Francis - Reading Four

Chapter 13 of the book discusses the importance of designing a website that is aesthetically pleasing, in addition to making sure that it is functional and interactive. Functionality is very important because people want to interact nowadays with different media in order to be entertained. Not only that, but also the fact that the Internet is so prevalent in today’s lifestyle. As a result, it is essential to have an effective web site that is cleanly designed and unified throughout. One of my favorite quotes taken from this chapter is “[when] form predominates, meaning is blunted. When content predominates, interest lags. The genius comes in when both of these things fuse” (227). While it does not directly talk about website design, it is an important aspect of design as a whole.

In the next chapter, the author looks at designing for mobile advertising. In addition to the Internet, mobile phones have become vital to our life, which is why it is important to look at advertising on the phone. If one forgets their phone, they feel naked because they have lost the opportunity to have information at their fingertips. I really enjoyed reading about the R.U.L.E. for “conceptualizing products and ideas for cell phones.” Making it relevant, making it useful, giving it legs, and making it entertaining are all extremely important pieces to consider when designing any type of advertisement, not just a mobile ad.

Chapter 15 covers social media and unconventional marketing. While mobile advertising had R.U.L.E., social media has R.A.V.E.S. rule (relevant, authentic, valuable, enticing, and shareable). Just like R.U.L.E., I feel like this approach can be used for other types of advertisements. However, I see the importance it has in regards to social media. One idea that I thought was really interesting was unconventional advertising, such as ambient advertising. This is an effective technique since it “gets under people’s ad radar to surprise them.” Before reading this chapter, I did not know what ambient advertising was and how it uses existing structures to advertise. As a result I found two examples, one is an advertisement that promotes “don’t drink and drive,” and the other focuses on informing the audience about the overuse of water.