David Ogilvy’s Principles That Apply to Web Design

David Ogilvy, the Scottish advertising legend who founded one of the world’s leading advertising agencies, Ogilvy and Matter, wrote his famous book Confessions of an Advertising Man in 1963, way before the digital revolution took place. Yet, there are many lessons from this book that is still applicable 50 years later, just by swopping a word or two.

Here are 7 lessons you can take away from this legendary man for web design.

1. What you provide is more important than how you provide it.

Ogilvy considered advertising to be helping consumers make the decision to buy, hence it is about telling them about the product in an effective way. In the same sense, the most important job for website design is to help customers achieve their goals, and not merely about looking good. The key point here is about explaining to your clients exactly how it will benefit them.

2. Unless your campaign experience is built around a great idea, it will flop.

Ogilvy believed that campaigns should not be “standardized”, a creative campaign has to be built around a great idea.

Similarly, web design is not about producing something “similar”, web designers have to constantly challenge themselves to achieve better UX for their clients.

3. You cannot bore people into buying using.

Ogilvy believed that advertising’s aim is to let clients’ voice be heard in the tough competition. The same is true for web design, there has to be an element of surprise that excites users of the website in order for the clients to achieve their goals.

4. Make your advertising experience contemporary.

Ogilvy felt that it was important to tune into younger consumers. Hence he hired a lot of young copywriters as they understand the psychology of young audiences better. In today’s digital world, being contemporary means continuous evaluating and improving your website for your client.

5. Committees can criticize advertisements experiences, but they cannot write them.

Ogilvy understood that designs should not be determined by too many voices. Today, the lean mythology applies to digital products, such as websites, it is about speed not size of the team that is important for quality websites.

6. Never write an advertisement create an experience you wouldn’t want your own family to read have.

Advertisement should encourage people to make a purchase, that is what Ogilvy believes in. However it should not be misleading, it should not be providing false information. This is the same for web design, if you produce a bad website, something you will never do for your family, then you really need to rework on it.

7. The image and the brand.

Ogilvy advocated for a consistent style in a brand’s advertising. This should be the same standard for web design, think of the corporate colors, logo, and design elements that the client’s company has and implement them into the website.

In conclusion, we will like to end off with saying that you should consistently aim to outperform yourself, in teams of people you work best with. You should decide on what is the best for you and your company but always have improvement as your priority.