Concept Company

by Tina Hutzelman

If you missed the last post in this series, please see Part 2 which addresses navigation and Flash. In this post we’re going to look at some common “content-specific” pitfalls.

Pitfall #5 – Your Site is Narcissistic

Imagine, you board a plane, stow your luggage, and politely say “hello” to the person next to you. In only minutes, you think “this person can’t speak a sentence without the words Me, Myself or I.” Rather than suffer through a self-centered diatribe, you feign sleep for the next few hours. Upon arrival at your destination, you make your getaway – quickly.

Like the egomaniac from the plane, narcissistic websites tend to turn people off. But here’s the upside – it’s easier to get away from a narcissistic website than person. Click – close – it’s gone.

Unfortunately, the trend with many corporate websites is to focus more on what the company wants to say than what their visitors want to hear.

How many website have you seen that say something like this?

In 1987, when Gizmos Galore Company opened its doors, they made only two types of gizmos for the automotive industry. Today they produce over 1,500 models and serve a wide variety of industries ranging from automotive to computer hardware to pharmaceutical.

How have they made such strides in less than 20 years? They use only state-of-the-art technology and have implemented lean manufacturing principles.

Though informative, where does the customer fit in this story? Too often companies lose site of the fact that web visitors have their own agendas. Visitors frequently come to websites searching for specific answers.

How much easier it would be for potential customers to envision their challenges being met if the text would read more like this

Whether you need round, square or triangular gizmos, Gizmos Galore offers the widest selection in the tri-state area. Our Lean environment enables us to deliver 98.5 % of our orders in 24 hours or less. And by using the latest in laser technology, we achieve tolerances to .002 cm.

When tested by Smith & Associates, an independent industry consultant, Gizmo Galore’s model 2000 improved throughput by 34% as compared to traditional gizmos.

To steer clear of the narcissistic pitfall, visit your site and ask yourself questions like these.

• Does your site speak from the visitor’s perspective?
• Are there intuitive links to customer-focused information?
• Do you tell customers how you can solve their problems?

It all comes down to this, what does the website build up – your company’s ego or revenue?

Pitfall #6 – Your Site is Tedious to Read

We’ve become a society of web scanners. Rather than read every word, we skim until something catches our attention. Dr. Jakob Nielson, a leading web page usability expert, noted that 79% of online readers simply scan. Because of this propensity, smart web designers plan with “scan-ability” in mind

For years, Dr. Nielson has contended that the rules for effective web communication are unique to the medium. His assertions are supported by his own studies as well as independent studies like the Stanford-Poynter Project conducted at Stanford University.

During the Stanford-Poynter Project, people’s eye movements were tracked as they read Internet news sites. Quite surprisingly, the study showed that people look first at text then at graphics. When the first three eye-fixations on a page were tabulated, 78% were on text, while only 22% were on graphics.

This “text-first” behavior is exactly opposite of what Poynter Institute found to be true after years of studying eye-tracking behavior in people reading printed newspapers.

So why the difference between reading on screen and on paper? In part, it may be due to the nature of web visitors – they’re frequently impatient because they’re looking for something specific and have limited time to complete their task.

Now that we know there are differences between reading on screen and on paper, what’s to be done? Begin by taking a close look at your site and asking yourself questions like these.

• If you squint your eyes almost closed does your text look like one big grey blob?
• Where are your main ideas located?
• How many ideas are in each paragraph?
• How many headings have you used?
• Have you used bullets?

The bottom line is help your web visitors find what they’re looking for.

Pitfall #7 – Your Site is Outdated

If the content on your site is the same as when you first launched it, be careful of this pitfall. There’s no hard and fast rule regarding how often a site should be updated. Much depends on your industry.

If you’re in a volatile market and you have online pricing, you may need to update daily. If you’re in a more stable market or your website contains somewhat static information you may get away with updating less frequently.

Either way, don’t build a one shot wonder. Too often companies invest large sums of money to create websites that people visit twice. Once to find it – then again to realize nothing has changed.

Tags: Dr. Jakob Nielson, Stanford-Poynter Project, website content best practices

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 8:36 am and is filed under Website Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.