Digital communication forms the essence of marketing on the web. Digital media and design forms – graphics, colour schemes, font-styles, video clips, animations, illustrations etc. together contribute to a visual appeal and experience. How these individual elements are used to bring about a desired effect collectively is the key to successful digital communication. It can be as basic as just being visually attractive, like a product demo for a mobile phone or it can be passive and slow like when extending a brand identity, by incorporating established corporate colours and font-styles.

This article does not deal with branding per se. It assumes that the brand/image is already there. Digital design then takes on the role of extending that branding on the web, using visual perception as a highly influential component that tends to generate interest and that can result in shorter behavioural response times.

It is the strategy or arithmetic behind the actual application of design that creates an increased interest in a campaign (Ford Explorer / Chevy trucks on Yahoo) or the successful launch of a product (MSN Explorer) that aims to cater to a wider audience than before.

So how much can design influence or how much of design can influence? How much of power can it leverage in establishing good credentials for a company on the web, where many others fail with admirable regularity?
When a company decides to build a website either to aid internal workflow or as a tool to market its services on the web to an end user, design and usability are two important aspects that lend direction to the exercise.
Design on its own is responsible for grabbing the attention of its intended audience- what we may call 'first impression' and usability extends an invitation to engage, by virtue of that attention.

It is sensible enough to assume that your website is an actual extension of your offline image/identity. The homepage or the opening page should have the company logo, clearly distinct from other content. Most companies have style guides that are adhered to in their communication material. It makes sense to adopt the same colour schemes when designing the website, as it is safe to assume that there is already a perception of your image in the viewers mind. The MSN group of sites is a good example of this continued branding. However, this is not a thumb rule for completely new web initiatives.

How much of strategy can result in good digital communication?
Design forms an important aspect of a brand-extension exercise. And on the web, the key is to try and create unique experiences in a new age medium that would help extend brand. Adopting a specific design style can prove to induce loyalty and retain brand value.

Take the MSN Explorer for example. Released a couple of years ago in its first avatar, MSN Explorer broke out of traditional IE (Internet Explorer) imagery. There was a lot more colour in the interface. Staid techie looking buttons and widgets were replaced by soothing curves, pleasant glows and cute icons. For the programming junkie, the makeover didn't offer much in terms of functionality, but for the average surfer, the product presented itself as a new way to surf the web. The new look particularly, I would believe, went well with the female audience. Everything looked much more friendly and glittered quite as gold. Functionality was added by linking most of the buttons/sections to an already existing community of partner portals, which as MSN claims, eases the way in which one shops around the web. And noticeably enough, the base colour adopted was blue, something that anybody worth his/her digital salt will identify with Microsoft and most of its related websites.
A good example of carrying forward an existing brand identity is the Economist portal. The sparring use of red lines and coloured links draws a similarity with the offline magazine. Even the EconomicTimes.com portal uses the light brown colour that has been associated so much with its offline offering (The Economic Times) across the main mast and as backgrounds for links to sections.

Although one would be tempted to go all out in sprucing up their digital image, one must exercise caution in relation to who your target audience is and what is it that they seek from the experience. Google is by the far most preferred search engine. In contrast to what I just said above, you will hardly find any images/coloured columns on the Google website! Yet as a design, it is as effective as the MSN exercise if not more. In addition to its patented methods of indexing websites, by doing away with graphics, Google drastically brings down the response time required to refresh its pages when a search query is submitted. The only graphic that the website incorporates is the logo and a page counter, again using parts of the logo very effectively.

Does technology always have to be a crutch for design initiatives? How much of overkill is permissible?
Although the ubiquitous flash plug-in is installed in over 98.5 per cent browsers, I personally do not see its application as a complete replacement to traditional HTML. In fact, one can cite many examples where flash has been used to substitute traditional forms of navigation, thereby creating a new learning curve, much to the chagrin of average unadventurous users who in all probability happen to be your above average potential buyers/loyalists. After all, how much of Flash does Amazon.com use?

An intelligent application of flash can be experienced in product demos and embedded ads. Advertisers who want to leverage the net in a better and more effective way ought to concentrate here more.

Although one does come across really good and effective animated (GIF) banner ads, there is a steep price to pay - high download time and low patience levels among surfers. Moreover these ads are like a slideshow and offer little interaction. (HTML form based ads can prove to be an exception). Flash ads on the other hand (like the ones on CNET or MSN) offer the user a chance to explore much more about a service or product, without leaving the page of initial interest. This reduces the inclination to be cheesed off with a slideshow running whilst reading an article and in contrast, is more on the lines of permission marketing. Only when a user chooses to hover or click on a button, does information pertaining to that click/button present itself. Its unobtrusive, packs a lot of information and presents itself only when triggered to.

However at times, technology gives a much-needed boost to a design initiative. The Ford Explorer takeover ad (an ad which takes up a sizeable portion of online space hiding otherwise important and standard content) appearing in early 2001 was a pioneering exercise in trying to project a bold image for the company.

The thought that went into the design and the way the ad was executed brought about 39 million impressions and half a million click-throughs activated by the user. Although all clicks didn't translate into an actual purchase, the ad prompted users to find out more about the new Ford offering and thus that many more impressions of the brand were imprinted in the mind of the surfers. Incidentally, Yahoo ran a similar ad featuring Chevy trucks early this month.

Relating to the audience.
Why is it that so often we see banking, consultancy and PR websites incorporating a lot of pictures of smiling and happy people? People shaking hands and executives on intercoms are common visuals in their digital communication material. The thought behind the idea is simple. Ideally, when you walk into a bank, you expect to see well dressed executives sporting a smile on their face, decent and spotlessly clean furniture and soft lighting fill the room. So, when a similarity is expressed on the website, psychologically it makes the user that much more comfortable and used to the experience. An appropriate use of colours obviously will not result in customers signing up by the hour, but it definitely passively builds on the organizations identity and image on the web.

Conclusion:
I still do not see the web as an effective sales generator as much as it is a digital communication tool. And design is very much there along with technology especially in a world that is still very dominated by visual choices and preferences.
When completing an online transaction, lines of complicated ASP code and HTML may trigger digital cogs and gears into overdrive as a user clicks on the submit button, but there could be many steps involved before that, which may well be aborted midway if the digital reception was far from engaging, pleasant and most important easy to transmit.