Beehive Media’s New Web Site – Why Simplicity?

Making the complex simple.  This is what we have done for our clients for 15 years.  And this was the inspiration for our new web site.

Why simplicity? 

First, I believe that people want direction.  They want to be guided to what is important, what is worth their time and attention.  This is what is driving the Twitter craze.  People want the people they know and trust to tell them what to look at.  I'm not content experimenting with a firehose of information and hoping to get good stuff every now and then.  I want you to guide me to it.  Simple design does this.  By minimizing visual and content distractions, we're focusing on what we think is important.  For our site, what's important is to give a quick sense of the types of organizations we work with, what we're about, and most importantly, the work we've done recently.  I think our new site does that very well.

Second, since showing our work is the most important thing, we felt that minimizing the use of color would draw the eye most effectively to screenshots of our work.  We look at our site like a museum gallery wall.  It's just a backdrop for the work.  Some will argue with this approach but they can make their own highly designed portfolio sites!  We do that for our clients, not ourselves.  Maybe in ~3 years when we do this again, I'll have changed my mind, but I doubt it!

Third, I believe that building an interactive experience is a challenging project for most non-technical people.  Many of our clients have never done it before, or have done a simple site and are graduating to a larger site with more functionality, a content management system, etc.  It is intimidating for them in many cases.  But our job is to help make that experience less stressful, less complicated…simpler. 

Anyway, no reason to go on and on.  I just thought I'd explain our approach for those who are interested.  Think It.  Do It. ®