Human-to-Human, key to communicate...

Sharon Lee wrote in a New Yorker-like article on web design: "What is new is the realization that just having any old website isn’t enough. The quality of your site and the nature of its content are paramount and your ability to communicate with your audience is the key."

Humans, according to Lee, want:-

1. R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
2. A good STORY (read: creative)
   
3. Engagement
4. Inspiration
5. Enchantment

Let's just sum up all of these up into one word, Sharon: L.O.V.E., as Ashley and friends have been shouting endlessly ;) [I'm infected with subliminal messages from Korean Full House]

Sharon's piece is actually a continuation of a topic long discussed by many, for more than ten years as far as I can remember, when Schools of Information were popping up at universities following the emergence of the Web to be one of the most influential communications medium which it already has become today. Even governments talk about USABILITY:, e.g. at www.usability.gov. Until we humans get assimilated into borgs or more cybernetic organisms walk on earth, people should focus on usability for humans...

Though, such 'humanly' communications on the Web seems to me like a dreamy task to achieve when you have 100+ millions of websites out there, and the 100s of millions of people who flock to the pages of Myspace/Friendster, MSN/Yahoo, Google YouTube/Blogger, Twitter, and forums at Topix, etc. LOVE to SHOUT, flame, curse, and write rushingly. This everyone-is-busy-but-want-to-talk-a-lot culture happens to be how humans actually communicate in the real world including through the billions of mobile text-messages/SMS exchanged everyday among people worldwide disregarding gender, age, career or education level.

And for business matters too -- Just examine the millions of active posts for trading of products at eBay and trading of services at work crowdsourcing sites like Elance, Guru, Scriptlance, GetAFreelancer, Pajamanation etc.

Anyway, bravo to Sharon for demonstrating respect, telling a good story, and engaging + inspiring + enchanting her RichAppleFool's audience in their attempt to "connects clients to their audiences through captivating brands, illustrations and online experiences." Say, which one are you in your virtual neighborhood, Sharon, a chicken, a cow or a sheep? (RESPECT!!??)