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Do You Really Want Articles with Eye-Catching Titles?
On Medium, emails, blog posts and everything social media-esque
Look, I get it.
The title is part of the piece — arguably the most important part.
YouTubers painstaking design their thumbnails for each video so they can evoke some kind of feelings from their viewers so they click on it.
Publishers/writers put in tons of effort into figuring out the best book cover or jacket for their upcoming book so readers will pick it up when it’s placed in an array of books of the same category.
It almost feels like every single piece that someone or some group spews out has to have something shiny slathered on or else people will not notice it.
I feel like that is all fine — if the competition for people’s attention translates to more thoughtful designs that can make us go “ooh” and “ahh” when we revel in the beauty of the creative works then that’s great.
However, what I take issue with is the thoughtless acts of directly copying what others do just because it’s proven to be effective.
I really don’t think we need any more YouTube thumbnails where the cover is of someone with their face in a shocked expression — yeap the standard one where they…
