Designing for the web is a difficult task. Not only does the designer have to worry about the appearance of the website, but the designer must also worry about how the content will affect the appearance. In other words, you can have the best designed site out there, but if the content is lacking, the site won’t go anywhere.
As I was thinking about the problems of designing, I was reminded of a speech course I took during my college years. The speech class taught us to establish Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Within this article, I will go over each of the speech techniques and how they relate to design.
Ethos
Ethos is another word for credibility. Just like you wouldn’t listen to somebody that doesn’t know what he’s talking about, you probably wouldn’t stay very long at a site that doesn’t have very high credibility.
An example of credibility is an e-commerce site. One wouldn’t just shell out a credit card number to just any site, right? The site has to have the look and atmosphere that says to the user, “We won’t scam you.”
One way to establish credibility on a site is to know the target audience. When going to a hard-core band’s website, one wouldn’t expect a pinkish design with butterflies dancing around — at least I hope not.
Another way to establish credibility is in the content. A good vocabulary, correct spelling and pronunciation, and actual knowledge about the subject help out immensely with regards to credibility.
Logos
You’ve probably already guessed it, but Logos has to deal with being logical. Logos also deals with giving people a reason to stay at the website. The presentation, navigation, and the content should be laid out logically. Once again, you could have the best presentation and navigation around, but non-logical content will just drive people away.
Another aspect of Logos is to steer people. When making a persuasive speech to somebody, your goal is to steer people to the conclusion that you have made. With website design, your objective is to steer people to the content you want them to look at, or the product you want them to buy.
The last aspect of Logos I will discuss is “the message.” With Logos, one tries to form a clear and reasoned argument so people can easily draw a conclusion. What conclusion are people drawing from your site, or better yet, what is the “message” that people get when visiting?
Pathos
Pathos has to deal with the emotional appeal of a speech, or written text. We’ve all probably seen those commercials where there’s some orphan in Africa somewhere, and if we’d give just a few cents a day, we could put this kid through school. The commercial tried to emotionally persuade us to give.
I would argue that Pathos is applied to web design as follows:
- Persuading people to purchase something.
- Persuading people to stay and/or come back.
- Persuading people to donate.
- Persuading people to vote for a candidate.
- Persuading people to care.
Pathos is hard to maintain because it must constantly be worked on. When designing, Ethos and Logos are usually established once. You either have credibility, or you don’t. You either have logic, or you don’t. The same can’t be said for the persuasive ability to emotionally appeal to the end user.
Conclusion
Ethos is the credibility factor, and is established rather quickly when visiting a website. It’s hard to gain credibility, and rather easy to lose it.
Logos is the logical factor. Logos depends on how well you steer your users, and how well the site gets the overall message across.
Pathos is the emotional factor. How do we convince somebody that has no emotional vesting in the website to actually care?
