Gutenberg, Germany

Data Driving is proud to announce the launch of Mytripguru.com, an easy to use, intuitive online travel guidebook where members are recognized as experts, or Trip Gurus, for sharing their travel experiences. The Guru Rating system rewards top contributors and promotes them as experts in their particular regions and activities.

Mytripguru.com is built on the [...]]]>

Gutenberg, Germany

Data Driving is proud to announce the launch of Mytripguru.com, an easy to use, intuitive online travel guidebook where members are recognized as experts, or Trip Gurus, for sharing their travel experiences. The Guru Rating system rewards top contributors and promotes them as experts in their particular regions and activities.

Mytripguru.com is built on the premise that everyone is a Trip Guru and has travel experiences or local knowledge to share. The more a Trip Guru contributes, the easier it becomes for visitors to the site to get travel advice from other Trip Gurus who share similar interests.

The simple navigation and user interface is designed to let Trip Gurus focus on their travel writing and readers to find relevant travel advice as easily and intuitively as possible. By promoting the top Trip Gurus in specific and marketable destinations and activities, Mytripguru embraces local businesses who hold tremendous knowledge about things to do in their regions and can profit from high level exposure on the site. Furthermore, by recognizing Trip Gurus for the quality and quantity of their contributions, local businesses are encouraged to add related content in their region to increase their Guru Rank while safeguarding the integrity of the site.

Mytripguru.com is founded and managed by Nicolas Johansson, owner at Data Driving. For more information about Mytripguru.com or Data Driving, please contact Nicolas Johansson.

Why is the home page important?

For [...]]]> This series describes some of the design and strategy decisions that one faces when developing a website, especially one with a social networking component or a community focus. The first part in this series takes a look at the home page. What types of home page designs work and why?

Why is the home page important?

For the majority of visitors and websites, the home page is the landing page of a website. It is also the page where the goals and expectations of visitors are the most diverse. This makes it important to balance the page and keep it relevant for all visitor segments.

What are the options?

For sites that have an element of social networking, community or reviews, there are essentially three options for home page design – walled garden, content only or hybrid. Let’s look at some examples of each.

Walled Garden

An example of such a home page is Facebook.com. The page acts like a wall and lets the visitor know that all the action is in the walled garden.

This makes sense when all content is only consumed by members. It also sends a message that privacy is taken very seriously since no content is visible from the home page. For new member-only content sites, this is difficult to pull off, as the home page might scare away first time visitors, making growth needlessly dependent on network effects and word of mouth.

Content Only

Myspace (at least the German site) falls into this category because there is only a small, unobtrusive box for users to log in or register. The focus is clearly on content and no real attempt is made to describe the service or entice new visitors to register. To be honest, I don’t see many advantages to this approach in the case of MySpace. They might be better off with a walled garden approach like Facebook and Twitter to attract new users.

It does, however, make sense for sites where content can be consumed by any type of visitor. Epinions, for example, has this type of start page and it works well. In this case it encourages the visitor to explore the site (consuming content) while minimizing distractions.

Hybrid

This is a mixture of content and a call to action to register. This type of page shows openness. It tries to balance the needs of new visitors and returning members, each of whom have very different intentions on the site. Gdgt does this quite well, as does Vimeo. Both sites rely on user-generated content but allow regular visitors to consume all of the content. For new sites, this is probably the best way to go.

Has anyone noticed other home page designs that don’t fall into one of these categories?

The next part in this series will take a look at how the home page might change if a user is logged in and revisits the home page.

Geotargeting is, however, a tricky proposition for visitors and search engine spiders and so [...]]]> Recently a client wanted to serve local language content to visitors from different countries. This practice is also known as Geotargeting, and much has been written about its potential to help a company expand to new markets or better target existing ones.

Geotargeting is, however, a tricky proposition for visitors and search engine spiders and so it is vital to know what implications the various geotargeting options have on visitor behavior. From a user’s perspective, there are several common methods used to deliver local content on any particular website.

Automatic redirect to the local language site

Skype.com does this, presumably through IP-based geotargeting. If I visit Skype.com from my office in Germany, I am automatically redirected to skype.com/intl/de/. Skype makes the assumption that I want my content in German since I am coming from a German IP.

Suggest local site with no redirect

Amazon.com takes a different approach. When I visit Amazon.com I land on Amazon.com. The site recognizes that I may be interested in the Amazon.de website and suggests I shop there. But rather than forcing the decision on me, Amazon displays the link to the German site prominently on the home page.

