Usability: One Word Can Make a Difference
January 18, 2010
I needed to login to my Comcast account to update my credit card info. They have a simple sign-in page with a text box to enter your user name. Under the box it says: “Your user name is your e-mail address.” That’s helpful since I didn’t have a clue what my user name is.
Type in my email address. Can’t miss the error message: “Missing or Invalid Information.” OK, I try my gmail address. Same result. I try my hotmail address. Same thing.
Now I’ve run out of options and have to find a phone number (pretty well hidden under the “Customers” tab). When I speak with a rep I’m told “you have to enter your COMCAST e-mail address.” I didn’t even remember I had a Comcast email address; never used it before. I enter it and login successfully.
This makes me wonder why they don’t tell you “Your user name is your Comcast email address” and how many support calls they could avoid by adding one word.
File this under “Not thinking about your website from your visitors’ point of view.”
10 Reasons Why Your Sales Director Shouldn’t Build Your Company Website
December 14, 2009
The new Director of Sales announced he will build our new site himself. (You can’t hear me sighing and wanting to smack my head against the wall, but I am!). Can you help me explain to the CEO why it’s a fundamental error to underfund and get this wrong?
– Smacking Head Against Wall
Dear SHAW,
Take two aspirin. Here’s how I’d present it to the CEO.
- Objectivity. It’s the one thing nobody in your company has. This includes the Director of Sales (DOS). Why does that matter? Because a successful website keeps the focus on visitors and helps them achieve their goals. Many companies fall into the trap of navel-gazing (we do this, we do that) without ever thinking about what visitors really need.
- Are you offering some off-the-shelf commodity to your clients? If so, an off-the-shelf website is fine. If not, you want an online identity of your own. A less than top-notch design will undermine your brand and your message.
- The ability to easily make edits, add PDFs, videos and other documents is essential. The staff should not have to learn Dreamweaver and call me Claire Voyent but I predict that DOS isn’t always going to be available to make updates.
- We frequently review corporate sites where the only call to action is a link to the contact page (“See? There it is in the footer!”) and then there’s no contact form, auto-reply, or staff notification.
- Your website should be the hub of your marketing strategy. Does DOS know how to make this happen? Can he integrate the various elements with a consistent look and feel? Search Engine Optimization, if it’s a consideration, needs to be figured into the content and structure of the site.
- There’s plenty to keep DOS busy, what with your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare, newsletter etc. Why add web design and development to the list?
- What about the optimal hosting environment? Download speeds? Compliance with web standards? Browser compatibility issues? Does DOS know how to make sure the site looks OK in IE8? Even web professionals find this tricky sometimes.
- Who will manage DOS? The CEO? When we develop a site we include a project schedule with a timeline and milestones and we manage the project to make sure it stays on track.
- A good website lays the foundation for future growth. You shouldn’t have to start from scratch a year down the road when DOS or the CEO realizes it needs to do something it can’t do.
- Finally, doesn’t DOS have anything else to do? Our most successful clients are really busy doing their jobs, not trying to do work for which they are less (or un) qualified. DOS is not SELLING if he’s designing and building websites. What’s his time worth? That needs to get figured into the do-it-yourself cost.
Anybody have a success story or horror story to share? Names may be changed to protect the innocent.
12 Tips for an Effective Contact Page
August 13, 2009
If your website goal is lead generation you want visitors to do one of two things: Pick up the phone or submit an inquiry or contact form. Although it rarely gets the attention it deserves, “Contact Us” may be, after the home page, the most important page on your site.
1. Make it easy to find
This is often the first and biggest problem― it isn’t easy to find your contact page. Make sure the link is obvious, viewable without scrolling and on every page.
2. Include a contact form
Many sites have only a phone number and email link on the contact page. So why do you need a form? Email may be lost in spam filters or junk mail folders. A form avoid those risks, allows you to request specific information, and send an auto-reply message so your prospect knows you received the inquiry.
3. Require ONLY essential information
Require only information that is absolutely necessary. It might be as simple as name, email, and comments. Make sure all required fields are clearly indicated: Don’t make them guess!
Is it worth paying for?
August 5, 2009
In-bound links from directory sites can improve your site’s Search Engine rankings. When they come from a professional membership organization they can also deliver prospects who are interested in your services. But should you pay extra for the link?
One of our clients asked: We could pay the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) $100/year to upgrade our listing in their firm search to include a link to our website. It seems kind of expensive since we’re already paying them dues. How valuable do you think this would be?
A Little Web Usability Tip for Alltop
July 30, 2009
I’ve just registered for alltop.com. If you’re not familiar with it, Alltop collects headlines of the latest stories from websites and blogs that cover just about any topic. They group these collections on individual web pages and display the five most recent headlines (see below).
Alltop is the brilliant idea of entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki and Guy doesn’t need any advice from me. But I have some anyway.
A search for “User Interface” provides 48 results. Randomly clicking around, I start visiting some of the sites and blogs. According to their welcome email: “Once you’ve found a topic you like, click the + sign to add the website or blog to your page.”
Method Website: Looks 10, Usability 6
June 30, 2009
Let me start by saying I love Method.
Great products, great design, great attitude. Not so great website. Don’t get me wrong, it’s clean, clever and engaging. But the navigation is a real problem.
