The Internet is using the idea of democratic as a medium to present itself to users. Demography, sociology or psychology do not have an effect on the basic range of offers and doesn’t account for a change in the average set-up. It also does not hinder the participation of an individual user.
One web for all. A rather nice thought for the user.

Every movement needs its countermovement; therefore, also in digital media there is a demand for exclusiveness; for elegance and personality – correspondent to those values and image attributes that were established in several years of communication. The online presence is intended to appear as exclusive and intimate, relined with high-class design elements and at the same time with individual values. In addition, the appearance has to be suitable for the mass and accessible by each user. In principle managing to balance both innovation and practicality. On the one hand discovery, surprise, and astonishment are required and on the other uncompromising pragmatism is required to satisfy the needs of the web. Who would want to lose more customers on the web shop due to dubious payment processes?

For the accomplishments of these challenges, multiple strategies have been established which target digital high-class communication.

Strategies - classical or simply outdated?

Strategy A: Content, content, content
An outstandingly high range of content and information shows a high quantity of resources. Correctness to some extent, yet what counts in the end is the content’s quality – whereas copied, linked, or simply irrelevant information is nothing more than a couple of additional bits and bytes.

Strategy B: More effort for more stimuli
Making sure to put a lot of effort into the online presence is creditable – flashy effects are still not worth striving for. Unfortunately, the misconception that great effort must also show large staging is still some portals reality. Whether this is the right strategy in the age of overstimulation and information overload - might be questioned.

Strategy C: Feature Overload
A feature-rich application provides a lot of interactions for the user. To prove exclusiveness and digital competence, the availability of features should not be exhausted to the end but rather well thought out. Each and every renowned CMS offers more features than what just a single user could ever use. The choice with regard to strategy, values and target group makes all the difference.

So how does one manage to reach digital exclusiveness on the web? Especially the aspect of being made to measure turns to account within the work of various digital issues.

The haptic problem

The world of digital media has the indisputable competitive advantage of haptic. Grabbing, feeling, touching – a garment’s quality, for example, is already conveyed when touching the fabric. High-quality workmanship in the range of consumer electronics, too, stands for a quality product. Digital media doesn’t have the possibility to enjoy this kind of reception, yet does have to find other ways to enable qualitative distinctions. The whole topic specified in one keyword: Haute Digitale.

Guidelines of exclusiveness

The aspiration for uniqueness and distinctiveness should be a basic requirement within agencies for every client and each project. As diverse as the customer themselves, the expectations for a service range from A to Z. There is no standardized approach that manages to always prevail - according to our experience there are some specific rules which can be defined and are crucial for the implementation of Haute Digitale.

Rule 1: Specialization
Each feature, design and element has to be created and coordinated for the specific user’s case. Since when a detail, however small, appears as rather vague, the consumer then has – probably even falsely – the feeling that it is a matter of ready-made software. Exclusiveness looks different. Specialized interfaces and original content are quality attributes of the digital world.

Rule 2: Correctness
Digital media is always judged by their weakest link. Inconsistent design, long loading times or poor usability have no place in the web and present a welcome target for a crowd that is commonly known as having a low tolerance for errors. If you manage to disappoint the user once, you have lost them forever.

Rule 3: Timelessness and modernism
Presenting yourself outdated is not an appropriate appearance for the web, however still just following basic trends all the time also means that you run after them constantly. Timelessness is the ideology necessary to be accomplished. For digital media - shaped by increasingly short cycles of innovation - there is hardly any room to look at age. Aesthetically and functionally timeless - they still work in an undiluted manner even if they might not be brand-new in the future.

Rule 4: Made to measure
The past decades have established de facto standards that limit the countless possibilities of digital design to the ever-identical patterns - the logo present in the upper left hand corner and the navigation menu on the upper edge of the screen. All aspects – from graphics, over texts, to the software behind – can be made to measure; and they should in moderation to transport competence and dedication.

Why not draw your own map and then integrate it, instead of using the Google Maps default view? Why not design your own personal icon rather than taking the one used by your competition?

Rule 5: The freedom to be able to do things because you want to, and not because you have to.
A site might work without innovative applications and features, yet it is this very targeted extra effort that is a sign for exclusiveness. Pursuing this goal is aggravated by the fact that such a plus in orientation must not imply a minus in usability; longer loading times, difficult orientation or additional need of software do not rank among the rather legitimate consequences.

Elegance and Haute Digitale

In order to individually implement this set of rules and be target-oriented, you need people with the competence to detect limitations and check them intuitively for their negotiation potentials. The resulting symbiosis of the majority appeal and the courage to do something new results in a solution that achieves a lot with very little. The reduced but all the more precise use of images, words and effects enables the very welcome escape from digital overstimulation - “bigger, further, better”.

The performance in every medium adds to a story with actors, a storyline and plot points. The dramaturgic staging of a company or a product permits for interest to be generated for the tale of a story. In digital media, all the tools you can think of stand in order to implement the desired image.

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