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Hi everyone! I’m Clàudia Orengo, a graphic & web designer and watercolor artist from Barcelona. I’ve been helping other business owners with their branding and web design since 2010 and I’ve started several businesses on my own too.
One of the things I always try to do for my own brands and any client project I work on, is to generate an impactful and creative experience for first-time visitors. We all know how quickly we move from one site to another, and how easily we can get distracted by a new email, chat message or phone notification. That’s why, when possible, I try to create what I call ‘wwwemorable experiences’.
I can’t remember when I first applied this concept, or how I came up with the idea, but I know it had to do with the fact that I tend to get bored of things pretty quickly and I’m always looking for new creative ideas to challenge myself.
This is how I learned all I know about web design and development. And this is why it doesn’t matter to me if it takes me a week to figure out how to code something… But I understand that’s not appealing to everyone, so I’ll focus my tips on the brainstorming and idea part and I’ll let you decide if you want to implement it yourself or hire a developer to do it for you.
So… What’s a wwwebmorable experience?
It’s a visual and (most of the times) interactive presentation where there’s something that stands out from the standard, and not only increases the retention time but it also creates a memory that will help that first-time visitor remember you in the future.
Let’s see some examples!
Wedding Logo Creator:
Back in 2015 I started a second online business called Lovers Love Loving, where I design custom wedding invitations. What makes me stand out from the competition is that I’m happy to use unexpected materials, formats and techniques. I’ve done wedding invitations with a scratch and win game, I’ve designed others that pop confetti when you open them, I’ve also done digital wedding invitations with interactive games for the guests, etc…
So when I decided to pitch my business to potential partners (wedding planners) I knew I had to do something that not only showed my strengths but also make me stand out with a fun and impactful idea.
This is what I came up with: https://loversloveloving.com/magia/en.html
When you fill out the form and click anywhere outside, it will automatically generate a wedding logo for you.
Here’s a demonstration:
Also, the code automatically filled a mockup preview of a wedding invitation for them:
I added a link to this page in all the cold emails I used to send to wedding planners, and I can’t count how many of them replied saying how impressed they were with this website.
This is the essence of a wwwemorable experience.
Albert Roca
This was a client project I did years ago. It’s not live anymore, but I have some old mockups I did that can help you understand it better.
This client wanted a full re-brand for their bakery. We worked on a packaging collection for chocolate bonbons, where I used my watercolor skills to illustrate the savors and create patterns for each product. This ended up being a super bold and colorful project, and we needed to bring that to their website too.
I decided to change the website “theme” on each page. I kept the core branding elements (font and layout) but I completely changed the main colour and background pattern for each single page. That way, when the clients visited their website they got the same full colorful experience that they got when going to their local bakery stores or purchasing their bonbons.
Idea generator
This idea came from one of our group calls inside The Profitable Playground with Elizabeth Goddard. We were all brainstorming ideas for one of the members and it came to my mind that it would be super fun to have a generator of freebies.
Imagine visiting a website and selecting a topic you are interested in. Instead of having a list of different freebies, the website will give you a random result every time you click.
I couldn’t stop myself and I started investigating how I could make that happen.
From that idea I evolved to a new one to apply on my own website. Besides offering design services, I also teach other creatives how to make a living from their talents. Being an artist myself I know one of the things that many of us struggle with is to decide what to paint or draw next. So, in order to help every artist out there with the blank page syndrome, I decided to create the idea generator.
I created 2 of them, a simple idea (it generates one concept) and a complex idea (it combines an adjective with a noun to make it more challenging).
You can test it yourself here.
Interactive images & hidden messages
This last example is something I’ve been having in the back of my mind for a long time, and I’m so happy it’s now available for everyone!
I’ve always dreamt of designing a website in which you have a photo with elements and you can click on them to get more information, links and surprises. I envisioned this for myself with a desk showing everything I use: my laptop, the watercolor paintings, notebooks, etc… and then when you click over each of the elements you can get redirected to each one of my websites.
You can see how it looks here in my welcome page.
I created a video-tutorial showing how I use it, which you can find here on my YouTube channel.
How to get a wwwemorable experience idea
I hope my examples have inspired you, but the essence of a wwwemorable idea is that every implementation is something new and never-seen-before. That’s why I encourage you to not replicate exactly what I did. This will help everyone keep the wow factor on their website.
I want to help you get unique ideas for you, so here are my tips:
Put yourself in your client’s shoes.
This is something that comes natural to me as a graphic designer but it can be easily reduced to using empathy. Ask yourself, what are the most important things you would be looking for if you were your client? How can you be surprised?
Do a competition research.
Go to Google and type your niche, your service or your product. Open 5-15 results and analyse their websites. Take notes of what they have in common and anything that stands out too, but the key here is to know what most of them repeat. You want to break that. You want to take the most common things on your niche websites and turn them into something new, fresh and inspiring. This will be a great starting point for your wwwemorable.
Look for great web inspiration.
When I want new ideas for web design I don’t go to Pinterest. Pinterest is so oversaturated with “trending” templates that they end up all looking pretty similar to each other. There’s a great website called Awwwards that collects examples of super creative websites. Also, WeTransfer usually has interactive ads as the background of their page when you are sending a file, so make sure you visit it and refresh the page a couple of times. Finally, Dribbble is the heaven of design. You’ll find there mockups and work-in-progress shots from the best designers around the world.
Look for examples outside your niche.
Especially when researching in the previously mentioned websites, you want to open your mind to ideas from any niche. If you only focus on your niche, you will be reducing the possibilities and probably will be inspired by something too similar, which will not end up producing a wwwemorable experience.
Think about games.
In the end, it’s all about allowing your visitors to have fun and play for a while on your website. It can be as simple as the hotspot click idea, or it can be something super complex like creating a conversation with them by filling an interactive form. Do not put boundaries to your creativity! I always think that everything you can imagine, can be done.
Need more help?
I would be delighted to help you come up with a wwwemorable idea or to chat with you to figure out the best way to implement your ideas. You are welcome to book a Brainstorm Session with me here.
Clàudia Orengo, Designer
Clàudia Orengo, DesignerI am a graphic designer and a watercolor artist from Barcelona who combines done for you graphic & web design services with online trainings to help other creatives make a living from their talents.