I received and opened their monthly email. Giant photo of pink grapefruit hand soap (which, by the way, should be a link, but isn’t). I go to their home page. “Explore the collection” by “Type” > “Handcare” (strangely, ‘Soap’ is not a product type) > “Handwash“
The problem is unless I move my cursor in a particular path (to the right, and then up) I can’t get to “Handwash.” The expanding menus are fiddly, sensitive and annoying. It’s like being forced to cross at the crosswalk when you’re in the middle of the block and your destination is right across the street. Of course, you’re not going to be hit by a car in this case, but the navigation does prevent you from moving your mouse in a natural way.
I finally get to pink grapefruit hand soap after several attempts. But I decide that product is not what I want, so I use my “Back” button. This takes me not to the menu, but back to the home page, and I have to start all over again. &%#$*@!
Good websites are a synthesis of design, content and usability. Method has good design and content, but it needs to fix the navigation madness.
Bing Goes Boing! Review of Microsoft’s Bing
June 18, 2009
Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, was officially released to the public on June 1st. Since then I’ve been spending some time testing and getting to know Bing. Here’s what I think.
Simple, elegant design and great photography – Each day Bing shows a different background image on the home page. Powerful, beautiful, but totally non-intrusive. Makes Google’s home page look boring: all the charm of Craig’s List with more white space.
More useful results with “Quick Preview”
When you receive your search results you can rollover a little orange dot on the right side and preview the page without clicking on it. It shows a summary of the content plus relevant internal links. Helps you decide if the result is relevant and worth clicking on. Here is Resolve Digital‘s listing (#11 for San Francisco Web Design) showing the quick preview feature in action.
Left navigation options
Doing a search for “herbal dog treats,” in addition to the Search Results there’s a left navigation with Related Searches (including, Natural, Organic and Holistic dog treats) Useful. Below that is my Search History. Also useful.
Shopping results
The results include the typical listings, plus product photos. Nice. The left nav helps you search by Brand, Price, Cashback, etc. Very useful.
Cashback Feature
With a Windows Live ID you’re eligible for Bing’s cash-back feature. Find out how cash back works for eligible purchases.
Enhanced map features
Add to Collection feature allows you to make notes, tags, and share your map. You can add a pushpin, draw a path, mark an area and modify the style of your map.
Pay-per-Click opportunities
The most obvious difference with Google’s results pages is a lack of “sponsored links” on Bing. This seems like a huge benefit for advertisers who can take advantage of this opportunity while it lasts.
To summarize, the more time I spend with Bing the more I like it. Will it overtake Google? In some ways, it already has.
AIA Portfolio Review Day: Advice for Job Hunters
June 15, 2009
The SF Chapter of the American Institute of Architects held their annual Portfolio Review Day and I had the pleasure of meeting with and reviewing the portfolios of 6 men and women in different stages of their careers. Several were laid off due to the recession. A couple were recent grads. All are looking for work in a very tough market.
The purpose of Portfolio Day is to provide useful feedback and constructive criticism. By the end of the day a clear theme had emerged: The rules of good web design apply equally well to real world communication like resumes and portfolios.
- Keep it simple
- Know and speak to your target audience
- Don’t expect people to read a lot
- Make it easy for people to do business with you
- Define your unique strengths
Online, we live or die on these principles because it’s so easy for visitors to click to another site. Guess what? The same is true if somebody has a stack of 100 resumes to review. You’d better make a connection quickly if you want to lead or inspire the reviewer to place your resume in the “set up interview” folder.
The most surprising revelation was that only 1 of the 6 job hunters had any online presence (a blog, but even that wasn’t on his resume). I just don’t get it. There are free and easy options to create a site or blog. I’m no Marty Nemko, but with so few job openings and so many job seekers I’d want to make it easy for a prospective employer to see a sample of my work, get a sense of who I am. You don’t need to show or tell them everything, just enough to convince them to take the time to set up an interview.
On the web we think of it as meeting the needs of our audience. As a job hunter, your audience consists of a handful of prospective employers inundated by a sea of applicants. Putting yourself in their position and figuring out how to meet their needs is, in my opinion, the best strategy to achieve your goals.
We were recently asked to do a web evaluation for a small construction company. Among our top recommendations:
- Change your graphic text to HTML and add geographic modifiers if you want any chance of getting found in the Search Engines
- Clarify what you do
- Add calls-to-action
- Add biographical information
- Describe the projects you show so we understand what you did
When the client shared our review with his web designer the response was terrific. “I am rebuilding your site so it IS NO FLASH at our cost. An HTML site.” No question about it, that’s an exceptional, generous offer.
But then he went on to wiggle out of taking responsibility for the site:
- Your site was never intended to be a Response site, it was simply to be a portfolio
- Having whom ever review what we’ve done … without any briefing is exactly like having Joe or Erin review any of your houses with the customer. Without them knowing what the homeowner asked for or seeing the plans.
- We have reasons to do what we do based on the input we get from the client. I looked at his site [Resolve Digital] & examples and I can guarantee you I can find some thing that I would not have done. Different styles, different takes… There are so many ways to skin a cat.
Right, but we’re not professional cat skinners. As web designers, a big part of our job is to inform our clients so they can make educated decisions about what’s best for their business. After all, they’re coming to us because we’re the experts! We don’t always agree with their decisions, but at least we get them thinking about the purpose and goals of their site (and how people are going to find it, how they’re going to keep it up-to-date, etc).
Anyone visiting a website reviews what the web designer has done without any briefing. That is exactly what happens in the mind of every visitor. They make a series of small judgments and either leave the site or continue on to accomplish their goal.
Visitors never know what the website owner asked for or get to see the plans. Nobody cares. We only know what we can see and do on the site. And if we can’t see or do what we want, we click to another site. Cat Skinned. End of Story.
