I think that I can safely say that I do not have great artistic ability. However, I do seem to have a particular skill when it comes to the look-and-feel of presentations, web sites and other visual displays used in our business. I can quickly detect inconsistencies in fonts and placement of column headings, colors that don’t belong together and other design flaws that “make my eyes hurt.”

Some of my colleagues find this interesting. Others find it annoying! But all of them see the problems once I point them out. And I’m quick to tell them that I’m not highlighting these flaws simply to be critical. Rather, I have always felt that among the many viewers of our work, there are some that will see these flaws and perceive the work somewhat negatively as a result.

Well, now I feel a bit vindicated. In the article Make Hidden Persuaders Work for You: Aroma, Music, Color, Font , David Lewis makes the case that a number of subtle factors influence shoppers’ attraction to products and retailers. Included in these factors are Color and Font & Fluency, which the author examines in depth. He highlights studies in which buyers’ behaviors were influenced by the attractiveness of display colors and the font and readability of printed messages.

While we’re not in the retail business, I believe that the lessons conveyed in this article apply to incentive and recognition programs as well. If you are a program sponsor, remember that you designed and implemented your program to achieve a specific business purpose.  Therefore, it’s important for it to be perceived as positively as possible by the program participants. In short, it needs to be attractive to them.

Clearly, the primary way to make a program attractive is to have a solid value proposition and fair award rules. But I would submit that a clean, inviting program web site design contributes to the participant’s overall attraction to the program as well. The same holds true for program communications such as email messages and statements. That’s why here at QIC, we place very high emphasis not only on a program’s business purpose and award rules – but also on the way it looks to your participants.

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