Get personal in a good way

One of my rules for design is to “get personal”. I don’t mean get up in someone’s space and annoy them; I mean, show your personality and ask for them to show you theirs. Adding humor, fun, quirkiness, and the like to your website can seriously change how people feel about you. They can go from just respecting you, to loving and respecting you. Getting personal can change loyal fans into bonified evangelists. And the truth is, it’s all about the little things. You can start with your website copy. Here are some examples:

First up is YouTube. Whenever their site is down for maintenance, they always have a new and humorous message on display. This is almost certainly the work of one person who has a sense of humor, but it’s the icing on the cake. It’s the little thing that makes them seem human and somehow cool. Here’s their recent message:

Then there’s Threadless, the most innovative (in my humble opinion) t-shirt site on the net. Not only do they have a great focus on getting their community involved, but they have funny and catchy ways of doing it. Again, it’s makes them light and cool, someone you want to hang around with.

Lastly, witness Basecamp (no picture, just visit the site), the project management tool from 37Signals. Their site is more oriented towards business people so it’s not as openly hilarious as the previous examples. However, you will notice that they are straight-talkers. There’s no high-filutin business speak about deliverables and ROIs. Also, a lot of personality comes from the convincing customer testimonials they’ve wisely plastered all over the site.

I do challenge the Signals to add more personality to their email replies to feature requests. How about a word or two about the feature, instead of shutting discussion down with a canned “we’ll consider it” response? You show a little humor with your header graphics on the Everything Basecamp support pages, why not show a little more? Remember, your customers are people too, not just business robots.