clients, on the other hand, that prefer reading/writing and seeing detail and precision. They don’t mind wading through graphs, bar charts, and lots of detail – it makes their brain juices flow.  That would drive me nuts after a while, but for them, they are like a pig in mud (or like a fat kit on a Smartie).  I just don’t like detail, minutae, and reading bland text when I am trying to learn or entertain myself (thats probably why I never did well in languages/science and school in general).

As you might predict, the focus this newsletter is a bit of a departure from the standard.  I am going to show you how to take advantage of this knowledge and create content on your site that appeals to both “lefties” and “righties” and everyone in between.

Brains and Web Design

For you, how you prefer to read and learn is unique to you. Creating a web site only from your point of view is a mistake – there is a good chance your site won’t fullfill the needs of all of your visitors. Everyone reads information in different ways and so your web site should cater to all audiences equally.  I often see this with clients where some are lefties and love detail and writing and don’t care much for pictures/video (often labeled “rich content” by the righties), while others are righties and want video/sound/pictures and usually scan web pages rather than reading every paragraph in full. Once you understand that everyone reads in different ways, you can take advantage of this and create content that serves both brains equally.

As a good starting point, every web page of your site should have at minimum:

• Summary and Detail for the Lefties (thats all they need)
• At least one picture (for the Righties)
• Bonus if you can: Video of something relevant
• Super Bonus if you can: Audio narration of the web page by the author
• Super Duper Bonus if you can: Video narration of the web page by the author

I recommend to clients that they add audio narrations of the web page because there are always a few creatives in the audience that will prefer to have content read to them.

Brains and Your Typical Visitor

We can go a step further and propose that the type of audience visiting your site can pre-determine the type of content you should offer.

For example, if you sell custom-made jewellery, its safe to assume that most of your customers lean to the right.  As a result, you will see sales increase if you have big pictures, audio and video and focus on satiating the needs of the right-brain. If you own the jewellery store but are a natural leftie, it becomes even more imperative that you depart from your focus on detailed writing and trust that less words and more pictures will work.  A lot of the cloting retailers have picked up on this technique, like LandsEnd, Gap, and Mexx.  In fact, LandsEnd starts every major category on their site with pictures and no written content at all which tells me the design team (righties) are running the show there.

Another example is Real Estate agents.  Here you could get brains from all walks of life and so you need to be cautious not to focus too much on written content (as a lefty) or too little written content (as a righty).  You need to satisfy both brain types. Knowing, however, the type of brain you are dealing with as a real estate agent could help you sell more homes.  If you are dealing with a right brain, go for the virtual gallery and big photos.  If you are dealing with the right brain, make your first contact a detailed financial comparison of homes in the area.

Tickle all brains equally

The best way to see the results of ensuring your site serves all audiences is by example.  I am going to use a Business Consultant and show how a site map might look like.

The Left brain site owner might create a site map that looks like this:

Home
Coaching
- Coaching Program
- Coaching FAQ
- Coaching Fact Sheet
Packages
- Startup
- Small Business
- Established Enterprise
Client List
Contact

The right brain might create a site map that looks like this:

Home
Coaching
- How I coach
- Coaching Videos and Audio
- Coaching FAQ
- Coaching Events and Training
Client
- Case Studies
Contact Me
- Chat Live

In both examples thus far, neither web site map is complete.  When you combine the two, you get :

Home
Coaching
- Coaching Program
- FAQ
- Video/Audio clips
- Coaching Fact Sheet
- Coaching Events and Training
Packages
- Startup
- Small Business
- Established Enterprise
Client List
- Happy Clients
- Case Studies
Contact
-  Chat Live

See how combining the two is much more complete and seems to serve all brains equally?

Obama vs McCain

OK, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon and contribute my piece on these two future world leaders (eyes rolling).  Here we go!

Studies seem to show that when speaking, lefties are more planned and consistent and don’t use hand gestures or body signs to convey their message. Righties are more intuitive, think on their feet, use their hands often, and sometimes are looking into the distance to help visualize.  Lefties are more likely to be concerned about the content of a speech while righties put energy into the style and emotion in which the speech is given.

Based on this alone, I would venture to guess that McCain is slightly more left brain oriented.  He has stated that he doesn’t enjoy public speaking and usually ends up with a “monotone” and bland or forced speech style.  He has proven that he isn’t comfortable winging it and making it up creatively as he goes along.  Obama, on the other hand seems more right brain oriented (a more natural public speaker). You can see this in action when Obama is interviewed where he will use hand gestures and is able to answer random questions with ease.  He has a more natural style of communicating.  I would say its no accident that he leads in initial polls – its not his political campaign but his brain thats doing all the winning

Fortunately for the lefties that have watched the candidates, both have superb speech writers that ensure the left-brain oriented message content is communicated clearly and precisely.

Still Struggling?

If you aren’t sure about what kind of visitor comes to your site, or would like more precision (lefty eh?) on your site content strategy, feel free to shoot me an email and I can help you out with more in depth info.  Don’t forget as well, to visit my links on the right hand side for quizzes and questionnaires that can help you identify your brain type.

Links for Righties

Ah.. my confidants.. my friends.. I am just like you!

• Joost – Watch great movies in high definition online
• Ted – Amazing videos from the world’s best in academia and design
• Cooliris - Great way to search for images online
• WindowShop – Shop at Amazon with Pictures and Audio (NEW!)
• Reuters, CNN, and CBC -  watch the news, don’t read it
• BlinkX – search ALL online video here
• TVTonic – Software to watch TV online

Links for Lefties

Sorry lefties.. you are on your own. I just don’t have links that are specific to your brain type.  How about a change of scene and see what the righties like above eh?