Where’s the Surprise on the Web?

I think copywriting is one of the best places to find surprise. People are so used to dealing with Corporatese that reading human, engaging prose catches them off guard.

Some examples I've seen today are the FogBugz 7.0 Manifesto (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/07/20....) and the TarSnap EULA (http://www.tarsnap.com/legal.html)

I try to make everything I write for http://geekstack.com sound as human as possible because, well, I'm a human and I want people to keep that in mind. Users are so used to "professionalism" that it's easy to forget that *people* are behind everything.

I agree completely. A lot of surprise potential exists in copywriting. People just have to be brave enough to do it.

I really enjoyed your posting. It is great to see that view on social media. I work with a company that automates all of your social media, and it is so important to know what you are doing out there. Kudos to you!

http://tinyurl.com/automatedsocialmedia

I really see what you are saying here and haven't thought of this for awhile. It used to be there were many innovative websites that would blow you away when you visited them whether it was just the service, design, or so on. Now it seems like everyone is just copying each other or maybe we have hit a plateau of innovation. Either way it would be great to see a few companies take more chances which may seem tough in this economy but may be the only way they become successful.

I remember when flash dominated the web and everyday someone would email me this "amazing new website" where you would wait patiently for it to load and then BOOM! the music would start along with the visual effects. 10 minutes later you would finally get to the front page! Those days are gone. With the growth of blog and social centric sites, the surprise factor has definitely been altered. Probably more so now that we use the internet to answer our pre-existing needs more than perhaps just killing time or we use a website as simply a throughput to connect with someone else. Having said that there are still some great examples of personal branding and the growth of online video (particularly creative portals like Vimeo) has probably created the new surprise channel for me.

I know what you mean. Far too many websites went way beyond overkill with their Flash splash pages and other overly graphic elements that were kinda cool when you first saw them, but got annoying the second, third, and hundredth time you visited.

A couple years ago, our company had what seemed like a great idea. We started doing video introductions for our sites. They were confined to a small corner of the site, took little bandwidth to load and did not get in the way of any of the website's functions. (Example: http://www.docucopies.com) We also realized that after the first time someone came to the site, they probably wouldn't care about our cutesy little videos any more, so we made cookies that would tell that person's browser not to load the video after their first visit.

We never got a lot of feedback on the feature, but the overall feeling among employees and management was that it accomplished our goal -- it hit prospective customers with that element of surprise (and hopefully delight), which instantly branded our name in their memories as a company that stands out from our competitors. We still have these videos on our sites today. Oddly enough, our efforts to market this feature to other companies never took flight.

Actually going back to this, I find more interesting websites when they use as little content as possible to get a message across. Take for example the personal home pages. Before they were full of everything about someone. Now, personal pages are either a blog or just a one page site with "Hi, My Name is John Smith. I design websites." Minimal design is cliche but it's about being what you are not what you think people want to know. Plus everyones reading time window has closed and most people don't have time to read pages of text (however my own website about me page is probably an offfender!!)

Has the internet grown up? Has the novelty factor worn off? Is it like the new car that you used to wash and polish every weekend and that you used to buy those new Christmas tree air fresheners for but that now sits under 6 months worth of sludge and road grime?

Thanks Ben. I'm thinking of how to incorporate surprise in my Journey to Independence blog. I'm open to suggestions.

The Internet is getting more and more like tv and becoming very saturated. It's hard to find a surprise among all the mediocre but every now and again you do find it which gives hope.

Good thought, Ben.
But there's one place where surprises abound - that of money making schemes :)
There are tons of those and new ones pop up each day. What is surprising is that people still buy that stuff and get ripped off!
P Christensen has a nice point too! Some of the best writing on the web comes from the keyboards of amateurs and that is a pleasant surprise too!

Agreed. Surprise can be used in a bad way too -- it's unfortunate.

Amazing pictures surprise me. Some are unbelievable. Places and works of nature I only imagine of their existence.

That's very true - imagery is a great component of surprise. I wonder how companies could use it more effectively -- certainly getting away from stock photography on websites would make sense.

surprise is a simple way of putting things, thoughts etc. but we know that it is very difficult to be simple. realy a nice post

I think the problem is that, surprise, like anything truly innovative or creative, takes effort, energy, and imagination. And those three attributes are lacking badly among the vast majority of content producers.

surprises are the simple acts of creativity. but as we know it is very difficult to be simple

Some of the biggest surprises are on the video sites. All around the world, we now have people breaking out of their shackles and creating some extraordinary videos. Some are ultimate parodies of old classics and the performances are truly amazing!
Thanks for the thought and thanks to all other commenters for putting up their thoughts!

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