unted. This is a pivotal moment in the life of many young people, and events in these first few weeks, planned or unplanned, will leave a lasting mark.
One such event is the fresher’s fair, that time when hundreds if not thousands of students pile into a large marquee to get their hands on discounts, memberships and general booty. How can this massive event though, filled with various stalls and promoters, be so bad in terms of design?
Attending one such event, I was exceptionally selective with what I left with, being wary of signing away my personal information and at least attempting to take only the bits and pieces that interested me. I left with six bags.
Scrutinising later, I reduced this number to two – most bags were fairly empty. The first contained items I believed would be useful and that I would use. The second I threw away. That means that even with being selective, I still ended up with 50% rubbish. Not even beginning to talk about the environmental cost of this, that is an enormous amount of wasted money.
So, what was in the bags?
The first bag was full of exceptionally glossy fliers and leaflets. This seems to have increased recently. Promoters are under the impression that the glossier the paper, the more attention will be paid to them. Wrong. Most had gone seriously over the top on the graphic illustration side, making them busy, indecipherable and eventually a wasted effort as they joined their friends in the bottom of my waste paper basket. Keep it simple and clean. I will receive a hundred of these. If I cannot understand it in three seconds you go in the bag.
Bag number two, the good bag, the bag I was to keep, was mainly full of things that I will not actually keep at all; consumables. Chocolate, sweets, bananas, cookies; all will be gone in a matter of days with no memory of who gave them to me. Apart from that there were the inevitable discount cards for bars and restaurants (and dominos pizza aplenty) and what I call the ’stationary element’. This consists of anything that has a practical application; pens, mouse mats, bottle openers and even the occasional rubber duck.
So how does this all relate to user centred design?
For a starter, students love freebies. Whether it is because of an underlying rebellious nature or something to do with student economy, if anyone is going to try and get something for nothing it is most likely going to be a student. If you are going to design a stand that will get yourself noticed, you have to appeal to your demographic. The most successful and popular stands were giving stuff away. You give me a nice glossy flier? That will go into a bag. Something I can use though? That I may keep.
But then there is the question of what you give away, and this is where design is key. Consumables are great, but as mentioned earlier they are used and forgotten. A better choice is something practical. If you give a student something that they think they may be able to use in future, then the likelihood is they will do just that.
To begin with, it has to be aesthetically pleasing. Granted the product may be given away in a bag, but it may not. Make it stand out. Glossy products can look expensive (a good way of luring the poor or soon to be poor student) but bright colours also work well.
Then it has to be cheap to manufacture. You may give away hundreds or even thousands of these branded products, so make sure you are not going to regret the financial implications. Some stands make students pay for their products or memberships; a risky strategy, but if the consumer thinks that it will save them money in the long run it may pay off.
But finally, make sure it is practical. Stress balls are a popular choice, but will probably end up in a box on a shelf. You want to design something that will be used regularly, that will be seen often and promote your business.
So what is the general conclusion to draw from this?
If you want to promote yourself at a fresher’s fair then follow several key rules:
Endless flyering will get you nowhere
Entice with something that will make them think they are getting a great deal
Give them something stylish, practical and cheap – a pen, a mouse mat, a bottle opener, or an ingenious product that they know they will need. Look at your desk. How many branded pens do you have?
[Addition]
After writing this I looked through my room to find what I still had from my first year of university; pens, a mouse mat, a keyring torch, some bottle openers, some discount cards, a ruler with a puzzle in it and finally a stress ball, in a box, under my bed.
Tags: freshers fair, promotion, user centred design, uwe
