This week marks the beginning of Passover for the Jewish people. A holiday that commemorates the Jewish exodus from bondage and requires the eating of “Matzah” – or unleavened bread. The holiday also requires the removal of any leavened bread called “chometz”.
So what lessons can learn for web design from this holiday. At the core, this holiday bans bread that has risen while promoting the eating of “flat bread”. The risen bread is considered bloated, which signifies arrogance, while the flat bread is flat, signifying humility. On one hand, a website is a sales tool and requires a heavy level selling – which can be perceived as arrogance. However, when applied correctly, humility in design and copy can be a phenomenal sales engine. Here are a few examples:
Forrst.com is humble and powerful.
It offers employers help in finding designers, but does not overly sell this service as the best one out there. Instead it allows a web visitor to feel like there is no selling, just an honest place to find developers and designers. One feels no pressure and the sense that this community sells itself.
Amazon.com
For being the number 1 retail site online, they sure don’t gloat about it! Instead you get the simple clean design, with an easy to use search function and just about every product you can ask for. They are not selling the site – instead they let site sell itself.
As designers, we seek to accomplish a series of emotions in designing any type of space – but as a general rule, I think we want to make people feel welcome. Removing arrogance from design and replacing it with humility way to make that happen.
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