At the risk of having a rant, I despair of the quality of typography in much of the digital media I have to deal with. Now, I trained as a designer when typographical design was a distinct and highly prized discipline. Print material - ads, literature, stationary etc. was created by a designer, then passed to a typographer or typographical designer to specify the type. When DTP arrived, the designer’s concepts could go straight to print – so the output was purely dependent upon the quality of the designer’s typographical skills and understanding, which in many cases was sadly lacking.
So, why does this matter in today’s digital world? Because, despite rich media advances, the web is still largely a text based medium and an understanding of the principles of typography is vital if copy is to be easily read and understood. Let’s look at just a few fundamentals:
Line length – the landscape format of a web page is not ideal (why do you think newspaper pages are vertical?). The ideal number of words to a line is about 10-12 max. Why? Because that is the ideal number for the eye to scan and move to the next line with ease – without struggling to find the beginning of the line again.
Text layout – ranged left text reads better than justified or ranged right text. Why? As above, it makes it easier for your eye to return to begin the next line as the lines ‘look’ different.
Upper and lowercase text reads better than all caps – Why? Because once we learn to read we then begin to recognise words by their shape, not by reading them character for character, and the ascender and descenders (the bits that stick above and below the line) in lowercase text help us see the shape more quickly and easily(that’s why motorway signs are in upper and lower).
Sadly, part of the reason for the demise of good typography is that text or content in digital media is often left to the final moment. Pages are filled with ‘greek’ text to view the designs, and nobody (certainly not the designers) ever has to consider how well the content is read.
I could go on… but I hope these few, simple examples make the point. There is an old truism… the best typography is never noticed – you are too busy reading the content.
Another government IT project, the government’s prisons computer system, has come in for massive censure and criticism for the failures in project management. A “masterclass in sloppy project management” which ran hundreds of millions of pounds over-budget, MPs have said. Almost doubled in cost and two years overdue, it was finally scrapped.
Prisons computer system ‘a masterclass in sloppy project management’, NAO finds – Daily Telegraph
But why is this scenario constantly repeated on public sector projects? I cannot believe the that on all these projects the managers are any less able or the procurement officers any less rigorous than those in the private sector… so what is going on? I started reflecting on the difference between private and public sector tenders I have been involved in and these are my personal reflections:
There are more surprises in public sector tender awards – when I have lost on private sector contracts, the reasons usually make sense. We lost to someone who had some obvious advantages or our tender was not as well put together. Often when we lost a public sector tender and looked at the winner, often the first question was, ‘Who?’ And on other occasions we were equally surprised to win tenders against what we considered superior competition.
The selection process is often more remote – procurement and assessment panels are not homogeneous and are staffed by many people who will have no part in the delivery of the project. This often means that once the tender is secured, the project brief ends up being re-written at least in part by those involved in the delivery. In the private sector, usually more of those involved in the tender process on the client side are those with a direct vested interset in the success of the project, not just political responsibility.
Perhaps I have only been involved in small scale tenders by comparison, but rarely has emphasis been put upon my organisation demonstrating project management methods or processes and it has usually been up to me to volunteer such evidence. Often when discussing project management issues with selection panels I have seen eyes glaze over… maybe that is my presentation style, or an indication of lack of interest.
I would love to hear other people’s experience – perhaps these issues are just highlighted on major projects, maybe it is just a question of scale?
Sometimes I get a little depressed by the misuse of the term ‘marketing’ – not just because I’m getting old and curmudgeonly, but because it flags up a basic misunderstanding of what I do for a living. Very often clients approach me saying they need some ‘marketing’, usually meaning the require some advertising or marcomms. Okay, I am not going to turn away business for the sake of terminology so I grit my teeth and get on with it. But in today’s Independent (03/03/2009) Yvonne Cook writes an article on ‘Social Marketing’ – by this she refers to such government or other social campaigns to try to stop us smoking and drinking and make sure we eat our five a day. There is now our first Professor of Social Marketing, Gerard Hastings, she informs us and an Institute for Social Marketing (ISM) run jointly by the OU and the University of Stirling. The Open University now runs courses on Social Marketing – and as an OU alumni myself I am reluctant to criticise them. But it is the terminology that grates with me. There is some great work being done in the social arena, but for me it is not ‘marketing’ – it is ‘communications’. Going back to my very first marketing text book and the hoary old 4 ‘P’s – Product, Price, Place and Promotion – there is no product, no price and no place – unless you really torture those definitions. All there is is ‘Promotion’ or more accurately communication. I am very impressed when I look at the activity in this field and there is some very sophisticated communication being done, using mainstream techniques learned in the commercial sector!
Anyway, rant over… I’m off to write a ‘marketing’ proposal for reducing teenage pregnancies!
I was listening to a heated discussion between two managers about project management software. They were both animated and committed advocates for their chosen platforms, and each was obviously a skilled exponent with deep knowledge and understanding. However, it gave me an eerie reminder of a case recently where a friend was weeping on my shoulder over a current digital project that was way overdue because it looked like it was still a long way from achieving what he as a client wanted.
The manager charged with the project was highly skilled, but talking to him it became clear that he had fallen in love with the process, along the way losing site of the goals and objectives. It is so fundamental, yet with increasingly sophisticated models, systems and, yes, software, there is an eagerness to get stuck into the process. Sometimes we eed to give ourselves a good kick to remember it is the objective and goals that matter – the process is just a means to those ends.
