The (misguided) pursuit of beauty

A Poundland monstrosity.

That was how my partner first described the Christmas light display I’d secretly hung up on the front of our house.

And, though I didn’t want to admit it, she was right. The bright neon star, reindeer and icicles that were now illuminating half our street suddenly looked a lot more garish than they had in the shop.

No wonder there were still so many left on the shelf…

When I’d bought them I was just thinking about how much our kids would love seeing them, and had hoped that they might spread some festive cheer to our part of the street. But, as I stood there staring at the blinding mass of white and purple LEDs,?I was starting to worry that I’d made a huge mistake.

The next day I bumped into our neighbour. I was about to apologise for bringing down the neighbourhood when he called out:

“Love the lights! I’m not normally a fan of Christmas lights but they look good. In fact, our daughter keeps asking if we can have some, too”.

Half an hour later and I’m up a step ladder hanging up a matching set of icicle lights on next-door’s house.

And that evening, as my youngest shouted out with excitement at the sight of Rudolph and his bright red nose beaming down from our bedroom window, my worries (and heart) melted.

So, why am I telling you this, and what tenuous link am I going to make to fundraising?

Our Christmas lights aren’t going to win any prizes for style, taste or design.?However, they’ve achieved what they were supposed to – putting smiles on peoples’ faces.

When we’re creating fundraising materials (e.g brochures, posters, emails, websites, proposals etc)?we often make design choices based on what we think looks good, rather than on what works - i.e. what is going to help us achieve our objectives.

But there are times when the pursuit of “beauty” ends up doing more harm than good, holding us back from what the brochure/poster/email/website/proposal is trying to achieve.

For example:

• Block justified text looks nice on the page, but the uneven spacing between words makes it harder to read, while the straight edges on both sides of the text increase the chances of people skipping lines. This is particularly true when people are skim-reading. Whether we like it or not, our audience are most likely to be skimmers and scanners so by using the “uglier” left-justified text we can make it easier for them to read.
• Having buttons, links and headings all in our organisation’s decreed colour looks visually pleasing (and will keep you in the good books of your organisation’s ‘Brand Enforcer’). However, a number of tests have shown that using a highly-contrasting colour for your Call to Action will result in it getting noticed more, and receiving more clicks.
• It might look nicer to finish each page with a finished sentence (or, even more “beautiful”, a finished paragraph). However, as fundraising copywriter extraordinaire Lisa Sargent says, “A completed sentence is a stop sign for your brain”. Having sentences that run over the page forces the reader to turn over, increasing the chances they’ll keep reading.
• In a similar vein, getting everything on to one page might make it look tidier, but if that means you have to shrink the font, minimise the margins and eradicate any white space on the page you’re going to destroy the accessibility and readability. And it doesn’t matter how compelling your message is if people can’t read it.

Remember – “aesthetic beauty” is not a meaningful KPI in fundraising.

Your design choices need to be driven by what you’re trying to achieve.

What makes your target audience more likely to take notice?

What makes them more likely to engage with the key parts of your message?

And what makes them more likely to take action?

So, next time someone tries to get you to change something because their way will “look nicer”, consider whether the change could end up doing more harm than good. And, if you don’t know, look for a way to test it.

That way, you can make ‘effective’, rather ‘aesthetic’ your (bright neon) guiding star.

This article was originally written for my fortnightly newsletter, Apollo's Muse. If you found this useful/interesting/a not unpleasant way to fill a few minutes of your life, sign up now to get future articles delivered straight to your inbox - https://apollofundraising.com/subscribe/