Splash page

Another approach is to provide a splash page with a list of countries or languages. This is done by Xerox.com and is especially suited for sites where the .com (or other Top Level Domains such as .eu) domain is a landing page for the global market.

Do nothing

A final option, of course, is to do nothing yet provide links to local content on the home page. This is the route taken by Apple.com.

From a user perspective, each method has its charm…and its weaknesses. The automatic redirect method used by Skype is likely to satisfy to the majority of visitors who use the .com extension as a quick way to get to the site. On the other hand, it is likely to frustrate visitors who want to visit the english .com site from abroad. The suggestion approach is an excellent, non-intrusive way to make the visitor aware of the local site without making the decision for the visitor. The splash page method is very typical of support sites and works quite well especially for global branding initiatives that are based on the Top Level Domain .com. It does, however, force the visitor to make an additional click to enter the site. Doing nothing puts all the responsibility on the visitor to make the decision. In a sense, it is the least “patronizing” approach since it gives complete control to the visitor.

Whatever the choice, it is absolutely essential to allow a visitor to change the language and/or country at any time during the visit. All of the websites in the above examples allow visitors to jump to a different country/language site during the visit.

Web Analytics Tip: If you are using the automatic redirect method, check how many visitors are entering via .com, being redirected, and are then switching back to .com. A high number of “switchers” likely indicates dissatisfaction with the redirect.

What in the world does Feng Shui have to do with web design? More to the point, what does Feng Shui have to do with designing a website for a higher ROI? The principles of Feng Shui date back at least 3000 years – what can we learn from this ancient Eastern philosophy?

Feng Shui is [...]]]>

What in the world does Feng Shui have to do with web design? More to the point, what does Feng Shui have to do with designing a website for a higher ROI? The principles of Feng Shui date back at least 3000 years – what can we learn from this ancient Eastern philosophy?

Feng Shui is about harmony and balance. It is about harnessing positive energy, or ch’i, to create environments in which ch’i flows smoothly to achieve physical and mental health. When ch’i is flowing freely, there is harmony. When ch’i is stuck, there is disharmony. It is, at its core, about being aware of your surroundings and the impact these surroundings have on you as an individual.

Malcom Gladwell, author of Blink, wrote about how our brains make near-instant judgments about our surroundings. When we are immersed in a website, it is also a part of our surroundings.  We make judgments about a website before it is even finished loading. Usability studies show again and again that visitors don’t read content, they simply scan it. So perhaps some of the basic, common sense principles of Feng Shui can help us understand why we make decisions in the blink of an eye and, in turn, help us retain more visitors and drive them to action.

1. Colors

According to Feng Shui, colors are an expression of one of the five elements of Feng Shui – wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Red, for example, is an expression of the element Fire, indicating passion and high energy. Blue, the most frequently used color in corporate websites, is an expression of Water, which represents ease, freshness and abundance.

When applied to web design, it is important to keep in mind what your choice of colors says about your business and whether these colors support your positioning or not. The color green, for example, is used on many financial websites such as Ameritrade and BNP Paribas. This conveys an image of health and growth, two things this sector could use right now.

2. Eliminate clutter

Clutter in a room prevents energy from flowing properly. The effect on a person is that it drains energy and causes stress. Just like energy must be able to flow through a room, so must a visitor be able to flow through a website. Clutter prevents a person from moving naturally through the website and creates a disruptive and unenjoyable browsing experience.

Eliminating clutter means getting rid of stale content that does not drive visitors to a desired action. It also means organizing the site so the layout is clean and clear. A Call to Action could be considered strategically placed clutter, since the goal is to catch visitors before they flow away from the site. With a clean, simple layout, it is much easier to guide your visitors to these calls to action.

Web Analytics Tip: Think about the paths you want your visitors to take in your site. At an online shop, you want visitors to put an item into the cart and flow smoothly to checkout and payment confirmation. Look if a large number of visitors are getting stuck along the way and then take measures to improve the ch’i!

3. Consistency & Balance

Feng Shui is also about balancing yin and yang – opposing but interdependent concepts. Dark is to light as passive is to active. Interior is to exterior as cold is to heat. By failing to balance the two sides, turbulence and imbalance results.

In a website, balance is also important. That means not just balancing the page so it fits aesthetically, but also ensuring a consistent and balanced design. For example, if a text link is red, there should not be any other red text in that font style that is not a link. By sticking to a simple and consistent layout, visitors will be able to navigate through the site without thinking, leaving them to concentrate on the tasks for which they came to the site in the first place.

