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The Value of a Website's Tagline

uniqueDelphineThere’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)

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Book Review – Don't Make Me Think, 2nd Edition

dontmakemethinkcoverMost of us who are practitioners of website usability know that a good deal of good design, and good usability, is just applying some common sense.  Steve Krug’s book, Don’t Make Me Think (Amazon affiliate link), now in its 2nd edition, brings good web usability to the masses in a short format that can be read during a plane trip (which was one of Steve’s goals).  Steve starts with the basics of web usability, what he terms “guiding principles”, and explains them in a way that will make sense even to CEOs.  Once you understand these “guiding principles”, Steve uses them to illustrate general design principles that every website needs to get right.  Each of the twelve chapters uses examples and big pictures (for the CEOS) to illustrate usability concepts, why they work and why they’re important.

Website usability is more important than ever with a large portion of business research conducted online.  With the rise in popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices, having good usability on multiple platforms will be extremely important.  The principles and examples used in Krug’s book will help any business understand the basics of getting their website into shape so that they can reach a much larger audience (and stop annoying their current customers).

Even web designers and usability “experts” will find something useful in Don’t Make Me Think (Amazon affiliate link), even if it’s just a great quote for a blog post on usability.  I found some good quotes that you may see in future posts, but I also found some great new ways to illustrate usability principles that will help get the why across to businesspeople (which can be difficult, as we all are aware).  Don’t Make Me Think (Amazon affiliate link) was a quick and enjoyable read, even for someone very familiar (and passionate about) with web usability.  I recommend giving it a read, no matter what your business role.

If you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition (Amazon affiliate link)

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On a Crusade Against Drop-Down Menus

crusadepuroticoricoAnyone 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)

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