The Strapline
We wrote the text for the website a while ago and passed it over to Jason, who has since produced some very stylish designs for the site’s homepage. However, there has been some debate on how to present the strapline for the app (or in simple terms, the sentence that explains what the app does).
Ideally, your strap would state exactly what your app does in simple language, in one neat sentence (max 5- 6 words). However, things are not always that simple. In our case things were complicated by the fact that we have two types of user. If we aimed the strapline at one type of user we would effectively alienate the other by completely ignoring their needs. It took us a while to get our heads around this one.
When we wrote the text in Word a couple of weeks ago we thought we had it pinned down. We would write a vague (catch-all) strap line in a kind of “connect, share, be friends” kind of way (once again Amigo is not social software it’s just an example). And then we planned to use a longer sentence to really nail what Amigo does, aimed at both sets of users. It seemed to work - on paper.
When Jason sent through the design (see example number one) we knew it wasn’t right. It was too long-winded and it took an age to actually ‘get’ what the software was about. It was all wrong.
Roll in example number two (second down from top). Here we tried to drill down to the very basics of what the long sentence was trying to say. We split it into two sections (one for each type of user) and put a bullet point infront of each. The style we used was: “User number one: this is why Amigo is great for you” then “User number two: this is why Amigo is great for you”.
Nope! This was still not working because lower down the page Jason had created some neat little icons to represent each type of user and your eye automatically floated down to read the text associated with which user you were. The bulleted list was now superfluous and actually confused the eye when looking for data.
So we ended up with option number three (third down). We deleted all extraneous waffle and let the icons draw the users in to their particular area, where they would be told, succinctly and quickly what Amigo can do for them. It worked.
The whole process of deciding this one very small (but very important) part of the site took us the best part of week.
And by the way these screenshots are not Jason’s final designs. I have replaced the original text with dummy text so that I could post about it here. The real versions are slightly neater!
Hi Ryan & Gill! Love the blog - its intriguing as well as informative to see the evolution from idea to product. Am involved in developing a new web business (not a web app) myself at the moment. Your posts, particularly the ones on writing copy, straplines and working on design have been very helpful in this process. We’ve coined our own strapline - four words, informative and a nice feel/rhythm to it. Not ready to be revealed yet though like your own! :P
Thanks for your insights!
Comment by Thomas Holmes — May 27, 2006 @ 4:30 pm
I cant say how much i love what your doing, i am creating a web app (with my grandmother believe it or not) over the summer, you have taught me lots of really important stuff. Although i have a question about the strapline, do you think its best to just explain what your app does in the very basics, because alot of apps go into alot more depth and detail than a few words.
Comment by James Deer — May 27, 2006 @ 6:58 pm
I hate to burst your bubble, but your design is beginning to look alot like the branding that TBS, the leading US television network channel uses. go check it out @ tbs.com On all their verbage they use that rounded font that you have chosen for your “Strapline” And the half circle smiley face logo is almost exactly the same (notice their TM next to the logo).
You might consider using a different font to stray away from the TBS clone look. You may even consider a more unique logo just to be safe.
Just thought I’d give you a heads up.
Comment by JT — May 28, 2006 @ 6:56 am
Ooops, after closer analysis, your Strapline font isn’t the same rounded font TBS uses.
Comment by JT — May 28, 2006 @ 6:58 am
grrr…actually…perhaps it is?! i can’t really tell with your screenshot. sorry for all these extra posts!
Comment by JT — May 28, 2006 @ 7:00 am
Hi JT,
The font we used here is Arial. I used it to put the dummy text in but it’s not the one Jason is using in the final designs.
I looked at the tbs site. I think that once the full website design is finished it won’t look like the tbs site at all. Their site is almost entirely blue and while our banner is blue the rest of the site isn’t.
Thanks for pointing it out though it was an interesting comparison.
Comment by Gillian Carson — May 28, 2006 @ 3:59 pm
Hi James
Our feeling is that it’s best to enable new visitors to your site to ‘get’ what your app does within the first 5 - 10 seconds of their visit.
Whether you do this through your strap, icons, text, or a combination of all of these doesn’t matter. But your visitors need to know what your app does quickly.
Comment by Gillian Carson — May 28, 2006 @ 4:04 pm
Thanks Gill, sounds like a plan.
Comment by James Deer — May 30, 2006 @ 1:49 am
Gillian,
Isn’t the key thing not what your app *does* (features), but rather what’s in it for us (benefits)?
http://textgoeshere.org.uk/articles/2006/04/high-impact-copywriting-fast/
Probably teaching Gran to suck eggs here :)
Comment by Dave — July 12, 2006 @ 11:11 am