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Published Article
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| Has Your
Design Firm Run Amuck With Your Web Site? |
What's happening to good
web site design? Somehow we creative types at interactive and
traditional ad agencies have run amuck - we're building web
sites that may dazzle the senses, but don't really communicate
much about our client's business or products and services!
| 1. |
Somehow I
don't think anyone has a burning desire to spend 30-60
seconds on the Index page of a web site while another
fancy Flash animation loads, complete with snazzy graphics,
audio, and way cool cutting edge graphics - not!! People
want to get real information, not razzle-dazzle graphics
showing how great a developer is using the latest whiz
bang technology!
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| 2. |
I thought
Frames went out of style like adding a .com to your company's
name. Apparently not, as there are still lots of web sites
using Frames - forcing users to see a web site with mix
and match (bad) graphics, odd menus and just a plain ugly
interface.
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| 3. |
I some times
wonder if some of my fellow design geeks all own Adobe
stock, or they are just trying to make sure HTML disappears
as a content standard. The last thing many people want
is to sit and watch as their 56 kbps dial up struggles
with opening a doc in Adobe's proprietary PDF format -
many click off and are gone to the next web site. Content
should be offered in HTML or Word format, both of which
open instantly - no, I don't own any Microsoft shares!
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| 4. |
Another popular
time waster appears to be designing web sites that require
people to list all of their contact points, including
first born children, their dog's pedigree - etc. Registration
forms should be short and no more than 4-5 entries that
just require fundamental contact information.
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| 5. |
What's
the value in running contests, games and other technology-enabled
multimedia content on a web site? Recent studies have
indicated most of the online user community isn't interested
in a web site that drives branding - they simply want
information about a company's goods and services.
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| 6. |
The web is
a wonderful medium for customer acquisition but it also
works as a valuable tool for building dialogue with customers
- approx 75% of the online community does not mind filling
out short forms that ask them questions about goods and
services, or providing feedback. More sites should ask
people for their opinions and reviews - they don't mind
sharing them and these comments provide valuable insight.
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| 7. |
Content is
still one of, if not the most important variables in good
web site design. Today's savvy surfer doesn't want content
presented in book form; they want short paragraphs with
lots of white space, not long textual columns in a type
font that forces anyone over 30 (perish the thought there
are people on the web over 30) to put on their glasses
and squint at the screen.
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| 8. |
We
marketing types jumped on the community bandwagon 12-18
months back - you couldn't read an article about web site
marketing unless "community" wasn't included
as a buzzword du jour! Well, times have changed, or maybe
we all came to our senses - today's web user wants baseline
information they don't want to chat with other users via
web site or read about shared interests - give them information
in "content bytes' and let AOL worry about building
a community!
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Lee Traupel has
20 plus years of marketing experience. He is the co-founder
of a Northern California and Brussels Belgium based, privately
held, Marketing Services and Software Company, Intelective
Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com.
Intelective focuses exclusively on providing services
to small-to-medium-sized companies that need strategic
and tactical marketing services. He can be reached at
Lee@intelective.com.
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