i-d media london

Like Einstein put it, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”. In web design, invisible design means keeping the user experience as simple as possible. Dieter Rams, the forefather of “invisible design” and writer of the book ‘As Little Design As Possible’ embraced form following function. His products, always designed around functionality, have been an inspiration to companies like Apple. A good digital example is the user interface of Google Plus The small animations and simple visual signposts efficiently hide the complexity of the site from the user. Oliver Reichenstein, founder of iA, wrote an in-depth “G+” review of the service.

• As little design as possible
• Google Plus
• Oliver Reichenstein’s review

Online creating an audience, maintaining an audience and developing audience advocacy is about staying in touch. Ongoing editorial is a very natural way to keep talking to people. You can push the content to where people expect conversation – Facebook, Twitter, email – and you can engage people closer to conversion on-site. The trick as marketers is to create an engaging ongoing content platform that requires limited resources to maintain. Mr Porter’s Father’s Day content is a good example – insightful but concise creative leads straight to shopping recommendations. Man City’s site is another example. They have totally editorialised the club investing in a platform that dramatically brings the club to life.

• Mr Porter ‘Father’s Day’
• Manchester City FC