I was about to write a rant about Seth Godin's entry on "how to build good-enough websites" when I read his next entry on "how to create a great website". The rant would have been around the idea of "why bother building something that's not great in the morass of the web? Why bother doing something - creating something, getting involved in something - that is simply "good-enough" and not "great" and not "remarkable"?"
Coming from Seth Godin, who, in The Dip, wrote about being excellent, remarkable, stellar, and about Zipf's Law, it was quite unnerving (for a fan, at least) to see that he's now writing about "good-enough" things.
But thank God he wrote another one about building great websites.
The beauty of great websites (not that I am an expert in building them - look at this blog!) is that it doesn't have to be full of the latest tech stuff. It doesn't have to be filled with animation, with flash, with the whole shebang. Sometimes, simplicity in and of itself commands greatness. It's not just the design - it's also the overall relevance of the website.
Anyway, my take is simple - If it's not going to be great, it's probably not worth doing.
And Seth Godin's advice on how to build great websites are very relevant - not just in creating websites, but in creating something great whether they are ads, media plans, communications plans, marketing plans, business plans, business vision and mission statements, living...
It's all about being great. And excellent. In all things one does.
1. Fire the committee.
2. Change the interaction.
3. Less. Fewer words, fewer pages, less fine print.
4. What works, works. Theory is irrelevant.
5. Patience.
6. Measure.
7. Insight is good, clever is bad. Many websites say, “look at me.” Your goal ought to be to say, “here’s what you were looking for.”
8. If you hire a professional: hire a great one. The best one.
9. One voice, one vision.
10. Don’t settle.
