The Big Red Fez Book Review

by John R. SedivycloseAuthor: John R. Sedivy Name: John R. Sedivy
Email: john@capecodbranding.com
Site: http://www.capecodbranding.com
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Are you looking for ways to improve the design of your website? Are you seeking ways to bring more people to your website, and keep the visitors you do have there longer? Then you should read The Big Red Fez by Seth Godin.

Monkeys And Pachinko
As with Seth Godin’s other works he starts out with a couple of analogies – the first is the monkey with the big red fez. This analogy alludes to a monkey with a red fez involved in a psychological experiment where the monkey takes varying approaches in search of the prize – a banana. The monkey in the red fez is really the average Internet user who is distracted and is really just looking to meet their objective (the banana) – make a purchase, retrieve information, etc. in the simplest manner possible.

The second analogy – a pachinko machine is a comparison between the Japanese game of pachinko, which is similar to pinball, except the machine is upright and hundreds of balls are in play and most balls drain to the bottom while a few hit the jackpot. Your website may be thought of as a pachinko machine, many visitors stopping by, but a fraction of those stick around for the objective – whether it be a purchase or subscription to the website’s content.  The important part of this analogy is that the balls closest to the bottom (your objective) are most important – in other words, the people visiting your site who are closest to making a purchase or to subscribing are more profitable than those just stopping by.

Highlights
Here are what I consider to be the top three strengths of The Big Red Fez:

1. Analogy
2. Format
3. Selflessness

As with Seth Godin’s other books I have read to include Tribes, Meatball Sundae, and The Dip – analogy is the main strength here. I continue to be amazed at the author’s skill for thinking of a relevant analogy for an important concept and continuously reinforcing this concept throughout his books.

Also similar to the author’s other work, the format is a major strength. Short, sweet, to the point. The Big Red Fez identifies the analogies with a few pages up front and thereafter are examples of websites, both good and bad, and an explanation of each. Basically one page contains a picture of the website being discussed while the other discusses the good or bad points. An explanation is also given of how to correct a deficiency if an example of a bad website is provided.

I am impressed by the selflessness of Seth Godin in this book. One of the major points this author conveys is that it is not all be about me, but about you. He reinforces this selflessness by donating all profits of this book to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The author did not make a point of trumpeting this, but gives a slight mention at the back of the book in the Acknowledgments section.

Drawbacks
As with Seth Godin’s other work the experience is overwhelmingly good. There were a couple nitpicks that I have, specifically in the areas of illustrations and good design.

First, I found the snapshots of the websites to be a bit tough to read at times  as they were in black and white and of small print (zoomed out). It seemed a bit contradictory to have a book about good design practices which could have used a bit of optimization itself. A good designer could have helped here.

That being said, good design is subjective. So, the preceding item may not bother some as it did me, and once again this was not a big issue. Furthermore, I did not agree with some of the examples of good design – but yet again this is subjective, if nothing else this book provides great ideas for website layout and content – pick the items that resonate with you, disregard the rest.

Closing Thoughts
The Big Red Fez is definitely worth a read if you participate in web design, or even if you have a website. Although the second edition of the book I read was released in 2002 – much of the information continues to be relevant – and I am surprised at how many people miss the key concepts! One other point of interest is that a least one example website updated their content and layout based on their reading the first edition of this book – and a reference is provided in the second edition.

Given that the book is short at 112 pages and has an $11.00 price tag, there is little risk here in terms of time or money. As with Seth Godin’s other work, there is high value packed in a small package.

If you enjoyed The Big Red Fez you should also read The Dip, Meatball Sundae, and Tribes – all by Seth Godin.

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding

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