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It must have mattered. Look how bad it was. Not only were the pages just ugly, they were peppered with database errors and CSS blowups

. It doesn’t prove design doesn’t matter, but it does suggest design may not be the deciding factor.

Can you see at what point in time we changed design?  No?  Must not have made a difference. Let’s look at time-on-site:

Nothing. But this is all superficial — what Really Matters is the Conversion Rate: are more or fewer people signing up each week:

Hmm. Looks like everything objective is saying “it doesn’t matter.” But as much as I respect and follow Lean Startup theory, objective measurements aren’t the only things that matter. Those customer emails matter too.

The other day we landed a large customer who said they could tell from our website that among our competitors we’re more mature and ready to handle a bigger customer like them. I can tell you — objectively — that we’re among the youngest of our competitors, and although I have a list of reasons why “we’re better,” the truth is that particular customer would probably be served just fine by several of those competitors. Was it the design that gave us that edge? Could be. Didn’t hurt, anyway.

Still, the more I look at the importance of design in the startups in my little career, the less it seems to matter.

Modern Lean Startup theory blares out from the red-tiled rooftops of Stanford: Seek the Data and Ye Shall Find! First the bounce-rate. If our website design was repulsive — literally — the bounce rate should now diminish. Here’s the data:

An even more extreme example comes from my second company ITWatchDogs. I displayed its old homepage at the magnificent Webstock design conference in Wellington earlier this year; the crowd whooped at our violent assault on the visual arts, complete with calliope menubar colors, two broken images tag above the fold, and a layout model that could be seen as a “grid” only after consuming a pillowcase of mushrooms:

But you’re anticipating the punch-line — ITWatchDogs grew every month, made millions of dollars, stole business from competitors with billion-dollar market caps (and professional-looking websites), and had a successful exit.

Of course it’s only fair to also point out some of the many instructive counter-examples: Hipmunk is the same thing as Orbitz or Travelocity — the only difference is amazing design, not just because it looks good but because it’s so useable. In the words of Joel Spoksly — the design “affords usability.” (P.S. Early Hipmunk team member Alexis Ohanian is so cool and smart and rich and funny and successful and good-looking that really he doesn’t deserve to be alive. (P.P.S. Hey flamers, for God’s sake it’s a joke! Don’t you realize I’m just sore from losing the Pecha Kucha competition to him?)) I always use and recommend Amy Hoy’s time zone tool only because it’s just nice to use and look at. (P.S. she also authors a terrific blog aimed at the solo entrepreneur.) Many people credit Mint’s smash success with their terrific design. Considering how many features were broken for how long, it’s hard to argue. 37signals documented — with data — how design changes results directly in more credit-card-swiping customers. It doesn’t get more “business value” than that. So where does that leave us in the “matters / doesn’t matter” question of design?

I think you can go either way, but you must decide whether or not you’re going to value design as core to your startup’s identity, and then act consistently. Here’s what I mean.

It’s clear from the outset that design is the only competitive advantage Hipmunk has over its competition. Specifically, by making the flight-search problem pleasurable and useable instead of feeling like you’re navigating pivot tables from Excel ’98.

They don’t have better data, better branding, better name, better SEO, or more money. Just better design, and not just easily-copyable incremental improvement, but a quantum leap better.

When design is that fundamental to the business — how it acquires and retains customers, garners attention and referrals, and distinguishes itself in the market — obviously design can be the most important thing.

Conversely, at ITWatchDogs the company’s internal and external culture was that we’re low-cost, friendly, approachable, regular guys, who understand exactly what you worry about, exactly what your budget is, and we nail it. The site might have looked bad, but our message couldn’t have been clearer.

But it is useful to decide where you come down on the question of design in your startup, because if it’s important you’d better work on that right now and develop a consistent culture of valuing design through-and-through, and if it’s not important you’d better decide what is important and nail those things all the harder, because you’ll be competing with people who are using superior design to cover up their lack of competency in those same areas.

despite the recession, 75 percent of consumers believe social responsibility is important, and 55 percent of consumers said they would choose a product that supports a particular cause against similar products that don't

That means companies have an opportunity to differentiate themselves if they can communicate clearly how they give back to their employees, communities and the environment, per the survey.

nearly 50 percent of 18-24- and 25-34-year-olds are more likely to take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company

$68.7 billion was spent on all TV advertising last year, compared with just $26 billion for Internet advertising

87% said social media was “important” or “very important” to achieving their biggest marketing goal this year.

4. Optional: Determine which outlet gets the scoop In today’s media landscape, a story covered 15 minutes ago by another blog can already be considered old news. Therefore depending on the type of news and the market you’re in it might be wise to give one specific media channel the scoop.

8. Distribute your press release In a previous step you set up draft emails for all your PR contacts, now is the time to send them.

6. Write draft emails In the previous step you have probably only sent out the news to a handful of contacts on your contact list.

7. Make the announcement When the day finally comes, you can publish your press release (or have it published automatically if you’re using the schedule option).

5. Send personalized emails to journalists, under embargo If you decided not to give the scoop to a certain blog you can still let journalists know about your announcement before you actually make it public.

