Week I Pt I: Template Choice

If the eyes don't like it, the mind won't see it.

From my limited experience designing and digesting online content, one lesson has stood out above all others. The first thing the consumer is tempted to do is to click away. It is the content creator's duty to not only distract the user from distraction, but also to completely immerse them in an ocean of irresistible words. In an era where we now understand the scientific addiction to the dopamine high of consuming one page after the next, it is harder than ever to keep the youthful audience's attention before – ooh, I should go turn my diffuser on. 

Fortunately, we have more tools than just text to keep our reader mesmerized by the seduction of our every scrumptious word.

The most luxurious piece of writing will be stampeded by the unapologetic shoes of every passerby if it is printed on white paper and loosely posted to any streetlight. Meanwhile, the most obscure, undeserving scam of a painting, if framed in the Louvre, will attract tourists and critics alike from thousands of virtual miles away. This is no fault of the consumer; they are in a rush to find the page they can't peel themselves away from. The responsibility falls on those who choose that famous frame: the palette chooser, the theme designer, the page's visual craftsman/craftswoman. 

With this in mind, bloggers can really have some fun with their readers.

In simpler words, the visual design is just as, if not more important than the writing itself when it comes to any digital content. For this reason, the aesthetic of a page has to align perfectly with not only the words it frames, but the audience it seeks. It would be challenging to sell Barbies on a punk-rock forum. Equally so to sell a Joy Division album on a page with rainbow unicorn gifs in each margin. Switch the visual contexts, however, and the product aligns so perfectly with the target market it becomes difficult to not make a sale. For this reason, painstaking attention must be paid to the colors, fonts, and layout of any online copy.

Still, we are human, so this kind of cold calculation should be left for computer chips.

As much as the purpose of social media is to connect to an audience, in the context of a blog post, it is often the case that the writer and their particular style and talents are what the crowd clicked to see. Too much calculation will kill the writer's authenticity, which is, deep down, what the audience seeks to connect with, hungers to feel within. 

The initial design of this page features thin-serifed fonts like Didot, which effortlessly complement the soft warmth of off-white tones in a spacious, uncluttered atmosphere. It provides for quick, accessible navigation and deep, lengthy focus at once. I chose this clean, digestible theme not only because it is the type of image I believe my consumers will be most attracted to, but also because it is that which I am most comfortable portraying.  In other words, it is both the aesthetic I believe people in my niche will be attracted to and the kind of theme I gravitate towards myself. And what more can we ask for than that? A chance for the world to connect with something we carefully created for them, something we've channeled from within: an impossibly simple image of an otherwise sophisticated digital self-expression.

Warmly,

Zack