Chinese Monks teach web design?

There is of course a lot more to Feng Shui than what I described in this post. Even the basic concepts of Feng Shui – abstract notions like energy flow and balance – are nearly impossible to prove. But on the web, apply these principles and test them with your web analytics tool. The results are measurable. Before you know it, you will be calling on a Chinese Monk specializing in Feng Shui to consult on your next redesign!

On the site, [...]]]> Everydaycelebrations.ca is a program created by General Mills for families, catering to every day family needs such as what to eat for dinner and what activities to undertake with the kids. By providing recipes and ideas for family outings, the site helps position General Mills as a trusted brand for families in Canada.

On the site, this program is described as follows:

Whether it’s advice on teaching your kids everyday life skills, ideas for keeping them occupied on a road trip, or a delicious dish that will treat their taste buds, General Mills Everyday Celebrations can be your resource to stir up family fun.

What makes this site effective?

As a branding initiative, the site works well. There are calls to action peppered throughout the site and between useful content for the target audience. The navigation is clean and simple and lends itself to surfing and exploring.

Everydaycelebrations does an admirable job in subtly reminding visitors that General Mills is behind the site. By offering various product promotions and including branded products in the recipes, visitors are gently guided towards these products in a way that builds trust rather than coming across as an advertisement.

The copy is written in the active voice, helping to entice visitors to click deeper into the site. It is clear that the titles such as “Love Your Thanksgiving Leftovers” were written for people and not search engine spiders!

How can the site be improved?

The sign up page has some optimization potential. The contrast between text and background makes reading the text a bit strenuous. There is no footnote for the “opportunity to save up to $5 on great General Mills products!**”, leaving the visitor wondering what terms apply. The form itself is quite long with mostly required fields. This could scare off some visitors. Finally, the large spacing between the form descriptions and the form fields makes it difficult to follow the form.

From a design perspective, there are a couple of minor elements that could be considered for optimization. For example, the search bar contains the text “Enter keyword”. A clearer instruction would be “Enter search term” or better yet, “Search”. This would eliminate any potential confusion. Also, the information about the program is buried in the footer and could feature more prominently on the site, since some visitors might need this information to make an informed decision to sign up on the site.

Web Analytics

Obviously, only General Mills can know how much uplift they are getting from this initiative. Web Analytics data could certainly shed some light onto the effectiveness of the site. For example:

Web Analytics Tip: As a marketing/content site, visitors should be staying on the site as long as possible. So, check the average time on site and look what content visitors are consuming the most and the least. Optimize or remove the low-performing content and add to or enhance the best content!

Web Analytics Tip: Track the number of sign ups as a conversion rate – number of sign ups / total visitors. This metric will show how the site is performing on one of the site’s main goals.

Web Analytics Tip: Track the number of times a recipe is viewed and printed. This will give a good indication of popular dishes and possibly even insights into which products to promote on the site or even offline.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this is an excellent site that effectively guides visitors towards specific goals. As is usually the case with well-designed websites, the site is in a good position to profit from more web analytics and site optimization measures such as A/B testing and form optimization. This is when the fun starts!

The product page does an excellent job in removing any pre-purchase cognitive dissonance by addressing any questions a [...]]]> Here is a quick example of an intuitive product detail page I recently saw on my favorite online shop, Backcountry.com. We have often heard the phrase “Don’t Make Me Think!” This is an example of that in action.

The product page does an excellent job in removing any pre-purchase cognitive dissonance by addressing any questions a shopper might have.  The item is in stock, shipping is free (and fast), customers have rated it with 5 out of 5 stars. If the visitor is still not convinced, there is a Q&A link to ask questions. If ordering online is the problem, the toll free number or chat offer alternative ways to conversion. I particularly like the combined drop down size and color selector. This selector shows only the available combinations and when a different color is clicked, the product photo adjusts accordingly. Nothing special, but it is a simple example of “Don’t make me think” in action. Below the fold, the individual customer reviews are listed as well as technical information and related items. These are all important but could distract many visitors from the purchase process. The placement, in this case, works well.

The product page is full of information but presents it in such a way as not to overload the visitor. By de-cluttering the page while keeping in mind that each visitor is at a different stage in the purchase process, this product detail page addresses the major issues a consumer might have about buying a $600 jacket!

Now, if only Backcountry could address MY concern. The price tag!