martinibuster - 3:31 pm on Feb 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

It's true. Cutting edge flash presentations and great designs rarely have a place in a business setting.

Think about it. A brokerage house: It's not full of hip young twenty-nothings balancing I-books on their knees. It's glaze eyed employees with humps on their back from a lifetime of leaning over their calculators. Their clients are senior citizens with Hundreds of thousands of dollars that need to be cultivated like bunnies. Do these clients care about a flashy site? Nope. In fact, visit the Morgan Stanley web site and you'll see a bunch of senior citizens all over the page, with the occasional and barely noticeable flash in the background.

A Real Estate Office: The clients: Me. I don't want no stinking flash. I don't care about the nice design. Show me the houses. I want to see houses with cheap price tags. And where's the phone number so I can call the real estate person? It better be handy dandy on every mother-luvin' page.

The design should not call attention to itself. It shouldn't be ugly, but it shouldn't be too pretty. The design and function for a great many business sites should resemble a butler who melts into the background. They give you a spot of port to tuck you in at night, then quietly slip out.

A functional business site should rarely call attention to itself. It shouldn't look like Cher, Versace, or Dame Edna.

In many cases, it should function like a maid or a butler. In general we're not creating something that makes a statement. We're creating a vehicle that is going to help a business move units.