Hello Sour Sally (hellosoursally.com) is a weird and wacky website for a non-fat frozen yoghurt. This site is just about as far away from a traditional website as you can get. In fact, it is so unusual that you could easily wonder what the heck is going on here?
Users control Sally's balloon flight through the site with the mouse — using the keyboard to walk and the spacebar to jump — to explore this visual gem.
What this site has in droves is personality, character and charm — three crucial areas most small to medium enterprises overlook when thinking of a web presence. Ok, Hello Sour Sally may be a bridge too far for many, but you can't deny how unforgettable it is. Standing out from the crowd online is becoming virtually impossible, and this is why many companies try to follow the latest trends, whether that be web 2.0 style sites or viral video sites. Once you've begun following a trend you will have to keep doing so, or your trendy website will soon look dated.
Focus on what your company has: personality. If you have character and charm as well, even better. It's sometimes not easy getting your personality across through a website, but it's definitely a crucial food-for-thought item when planning your web presence.
In an age where human contact is becoming rare, make your website a place where users can identify with you as a company.
Rob Ford is founder and principal of TheFWA.com (Famous Web Awards) and author of Guidelines for Online Success.
