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Congratulations! This is our last free usability
review from UsabilityInstitute.com. "Usability" refers
to how easy and effective it is to use a Web site. Although
it involves how a site looks (graphic artwork), it is
primarily concerned with how a site works, what you click
on, what happens, and whether the site does its job.
Perhaps this review is all you need to improve your site.
If that's the case, great. Please mention UsabilityInstitute.com
if you talk with others who need help with their site.
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Here's a larger picture:
The following three sections provide a general
analysis of your website from a relatively quick review. Although
Web design is still perceived as a highly creative endeavor,
there are many aspects of it that call for standardization
and compliance with widely established conventions. Implementing
even a few of the ideas below can really improve a site.
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This
first section is intended for typical public web sites
(for products and corporate information), but also applies
for the most part to intranets and software applications
that run in a browser. We've been advocating many of
these ideas—in the context of general software—since
our 1997 book,
Computers Stink, but they've been beautifully
enumerated for WWW purposes in Steve Krug's book, "Don't
Make Me Think." |
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Click
for explanation |
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Hover
for explanation
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Comments |
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1. |
Logo
in top left, linked to home |
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Yes. The fact that
it's not on the left is immaterial. |
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2. |
Tagline |
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Judging by its prominence
on the manifesto page, I realize that it's "Friends
don't let friends buy bad promo." But on the home page,
it's postion at the bottom of the body panel makes it unclear
that it's the mission itself. In that position, it's impossible
to tell if it's one of innumerable "customer" messages,
or a periodically-changing "ad," or something completely
random. By moving it to the banner area, immediately adjacent
to the site name it confers its significance. |
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3. |
Welcome
blurb |
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No.
Replace the "Know what you're looking for.." space with
the best 2-sentence summation from the manifesto page.
"servicing image conscious companies... just as picky
as you... killer promotion"??? |
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4. |
Plain
wording |
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5. |
No
'happy talk' |
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6. |
Concise
wording |
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7. |
Visited
pages are distinguished by link color-coding |
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The
only place where this is important is the Promo Product
categories, and there is no indication of which ones you've
visited. On many sites, this can be trivial, but on this
site, where the categories are key, and by its nature,
very "browse" oriented, visitation tracking is possibly
crucial. |
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8. |
"Utilities" are
easy to find |
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The
only "utility" of consequence is the contact info, and
it's not prominent enough for a 110% customer-service
org. The phone number, while on every page is almost always
below the fold... at the end. The Contact Us link is always
2 clicks away (on our company page) instead of 1. |
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9. |
Search
on all pages, with box and button |
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10. |
"You
Are Here" indicator |
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The main navigation
blocks don't indicate the current page. The fact that the
Help item is always red causes confusion. |
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11. |
Breadcrumbs'
as links |
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Not
applicable with the number of pages. |
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If you've made it this far, I have
a free
gift for the first 10 visitors who
reply. If you know anyone who's learning to
read, email
me and I'll send you a free copy of a kid's
book I wrote that has just been printed. Please
include "Poopy Phonics" in
the subject line so I have a chance of recovering
it if it goes to my spam folder. For smart
mouths everywhere, the book is PoopyPhonics(.com). No
strings attached, but if you like it, consider
posting a review to Amazon.com. —Thanks,
Jack |
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>>>Get
$2.00 back until January 31, 2008. No strings,
no small print.<<<
Just send me the actual UPC code from the book. — No spam,
no emails, no private info given out—
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Do your hands ache after a day at the keyboard??? This review
sponsored by RSIRescue.com ...
Summation & Next Steps Overall Rating: Strives
/ Survives
/ Thrives
- Originally I thought the Browse page needed to show the
whole product image above the fold along with Next button.
Uh-oh... I completely
misunderstood
that
I wasn't browsing but I was on the first page of "Tour"!
The tour needs to clarify that it's demonstrating the process
of interactively purchasing a promo. Change the Tour's
top bar so it looks less like a direct navigation bar and
more like a timeline of sequential steps: 1-Browse>2-SignUp>3-Logo,
etc. You might need multiple words instead of Browse: "Demo
Purchase." Look for the right words on other sites.
- The page titles are right-aligned... move them to the
left.
- Promote Contacts, phone number, tag line, welcome blurb.
- Put the phone number in the top left where the words
"Welcome to..." are?
- Remove today's date.
- Reduce space taken by search explanation.
- Add visitation cues to clicked product/category links.
- Consider explaining why one would sign up. Why is it
not just an intercepted requirement once it is necessary
in the process? Is there a newsletter?
Hope this helps and let
me know what you think,
Jack Bellis, UsabilityInstitute.com
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