Word blindness - a usability lesson

Here's an interesting usability lesson that we're learning at Webreality at the moment. We run the website of the Jersey branch of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. The site's been in existence for a couple of years at the URL www.cim.je and it's a content-rich resource for Jersey-resident CIM members.

Like all Webreality sites, cim.je was built with search engine visibility in mind, and it has performed well in Google. Here's the result of a search on "CIM" in google.co.uk on 12 Feb 2008:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=cim&btnG=Search&meta=

A great result on a pretty generic three letter acronym. The resultant traffic amounted to 2608 referrals on the search term "CIM" from Google to cim.je between 1 Oct 07 and 12 Feb 08. Trouble is, the high visibility of the site has started to cause local branch committee members an unforeseen problem: the site is attracting general membership enquiries from non-Jersey residents who should be enquiring through the main CIM site, www.cim.co.uk.

In a recent redesign, the site was given a high profile "JERSEY BRANCH" flag just below the CIM logo in a bid to alert those who bump into it in error. The international enquiries continued. So we made some pretty drastic content updates to the content page, with references to Jersey everywhere. The international enquiries are still coming, albeit less frequently.

What's the lesson for site designers and webmasters? I think you should never assume anything about how a typical reader of your site will see the content. It's our responsibility to ensure that the sites we build and manage deliver the information or process the site reader needs, and with minimum effort on their part. And that includes wasting as little time as possible for people who stumble into the site accidentally when they really need to be elsewhere.

If it's not obvious enough that the CIM Jersey site is only for Jersey members, we'll keep tuning it until it is!

Content new year!

A happy and successful new year to everyone who looks after websites!

Here's a lovely story. My friend Garner Quain, owner of the highly rated Flex Mussels restaurants in Prince Edward Island, Canada, has recently seen his website awarded one of the most interesting content-related awards I've ever heard of. Read the full story here.

Warms the cockles! And mussels. Nice one Garner! Must get over to see you and try those fantastic slow-growing mussels one of these years...

Splash trash

At Webreality one of our most unfavourite requests from clients when specifying their new website is the so-called "splash page". You know the sort of thing - a 15 second example of the web designer gratuitously showing off his or her Flash animation expertise... while you wait... to get... to the... home... page... where you can finally perform the task you need to perform. Most splash page designers thoughtfully provide a "skip" option... which begs the question why have it in the first place? By the time it's finished, the user could have hit the back button, gone to Amazon, found their product there and be checking out!

I'd love to point you to some examples, but we've all seen them and they don't need the extra traffic!

Splash pages are all about image and brand, but increasingly, the web is a place where people come to get things done. Our best advice is always to avoid putting things in the way of allowing your site user to get the job done. That means simple navigation, limited use of imagery, concise and well-formatted text, and no splash pages! We've not always succeeded in dissuading our clients from having splash pages, so you will see them on a few of our sites, but not very many. Jakob Nielsen takes the view that a splash page "always says to me that this is a site that cares more about image than usability."

If you're really thinking about what matters to your site user, rather than about your own priorities, don't splash!

Dale blogs!

New Webreality team blog kicked off today! Dale Broadhead blogging on software development - right at the heart of what Webreality's all about. Go Dale...

Hail the content visionaries!

Just a quicky. If content is king, then every website needs its king maker.

Our experience here at Webreality is that the best sites tend to result from the single-minded pursuit of a content vision which is usually the product of one individual's mind. A website should ideally speak to its user with a compelling single voice throughout. So many corporate sites feel like the product of a content committee - and I guess that's probably because they are, in fact, the product of a content committee. Nothing wrong with that approach, I say, as long as a trusted individual is given the scope to filter everything into a coherent whole.

Some examples of Webreality sites that hit the spot:

- Little Green Rock: two content visionaries, Debbie and Buter Buterbaugh, but somehow they seem to speak with one groovy voice! And Debbie's artwork is stunning.
- Channel Island Executive Coaching: Tracey Turmel's passion for coaching shining through in her web copy.
- French Imports: Julie Rombaut's boundless enthusiasm for wine - and for her wine expert husband Eric! - translates into energetic language that makes you want to taste and buy.
- Spiral Tree: Anyone who's met Sarah Spiral Tree will testify to her intense belief in the power of meditation and focused relaxation. It makes for a compelling web experience!

I'm not naive enough to imagine that large b2b businesses can transform the tone and style of their content overnight. But, at the very least, the biggest b2cs can make a massive impression on their markets by learning from content visionaries and adopting a tone that recognises that people tend to buy most willingly from businesses they like. Making people like you starts with the way you communicate with them - Apple and Orange are good corporate examples of success in this respect. The web offers the greatest opportunity businesses have ever had to transform the tone and style of their comms for the better. And every business needs a content visionary.

More bullfighters

Delighted to see that my friends at salterbaxter in London are dedicated to fighting the bull too. They publish "bull of the month" at their site. Click "words" from their home page.

Trust Mourant

Mourant has just launched a first in the offshore legal profession - you can go to their website (built by Webreality) and buy trust precedent documents.

This might seem an unremarkable development, but most lawyers remain very sniffy about even acknowledging that aspects of their work might become commoditised. Mourant operates in the rarified world of corporates and high net worth individuals. It's not unusual to find "high street" legal services available now online - wills, leases and even divorce documentation can be bought and downloaded in the UK. But in Mourant’s markets "consumer" approaches to service delivery are much slower to take hold. So hats off to Mourant for blazing a trail in the very specialised offshore trust market. I hope it pays them back handsomely.

From a content point of view, the story here is obvious. Lawyers trade in time and knowledge. Knowledge x time = content. Most law firms worldwide have yet to grasp that client expectations are changing, driven not least by the web's ability to deliver information, knowledge and answers quickly and 24/7. Lawyers who recognise that early in their markets, and deliver high value content how and when clients need it, will achieve big market share wins.