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Companies blindly threw printed marketing material online, hoping that visitors will find and
use their info as it is viewed internally – they don’t understand that people may not always
understand what they are talking about in their company-focused internal jargon. Growing
pains (think those turbulent teenage years) abound, but it was an exciting time. Third generation (customer-focused): Welcome to today’s Internet! ROI dominates!
Everyone wants a return on his or her investment. People realize that HOW people use web
sites is as important as WHAT is on the web site. Flashy, impractical designs are slowly
replaced by functional, usable, standardized concepts where users can actually use the site
and find information that fulfills their needs. Companies realize that not everything can be
sold on the Web, but a web site can be a powerful marketing tool. Considerable interest is shown in how people use the site and on reducing user frustration –
friendly, readable, clean sites begin to spring up. Giving the people what they want is now the
“in-thing,” because this generates leads and sales. Creative serves usability, rather than
being the whole show. Creativity has been THE theme on the Internet, but that is changing rapidly – companies are
realizing that people are into speed and readability. Visitors don’t want to figure out a site;
What is the navigation? What is a link? What does the company do? They want to use it. Speed rules on the Internet – and there are no speed limits. However, as you will see, there
is no thinking on the Web. Why is it important?
Usability applies to all sites, no matter the size or industry. Usability also applies to shopping
carts, extranets/intranets – wherever there is visitor interaction with a web page. In B-to-B companies, where the products are expensive and usually have long sales cycles,
the web site has evolved into a combination of lead generation tool, customer extranet,
marketing and sales-support tool. Most of these products are not going to be sold through a
web site and the whole process can take months and even years. The value of the site is in
its messaging and information contained on its pages – it can be a very effective lead
generation tool, marketing vehicle and customer-service platform. So it has become increasingly important that the company provide information to prospects
and decision-makers in a format that is fast, easy to use and understandable. It must also
contain information that answers questions that the visitor has – easier said than done. In
many cases, your web site is the first impression that you will make on a potential client – if it
is hard to use, vague and they can’t find information that they want, you are starting off on the
wrong foot. In competitive markets, they may become frustrated and move on to a competitor – the worst
scenario. << previous | next >>
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