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NobleOak's team of business experts have put together articles on
business planning and business models, marketing plans, and tips and
strategies on web site design and functionality. We also introduce
the terms 'pixie dust' and 'guerrilla marketing' both vital elements
to your short and long term business success. Enjoy!
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"Tips On Web Site Design"
Web Site Design
All web sites need refreshing from time to time. Webcasting is 24/7 programming.
Leaving them unchanged is like broadcasting (on all channels) reruns of ‘Friends’, all the time. Actually, it's worse. It's like broadcasting the same episode of ‘Friends’ on all the channels, all the time.
Simplicity (KISS- Keep it Simple)
Web sites need to be simple and self-explaining. The beauty about web sites is that they hyperlink- so each page can be as simple and elegant as a doorknob design. A doorknob, when you think about it for a minute, is a pretty elegant piece of hardware. It self explains. If you watch an 18 month old child grab for one and try to twist it, you realize that the door knob is about the right size and at the right height from the floor- it just itches to be grabbed and turned. If you watch dogs turn doorknobs, you really realize that the original designer got it right!
Faces Count
In cyberspace, the metaverse, in mainstream media, faces count. People will pass over hundred thousand dollar, full page spreads showing, for example, fancy cars but they will look at your teensy ad showing a face. It can be your face (remember when Loblaw President's Choice used to use Dave Nichol's face everywhere?) or your nephew or niece- an image for your company that personalizes your product. People buy from people they like (and trust). I suggest to people on the web, use faces! Put a photo of your team on your web site. Even in the stateless world of the metaverse, faces count.
Art
There is no doubt that adding artistic flair to a website can make it flashy and exciting. This is well and good. But don't make them so arty that they clutter up or become impossible to read. Remember that there are 50 year old eyes out there looking at your site- use good contrast and larger font sizes. You must also consider the size of your website file which leads us directly into downloadability.
Downloadability
Make sure you resample image sizes- the web is all about data. People will wait no more than 4 to 8 seconds for a page to appear. In fact, I typically will wait less than two seconds. If the site does not download in that time, I leave never to return!
There are still many (more than 80%) of net users who have dial up modem connections (56 kilobits per second). So if you put an autocad drawing up with 5 megabytes of information, you are talking 89 seconds of download time- way too long.
Images on the web and other bandwidth hogs like animation and video need to be carefully integrated in your web site design. Don't put animation in just because it is neat. If it doesn't have a real purpose, forget about it. It'll get old fast anyway.
Images, video etc. can be resampled and downloaded fast at lower quality levels. People will generally be prepared to substitute speed for quality.
Navigation
Make your site easy to navigate. Make each page consistent in formatting so that once people get used to the look and feel of your site, they will know how to use each page and hyperlinks.
Use a form to create a wraparound standard navigation tool and an embedded page that changes with each click.
You may want to suppress the source code so that people cannot take the look and feel of your site. There are also ways to make it difficult for people to print from your site too if confidentiality or proprietary concerns are requirements.
Some web sites make it difficult to navigate for commercial reasons. There are sites where you may download the author's work for free- a few pages at a time. For a student with a lot of time and not much money, they will be prepared to spend three hours to do this. For a busy executive, they would rather buy the book for $20. This is a pretty good net business model- the basic service or product is 'free', upgraded products or services cost you.
Page Size
Each browser (IE or Netscape) behaves a little differently. To get your web site to be robust and behave appropriately in all media and with all PCs is non trivial.
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| 11/1/2002 |
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"Mapping Interface"
"Getting the Business Model Right and Pixie Dust"
"Tips On Web Site Design"
"Web Site Functionality" (Part 1 of 2)
"Web Site Functionality" (Part 2 of 2)
"Marketing Plan: Find Clients and Customers through Guerrilla Marketing" (Part 1 of 3)
"Marketing Plan: Find Clients and Customers through Guerrilla Marketing" (Part 2 of 3)
"Marketing Plan: Find Clients and Customers through Guerrilla Marketing" (Part 3 of 3)
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