Static isn’t sticky any more – do websites need to do more to compete?
In the old days, just having a website was enough. Anyone other than your local pottery or cleaners of Oriental rugs who didn’t have a website was missing out. But these days, don’t sites have to try a little harder to get our attention?
A colleague was recently concerned that her organisation wanted to use PDFs instead of html pages for their website as “they are easier to maintain”. If this doesn’t shock you to the core please, please, PLEASE keep reading. If it does shock you, then read on in the smug knowledge that you’re already enlightened. Simply having a website doesn’t mean you’ve arrived / communicated / sold / answered or whatever it is your website’s supposed to be doing.
Facebook and MySpace aren’t the be all and end all, but they demonstrate how non-professionals create web pages, upload videos and images, create links and indulge in a bit of viral marketing. So why doesn’t every web site? Static text copy and a nice piccie in the top right really isn’t cutting it any more. Regardless of organisations’ budgets, when users visit a site they expect the best. Any less is seen as failure and competitors are only a back button away.
SEO consultancy Fresh Egg’s Lee Colbran used the example of someone putting together flat-packed furniture. When the paper instructions aren’t any good, people could check the website. What they’d really benefit from is a ‘how to’ video. Wouldn’t we all? But wouldn’t it also offer some really high value, sticky content for customers?
Apart from nearly exploding about my PDF beleaguered colleague, Neontribe’s Harry Harrold told me that “we build video howtos into all our website bids now – written documentation is just too dull to be useful.” Jay Ball, Creative Director of advertising agency Banner has also found that video in online ads gets way more responses than any other online media.
People like to be engaged – don’t disappoint them with shoddy budget content.
As well video, there are Flash animations, interactive Ajax pages, polls, user generated content, live chat and everything else that creates a rich user experience that’ll beat the pants of ‘text and piccie in the top right’.
Talking of pants, one of the best examples of rich content is Knicker Picler’s dressing room who use recorded videos of models who ‘cat walk’ lingerie outfits you pick. No, it’s not ‘adult’, but it might not be suitable for everyone to view at work. But it is really smart and shows how far rich interactions can go.
@haydens30 however has a point, “SEO needs one page/one subject to be effective, dynamic content and personalisation may not get the Google Juice they need”. There’s also your audience to consider.
User Experience practitioner Karen Stanton suggests”…older people don’t need rich ux. They need information as easily, as accessible as possible. [It also] depends where they’re being accessed, broadband speeds, internet cafes, libraries etc…”.
So again, here we are back at the inescapable conclusion that we must design for our users. Relying on ‘easy’ only answers short term budget issues. Use rich content to answer your users’ needs not the IT or Finance department’s needs.
Now … about those new pants…
The Long Dog.
Tags: seo, UCD, User-Centred Design, UXD, web, web design
I agree wholeheartedly that sites should be built around the users, but are you saying that lo-fi websites don’t have a place any more?
I’m a great believer in the content being king, and as long as the site structure doesn’t get in the way of that content (or preferably makes that content even easier to consume), then everything is right with the world.
If you’re suggesting that a site can’t compete unless it features all the latest rich media whistles and bells, I’d have to disagree. Frequently, flash heavy, ‘creatively’ IA’d sites create the illusion of greatness while actually creating barriers to entry (load times, unskippable animations, confusing navigation, cutting edge drivers needed), particularly putting off returning visitors if you’re lucky enough that they come back.
I’m no Luddite throwing my Sketchers into the cogs of the digital inter-loom, but the simplest answers are often the best (and cheapest).
One final note, I come to theLongDog because the content has made an impact with me. You don’t need anything more than the text and ‘piccie at the top right’. Progress is great, but never forget were you came from and why those early adopters came.
Good points, Jason. Perhaps I should rephrase somehow to say that while expecatations rise, it’s expectations of quality and not ‘features’. Also add that rich content should not be designed just to be attractive, but useful and usable and deployed apropriately.
You have somewhat pulled the rug out from under me by effectively pointing out that my own article is ‘text with a piccie in the top right’, and as you say – ‘content is king’ and I’ve designed for my users. Damn you!