Trash the splash

You own a shop. You want it to look "cool". So what do you do? It's obvious, isn't it? You hire a big, burly bloke, dress him in a cool outfit, stand him at the door with his arms folded, and tell him that when anyone arrives at the door they have to ask him very nicely if they can come in before he moves aside. Even if it's raining and they're in a hurry.

THAT'S the real world equivalent of the website splash page.

I hoped I'd never have to rant about them again.

Then, last week, I heard a designer (not one of Webreality's...) banging on about how "cool" Flash splash pages are.

Dude, it's 2009! And no-one says "dude" any more! Or uses splash pages.

Does Google have one? Does Amazon have one? Does Ebay have one? Does YouTube have one? Does Facebook have one? Does Twitter have one? (Think I've made the point.)

Great web design is rarely "cool". It just works. Quickly.

Moral of the story - if you want a website that works for your target users, use a web designer. Not a designer who does websites!

Cynthia loves thespiraltree.com

Message received by Sarah at thespiraltree.com:

"Sarah,

I have to tell you that your site is one of the most beautiful and calming that I have ever visited. The "spirals" of your tree are elegant and yet soothing and your choice of pictures, along with the layout, is just so welcoming. It was fun to just wind around and explore.

Cynthia"

Video poised to permeate the web

From mediapost.com:

"Video is poised to permeate the Web in a way that goes far beyond YouTube's user-generated clips."

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=98807

Privacy and Google's "behavioural ads"

Web users are impatient and time is short. Google has always strived for relevance in the search results and ads that it serves in response to a search term. No-one complains when an individual website serves up relevant content when we visit - see youtube.com as a good example. Google's allowing users to see and edit their profiles.

So what's the problem with Google's new behavioural ads?

This is the web at its best - intelligently serving relevant content to users.

Socitm 2009 UK council website review shows "stagnation"

Thanks to headstar.com for this news update:

""A picture of stagnation" is painted by many of the reviewer comments from this year's 'Better connected 2009' review of UK council websites by the local government Society of IT Management (Socitm), published this month.

Despite finding a steady overall improvement in the quality of UK local authority websites, the review says a range of website management issues must be addressed by councils if sites are to offer fully developed 'self-service' options to citizens.

Self-service will be vital if councils are to become more efficient and save money by reducing telephone and face-to-face service provision in tough economic times, it concludes.

The survey ranks all sites as either 'standard', 'transactional' for more interactive and better-developed sites, and 'excellent' for those that meet high criteria across all areas of review.

Eight councils have achieved an 'excellent' ranking in 2009: Allerdale, Barking and Dagenham, Bristol, East Sussex, North East Derbyshire, Salford, South Tyneside and Surrey.

This compares with five excellent councils last year and just one the previous year. However, levels of satisfaction recorded among people visiting council websites are some 10% lower than in 2008, the report finds, detecting just "marginal improvements against most criteria" since the previous year."

A brief review of the top sites cited in this report shows that Jersey and Guernsey's govermental sites have a long way to go to compete at this level. Gauntlet's down - Jersey's on the case! 

Usability testing endorsed

Great de-brief meeting with a Jersey-based client last week who's just completed a programme of usability testing with Webreality's guidance on a web portal and a set of proprietary web applications.

They want to stay anonymous at present, so no direct quotes from them, but our lead contact said he was a "testing convert." The results of the testing produced valuable design and layout changes that dramatically improved first time task completion in the second round of testing. The commercial benefits will be tangible.

Entertainment key to successful "millennial" content strategy

A month ago Mediapost.com published this:

'According to Deloitte's State of the Media Democracy survey, three-quarters of Millennials (ages 14 to 25) view the computer as more of an entertainment device than their television. Ed Moran, Deloitte director of product innovation, notes that "This (early-adopter) generation of consumers was the first to be raised on the Internet and is united across borders and cultures by their digital media preferences, so the implications for global marketers are unprecedented." '

For businesses and organisations with web strategies targeting younger web users this is crucial information.

The results continued:

'Across five surveyed countries, Millennials are the most active in gaming, music and Internet use for socializing:

• 80% of Millennials are regularly searching, downloading and listening to music over the Internet
• 73% are also regularly socializing online (via social networking sites, chat rooms or message boards)
• 59% of Millennials use their mobile phone as an entertainment device, versus an average of 33% of all consumers.
• Millennials are spending one-third less time watching their television than are other generations.' 

It's already widely understood that old style "push" marketing, which disseminates messaging in as targeted a way as possible, is being supplanted by "pull" models based on the spontaneous emergence of communities of common interest who pay attention to each other's likes, dislikes and recommendations. Social networking has accelerated this phenomenon, with the natural viral effect of blink-fast and super-easy sharing of content and ideas.

The newest challenge for millennial marketers is how to work entertainment into the brand and its online strategy; how to use pull marketing and entertainment to win more hearts and more eyeballs.

Online holding up well in the downturn

At Webreality we expected a very slow start to 2009 but so far so very good. There's lots of evidence of businesses looking online to find more cost-effective and measurable marketing tactics, we're seeing new clients who want to put processes online to reduce cost, and there is a surprising amount of new e-commerce business about.

Down to us to keep things as cost-effective as possible.

Webreality is first and foremost a support business, which is why we keep our clients long term, and that philosophy is serving everyone well at the moment.