Ever done a bunch of research, finally decided to get a product, gone to the website and found the only way to contact them is through a contact form?  While eCommerce websites are usually pretty savvy about letting their customers contact them through multiple ways, normal businesses sometimes give off the “go away” vibe unintentionally.

You’re afraid of spam email or solicitor phone calls, so you don’t put either your email or your phone number on your website, just a contact form.  While this probably does cut down on spam, how many potential customers are you turning away as well?  Is it worth it to turn away even one potential customer?

Most email programs are pretty good at filtering out spam.  And while you should answer the phone as much as possible, voicemail also does a pretty good job (most people are understanding on that front).  But, if someone can’t use either method and has to fill out a contact form (most of which tend to ask for a bunch of unrelated information), there’s a possibility that they won’t bother.

Contact forms do their have their place and use.  Sometimes you have a specific type of contact (for media or advertising or whatever) that you do need additional information for.  Or you’re using a contact form on a landing page for your marketing or advertising.  There are many good uses for contact forms, but they should never be the only way someone can get ahold of you.  Even in the cases mentioned here, there still should be a way to contact you directly.

How do your customers contact you?

(photo by ellievanhoutte @ Flickr CC)

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Technorati tags: customer service, brand, customer experience, business, marketing strategy, marketing

Discussions about navigation on a website usually revolve around where to put them and what items should be in them.  But without navigation on a website, there is no website, just the one page where a visitor entered your site.

Two Ways to Navigate

There are really only two ways to navigate a website: search and menus.  People will usually try one or the other, but they may also try one and then the other.  Usually people are either a searcher or a browser.  Either way, both search and a menu system should be easy to find and easy to understand.

Easy to Use

Whatever navigation people use, it needs to be extremely easy to use.  The less interaction (pull downs, drop downs, extra buttons), the better.  Searches should be clearly marked as Search.  People expect the button to be on the right side and to say something like “Go” or “Search”.  It’s better if you do the hard work of figuring out what they want (instead of having a drop down with different types of searches).  It’s often obvious what they want by what they type into the search field.  For example, “248-555-5555″ is clearly a phone number. Menus should be either on the top or sides (multiple places can be ok).  Whatever you choose, be consistent throughout the site and use titles that are clear and easy to read.

Find it Fast

You have about 5-10 seconds to engage a visitor and let them know that you have what they’re looking for.  If they don’t find it on the page where they entered your site, they may look around for a search or menu to see if they can find it somewhere else on your site.  If they can’t find your search or menu or some other type of navigation, they’re quickly going to leave.

Proper Use of Technology

Be wary of using technologies (such as Flash) that make pretty navigation or menus (animation, for example).  If someone doesn’t have access to that particular technology, they don’t have access to your site (and many search engines won’t access it either).  Even if some technology has widespread use, make sure you have backup methods of allowing people to access your site. And just because you think having pretty menus is nice, doesn’t mean that everyone who comes to your site likes them (animations can get very annoying after several pages).

No Navigation = No Website

Without a way to navigate throughout your site, people are stuck where ever they landed and they’re not likely to stay there for long.  Navigation gives visitors (and search engines) access to the rest of your site, making it easier for them to stay longer (and for you to get your point/sale across).

Thoughts?

(photo by psd @ Flickr CC)

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Technorati tags: design, usability, business, navigation

Usually when people come to a website, they’re looking for something.  And they hope they can find it on the first page, but if not, most are willing to scan the page to see if there’s a link that may lead them there.  This behavior really points out the importance both of properly organizing the information on your website, as well as having a navigation/menu system that people can quickly and easily understand.

When none of the links look promising and they can’t find the information on the page they’re on, many visitors will automatically turn to search.  If you don’t have one, they’re likely just to leave.  Search is an important function on any website and on the Internet in general.  Many people think of the Internet as their search engine of choice and will type in full domain names, ex. www.sazbean.com, into the search engine instead of into the browser.  There are some people who only use search on websites instead of browsing at all.

Without search on a website, you’re missing an opportunity to give a visitor the information they’re looking for before they leave to find it elsewhere.  Many blog platforms and content management systems (CMS) will have a search functionality built-in that you can install on your site.  Google offers SiteSearch which lets you put their search box on any website and have the results only return pages from that site.

Can Your Visitors Search For What They’re Looking For?

(photo by (le)doo.(jachere triennale.soon) @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags: design, content, usability, search, business, strategy

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What does your paper business card look like? It probably has your name, your company logo, some contact information and maybe a quick tagline summarizing what your company does.  People can find all the information they need to contact you just by glancing at your card.