9. Thank the people that covered your story Congratulations! Now that your press release is out in the open you should see some coverage happening. Be sure to enjoy all the free publicity your company receives and thank the people that cover your story via a personal email so you can start building a relationship with them for your future press releases.

he Resource Center will also include a spotlight section for successful non-profits and a success stories app where Facebook will showcase best practices and try to build a community around shared stories and advice.

The resource center is clearly meant to provide non-profits tools, but it’s also a sign that Facebook is taking social good seriously. Facebook has been a home to online philanthropy for some time, but it is not the only game in town.

t’s important from a business perspective to establish Facebook as a hub for non-profits online, but ultimately the cause — and social good — should come first.

The page has already raked in more than 410,000 Likes and only seems to be growing. Has social good hit the mainstream? Should more companies create resource centers?

Field said one major attraction for companies is the chance to align their employee volunteer programs with the objective of their business.

Volunteer programs are tied efforts to retain two major employee groups, younger workers looking for work-life balance and ready-to-retire older workers who want to serve their communities,

Bramhall, 29 agreed the Development Partnerships program is a retention tool for Accenture.

Workers who are part of Gen Y say they want a job that lets them also exercise their personal values and beliefs, according to a study by Deloitte & Touche USA LLC. The study shows 62 percent of Gen Y respondents between the ages of 18 and 26 want to work for companies that give them a chance to use their skills to help a nonprofit.

Lupe Garcia, associate general counsel in the legal department at Gap, Inc. said her supervisors have recognized the fundraising and communication skills she developed in her volunteer work have increased her skills

Employees at Gap can spend up to five hours of paid time each month on a volunteer activity. If they spend 15 hours of their own time volunteering, Gap will give $150 to the organization, as well as matching any employee donations.

"An important driver in wanting to do this was really a desire to do something with my skills that had a broader impact, that had a deeply social impact," Coghlan said.

Internal communication and collaboration within intranets has documented solid ROI’s encouraging companies to look to it more and more for increased innovation and decreased costs. While many organizations have achieved these positive ROI’s, the process to realizing them is often challenged. Activating the community, and getting users to interact with each other becomes a difficult behavioral change, but one that is invaluable to the company as a whole and its employees

Successful internal community participation directly and indirectly helps users across divisions and regions achieve their goals, find experts, and collaborate efficiently.

Identify ambassadors/ Experts: Don’t ignore those able to deliver genuine knowledge, identify them, embrace them, and give them room to speak in a HUMAN voice. Engagement breeds engagement. People who are most likely to contribute include natural leaders, employee’s active on other social networks, and members who had a say in the initial community planning stages,

Recognize these experts: Thank users who do participate. Many companies build communities prompting “Find an Expert” “Ask a Question” but the true value of the question and answer feature is getting people to answer those questions.

Invest in Information Architecture and User Experience: We’ve seen several communities that are lacking engagement because it is unclear to users HOW to engage.  Investments in information architecture are often over looked, even though they are vitally important. 

La jeune génération a été élevée avec ces valeurs et l'implication sociale est une notion qui gagne en importance pour eux, dit-il. Ils reconnaissent la valeur que ça ajoute à une entreprise

S'il est bien de redonner à sa communauté ou de se préoccuper de questions environnementales, les entreprises doivent faire attention de rester en accord avec leurs valeurs.

Il faut rester cohérent avec l'image de l'entreprise, sinon c'est du mauvais marketing. C'est bien beau, mettre de l'avant de belles valeurs sociales, mais comment cela se traduit-il au quotidien dans l'entreprise? Les jeunes voient clair là-dedans et ne sont pas dupes devant ceux qui essaient d'en profiter!

Si, en tant qu'employeur, vous cherchez une façon de vous engager socialement, M. Simard suggère de d'abord faire l'inventaire de ce que vos employés font déjà par eux-mêmes bénévolement et de s'associer à une démarche qui semble leur tenir à coeur.

Par exemple, au Québec, Randstad est partenaire du Club des petits déjeuners et les employés peuvent servir bénévolement le déjeuner aux enfants avant le travail.

Nul doute, toutes ces initiatives nous aident sur le plan de l'attraction des candidats. Les gens sont fiers de travailler pour nous, ils sont motivés et reconnaissent la valeur que ça ajoute à leur travail de pouvoir être engagés dans leur communauté»

Why now?

what's with the boom in charity work in recent years?

candidates for medical school are becoming more and more qualified right out of university. With great grades and amazing recommendations, it can be hard to differentiate yourself from the pack. Enter philanthropy.

It adds some much-needed clout to your character and shows you can commit yourself fully to a project and see it through until the end.

Bus ads, billboards and online banner announcements all broadcast the latest causes to hit the scene. Perhaps all this good karma talk has seeped into our collective subconscious minds and led us to believe that the only way to live a worthwhile life is to include a little do-gooding in our daily activities.

the most important factor at play when it comes to philanthropy: the pure, selfish, unadulterated sense of warmth and happiness that comes from knowing that you've just used your valuable time to help someone who's not you

we've all started realizing that helping other people is just another way of helping yourself.

behind every good charity organization, there stands an army of amazing volunteers. So, here's to all you karma junkies, altruism enthusiasts and kindness fanatics out there. Consider yourselves all cyber high-fived, because the work you're doing is actually making the world a better place.