The last few days, I was lucky enough to spend in Botswana, close to the central kalahari desert. Trust me, it was amazing! Seeing the sunset over the desert is a magical moment, that was only rivaled by the spotting of a lion pride at sunrise…but, I am digressing the the hard facts of business. A quick survey of possible customers has found that our current website design is, well, let’s say off kilter. Some say, there is too much text, not enough colours, the banner looks like a tourism website. Personally, I think it is great that people take such an interest in our success that they give us all this feedback, and at the same time, there is a difficult balance to strike between professional and pink&fluffy, between words and visuals….

At the Mind Institute South Africa, we are very passionate about people and about our values. We would not be offering our services and courses if we did not think that they can add value to people, and if we would not see that they can positively change lives forever. All this means is that we have a lot to say about ourselves, and about our courses, and we try to put as much information on the website as possible for people to read about us, the courses, the company, …..

Yet, people in general also want to look at pictures, and some are avert to long passages of text. It is said a picture is worth 1000 words, but what in a picture the possibility of interpreting it differently than we intend to is also very high. An example will illustrate: Let’s say we talk about learning new skills and discovering new possibilities, and we want to use a picture to illustrate that. For arguments sake, we focus on learning and use this picture:
For some people, this might stand for exactly what they want: Somebody up in front of a crowd, teaching them, and them passively taking in knowledge. For others, this will bring back memories of classrooms and experiences in school, good or bad. If, on the other hand, we talk about our courses being taught interactively, and exercises and experience being the most important part, we know what message we are sending out, and we have a higher chance of people understanding it the way we intend them to.

So, what to do? Well, it is a delicate balance. Pictures can enhance as well as detract from the main message of your site, so it is important to spend time to find the right ones, that fit to what your are saying, and then the next trick is where to place them….