Business cards are still pretty important for face-to-face networking.  People are usually horrible about remembering names or company names and a small paper card lets them connect the conversation they had with the person they spoke to. (And gives them a point of contact if they want to continue the conversation).

Business websites are your online business card, yet so many businesses neglect to have the same important information in a quick & easy to understand as a paper business card provides. Most business websites are just a boring brochure of some marketing-blabber about what the company does  (that usually isn’t clear to anyone other than the author of the marketing-blabber), but don’t provide any real information to the visitor.

The nice thing about a website, as opposed to a small business card, is that you have the opportunity to offer so much more information.  But this can also be a crunch – businesses get caught up in the technology and create flashy websites, but forget about the basics.  It’s ok to offer lots of information to visitors – matter of fact, it’s a great way to get people to come back to your website over and over, but remember to keep the basics in mind: contact information, benefits to the customer, what it is you do – all visible and understandable in 5-10 seconds.

Take a look at your website.  Can you get the same type of information that’s on your business card?  Does your business website offer valuable information to your customers?  Is what you do clear in terms of benefits and value to the customers?

Make your business website a valuable business tool.

Technorati tags: design, usability, content, marketing, strategy, business

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The first time visitors come to a site they usually spend less than 5 seconds figuring out if they’re in the right place.  Right place being, of course, where they can get whatever information it is that they’re looking for.  During those 5 seconds you need to communicate what your site is about, what information you have to offer, and how they’ll be able to navigate the site, so it touches on design, usability, content and marketing…

What do visitors see during those 5 seconds?  Try The 5 Second Glimpse Test:

1. Open your website in it’s own browser window, and then minimize it.
2. Ready?
3. Un-Minimize the window and start counting slowly to 5 (1 mississippi, 2 mississippi….)
4. Look at your website during those 5 seconds.
5. Re-minimize the browser window.
6. What did you see?

When I did The 5 Second Glimpse Test for this site, this is what I saw:

First my logo on the upper right… Then the flower below and to the left. Next the title of the top post.  Then the site title and tagline in the upper left.  Lastly, the little icons in the right column…. then it was time to close the window.

The great thing is you can use this test on others to see what they see in the 5 seconds.  Just explain that you’re going to give them 5 seconds to look at your homepage and you want to know what they see during that time.  It’ll give you pretty good insight into what people see when they first come to your site – and whether it’s what you want them to see.

Since you only have 5-10 seconds to catch someone’s attention, it’s important that you get the right message to them during that time.

What did you see during your 5 Second Glimpse Test?

Technorati tags: design, usability, marketing, strategy, business

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There’s nothing new about taglines.  They’ve been used in different types of media for quite some time as a way to summarize the entire company/product/organization in a short bit of space/time.  On a website, the tagline is usually a short bit of a text near the logo to describe what that site is. They’re the first glimpse into exactly what it is you do.  If the tagline isn’t clear, visitors will have to spend more time figuring that out (which they may not).  Often visitors enter your site somewhere other than the homepage and the tagline may be the only real description on the page where they do enter.

A good tagline should:

• Be clear & informative
• Be short & concise (six to eight words)
• Differentiate your business
• Offer at least one clear benefit
• Be personable and catchy (hopefully a bit clever)
• Be unique
• Stand on its own

This may seem like a lot of weight on just a short phrase, but good taglines are invaluable for differentiating yourself and quickly describing what it is you do.  Once you have a good one you’ll be able to use it on all your marketing materials and advertising.  If you don’t know how well your tagline works, try showing someone (or telling) your tagline and see what it is they think you do.

How do you use your tagline?

(photo by Delphine – Very very busy :/ @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags: tagline, design, marketing, uability, business

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I’ve been thinking a lot about company websites.  So many small and medium businesses just have a brochure for a website.  What does that say about the company?  Tom Harris wrote a post yesterday at Insights Group on just this subject:

You’re about to go into an important meeting – a sales call, a presentation, a negotiating session, or a job interview. Whatever it may be, there will be people in this meeting who will affect your future. People that you need to impress, because they will make decisions based on YOU, and your words and your demeanor and your appearance. People who will judge whether they want to do business with you – to hire you, to accept your proposal, to buy your products or services, to contribute to your cause. – The Mustard Stain on Your Website – Tom Harris – Insights Group

So, if you wouldn’t walk into an important meeting with mustard on your shirt, why do you put up with a website that doesn’t do your company justice?  A meeting usually only has ten people or so.  Your website is seen by thousands of people!

