April 2008
In this issue
- A Change
- Always A Little Broken
- Are You Losing Because of Bad Design?
- Find of the Month
Hi,
A Change.
If you receive DesignDetails each month you will notice that we have slightly changed the design. The format is essentially the same but the visual design, or ‘skin,’ is different. The change is to align this email newsletter with our new website which we talk about next.
Always A Little Broken.
The ‘true inventor’ of the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee (sorry Al Gore) said, “The web will always be a little broken.” The Internet is never perfect, things change and web sites change to keep up. I have recently completed work on re-launching the HamiltonBerchman website. It took far too long for this to happen partly because my company is so busy (always a good thing) and because I wanted things to be “just right” before launching it. I realized that every website will always be a little broken and decided to finally publish because no website is ever truly perfect. We are still pouring some content in the news section. The new website has our portfolio of work, a blog (with more frequent thoughts/info/updates than this e-newsletter), archives of DesignDetails, and a news section, each with its own subscribable RSS feed. Take a moment to look and I welcome your feedback.
Are You Losing Because of Bad Design?
Original image concept by BadDesignKills.com
You may be losing business because of bad design. When people have bad experiences they go elsewhere for information, products, or service. As a business person this could be the kiss of death. However, there is great opportunity to address these issues and create a return on investment (ROI) that can reach up to 1000% or more.
Bad design can be applied to anything we interact with: websites, cars, houses, appliances, electronics, etc. In my field, I see bad design as anything getting in the way of easy access to and understanding of information. I’m sure you have experienced bad design in your life as most people have. I, too, recently experienced a bad design when I tried to purchase an item from an e-commerce website. After going through the entire process of selecting the desired item and entering all of my information (including credit card), I received an error that didn’t tell me anything except that there was an error. I tried a few times thinking maybe I entered something wrong but only got the error.
At this point, I was concerned that the orders went through and now my credit card was charged three times and I was going to receive three packages. After speaking with customer service, it turns out that their website cannot process orders shipping to California. They knew about the problem but did not care enough to fix the problem or to put a note on the order page letting customers know about the error. Because I needed a specific product found only at this particular company I could not go to another website. I did finally get what I needed (only one package and one charge). However, had the item been available anywhere else, I would have been out of that website in a heartbeat and that company would have lost a sale to a competitor.
The easy question to ask is, “Are my web communications meeting the goals I have defined?” If you do not have any goals for your web communications you need to rewind and define the purpose of your communications and then define their goals. Goals should be measurable in some way. For example:
- “x” number of sales per month
- “x” number of leads per month
- “x” number of downloads per month
- “x” number of subscribers per month
When you are not meeting your goals the likely culprit is bad design. Something is not performing its function to allow people to follow or flow through what you are presenting them online. Examples of bad design include:
- Incomplete information: not providing complete descriptions and/or hyperlinks to supporting material
- No call to action: are you asking for your visitor to do something in plain language? “Make a donation now!”
- Improperly labeled links: ‘Click here’ is not as effective as ‘here is a company overview PDF file’
- Unnecessary layers causing extra clicks. Extra ‘splash’ pages on a website that provide no content value
I recently read a good article on Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox titled Four Bad Designs. The article gives four concrete examples of websites that can use some help. You need to ask yourself:
- Are your web communications meeting your goals?
- Are you happy with the results you are getting?
- Do you want to get more from your web communications?
If you answer no to any one of these I would be happy to talk with you about what you can do. Awareness is the first step to addressing any issues you may have.
Finally, Find of the Month
Every month I share an Internet destination that has some application to doing business, getting things done, or just plain cool. This month it’s a website called BuyMyTronics.com. They want to buy your used, new and broken Electronics today! They offer a fast, simple, and eco-friendly way to get money for your devices. Following up on ‘The Story of Stuff” and in light of needing a little extra $$$ for gas ($3.89 a gallon is as cheap as it gets around here) I thought it appropriate.
Wrap up
That’s it for this month of DesignDetails. Let me know if you have any questions about any of this content.
I am always on the lookout for article ideas. If you are facing a challenge or have a question relating to the Internet or design and are willing to share, please let me know. I can answer your questions and share with everyone—with anonymity of course.
If you like this e-newsletter, consider forwarding to a friend. Thanks for spreading the word.
Do you know someone in need of expert help or advice with web communications? I always welcome your referrals of friends, colleagues and family. And let me know if you welcome referrals as well.
I’ll talk to you again in May.
Bert Mahoney AIGA
Publisher, DesignDetails
Principal and Creative Director
HamiltonBerchman Design Group, Inc.
Director of Internet Strategy and Services
AIGA Santa Barbara
AIGA | the professional association for design