Signposts To Clutter

“Sign Up To Our YouTube Channel” or “Join Us On Flickr” are often signposts on the homepage of our websites.  They are pointers telling customers that there is better content on someone else’s site – just not here.   In many cases these signposts should say “Go Here For Uncoordinated Video and Image Content”.

When we arrive at most of these channels the reality is that the content is out of context and meaningless.  Often the channel has few subscribers and the content viewed count low.  Out of context content is practically useless to the reader and distracts from their task in hand.  So why do we insist on putting these badges of dishonour on our sites inviting readers to sift through our non-task related content?

Our costly and well produced videos or pictures look great and mean a lot to us, that’s why we commissioned them.  It serves a purpose in our stories, messages and explanations while in context as part of a web journey.  Too often we forget that the majority of readers are on our site for a purpose, to solve a problem they may have or find the answer to a question. Pushing readers to content that is without context or answers their particular problem only serves as an irritant.

YouTube and Flickr have their function in many web strategies but for most they are simply broadcast tools allowing you to stream video and photography into your website. Isn’t it time that we put as much effort into paying attention to our customers information requirements as we speed on trying to get their attention in the first place?