What does your website say about your company?

I had a chance to listen to Josh Holme’s talk The Lost Art of Simplicity at the KalamazooX Conference, which I covered here.  It’s a great talk, and if you get a chance to listen to it, I encourage you to do so.  Josh recently posted his slides from the talk, which are worth a peek.

I think all of us – designers, programmers, marketers, businesspeople, consumers… get caught up in complexity.  In making our products, our businesses, our websites, our lives complex.  Often I think we believe that people won’t pay for simple.  We need to add lots of features, lots of value-adds, lots of freebees.

If we take a few minutes to look at some of the most successful products, we see that they are inherently simple.  The Apple iPod.  The Sony Walkman. In their design.  In their features.  In how easy they are to use.

Simple is not easy.  It can be very difficult to make these as simple as possible.  But simple is a delight to use, too look at, to be apart of.

How can you be simple?

(photo by Sarah Jane)

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Anyone who worked with me at the publishing company will know that I am completely (almost) against using drop-down menus on websites.  Why?  Well there are lot’s of reasons…

They’re cool

I hate using anything because it’s cool.  If you have a business reason for using something, that’s one thing, but using something because it’s cool, just isn’t.  Most things that are used for this reason are annoying and quickly become yesterday’s fad.  Besides, you’re running a business, not trying to join a high school clique.

They don’t work well

While this problem has improved, many sites still don’t implement drop down menus very well.  They’re hard to use and clicking on just the right link is very difficult.

They don’t show up on mobile devices

This has been improved as well.  But even if they do work on mobile devices, they’re even more difficult to use than when you have a mouse.

What about people without a mouse

There are people out there using computers without mice – text readers and other devices for people with disabilities, and other devices.  Some drop-down menus will have accessibility for people with keyboards or other devices, but often this is forgotten.

They’re a crutch

In order to properly (if there is such a thing) use drop down menus, information needs to be organized in a way that makes sense.  There needs to be some sort of hierarchy.  Most sites that use drop down menus don’t have a true information hierarchy, they just use cute titles that only make sense to the designer or marketing guy.  And there’s almost always a bunch of pages that don’t fit anywhere and are thrown under a Misc. heading – not very helpful.

It’s hard to find things

People are much faster at scanning a page than mousing over menu items to see what’s in them.  While your drop downs may seem like they’re saving time, they really are causing seconds of time for every use – that really adds up.

They’re annoying

I don’t know how many times I’ll go to a site with drop down menus and my mouse will happen to be over one of them.  All of a sudden a menu pops up when all I’m trying to do is read an article.  Now I have to take the time to move my mouse so I can do what I came to the site to do.  Or, I’ll be trying to navigate through a site but I can’t seem to get my mouse in the right place to keep the menu open long enough to click on the text – it can be pretty trying to click on a small word just to go to another page.

They’re a fad

For the most part, large sites have started to go away from drop-down menus (yay!).  They’ve found that people can scan through a long list of links much faster than they can hunt through different drop-down menus.  Having all the major links on a page means that it’ll be easier for people to find other reasons to stay on your site, instead of leaving or clicking off.

(photo by puroticorico)

Technorati tags: drop-down menu, usability, design, business, marketing strategy, marketing

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Now, I have to agree with Todd Zeigler over at The Bivings Group – normally I hate splash pages, especially as a user.  But as Todd said, they seem to be extremely useful for collecting information (usually emails).  It seems that sometimes you have to be a bit obnoxious for people to actually give you their information.

However, I want to insist that splash pages need to be used for one purpose – and one purpose only – collecting information from site visitors – getting them to sign up for your service, newsletter, whatever.  They should NOT be used for a pretty flash movie or some other annoyance that serves no real purpose other than to annoy everyone.  I don’t care if you spent a lot of money on that supposedly cool introduction.  If you’re not using it for a real purpose, don’t do it.  If you’re going to annoy your visitors, at least do it for an actual purpose – collecting information for a specific reason.

I also have to agree with Todd regarding the implementation of a splash page:

If you are going to deploy a splash page, please, please, please set it up so that a user only sees the page periodically. We usually set it up so that users who do not sign up see the page every two weeks or so. Also, make sure to set it up so that if users have already signed up for your email list they never see the splash page again. These steps will minimize the disruption to users who visit your site frequently.

(photo by sergio tudela)

Technorati tags: splash page, usability, design, business, marketing strategy, marketing

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