|
Who
Is AdZe.com?
AdZe.com
was launched in 1995 by AdZe MiXXe, Astrologer
Extraordinaire. AdZe was an accomplished astrologer and
writer who had a great enthusiasm for the Internet.
Together with his partner and graphic designer, Gwenn
Knapp, they managed to build a wonderful astrology site.
Sadly, he passed away in the summer of 1997. However,
Gwenn and another friend, John Derrickson, joined forces
in 1999, and decided to follow AdZe’s wishes and
maintain the site. They have built the site to over 1,000
pages and close to 1 million pageviews each month (with a
staff of only two!).
Presenting
Challenge
Gwenn
told me that her presenting challenge was to “increase
product sales.” But, as is often the case, there was a
lot more to the story.
GROK
Identified Primary Issues
One
look at her old home page <http://www.adze.com/index-old.html>
and
I was overwhelmed with what I call “Paralysis of
Analysis” - so many choices I couldn’t choose anything
at all.
·
The
home page was way too busy.
·
It
took way too long to load.
·
I
couldn’t figure out where to go next. Major navigation
problem!
Creating
Persuasive Navigation
The key
to driving people where you want them to go is to
understand what they want and where they think they want
to go. In my navigation article <http://www.grokdotcom.com/navigationdesign.htm>
I
discussed many types of navigation. You may want to check
it out to get a good understanding of navigation options.
Here is
what the folks at Future
Now <http://www.futurenowinc.com>
and I did to help
AdZe.com <http://www.adze.com>:
1.
Simple Navigation
- We removed her ‘iconic’ and ‘cryptic’
navigation and turned most of the links into simple
text links that anybody could understand right away.
2.
How Newbies Search
- I’m pretty new to this Earthly horoscope stuff,
but at least I was aware I’m the Martian equivalent
of an Aries, so that’s where I felt I needed to go.
So the “Sun Signs” links needed to be very
obvious. And by the way, Gwenn told me that, according
to her logs, these are the most popular areas of the
site.
3.
They’re Hot! You’re Hot!
- The next most popular area is the celebrity
Horoscopes. I was amazed at how many people actually
follow Madonnas’ stars. (Hey, Gwenn, when do I get
featured there? <grin>) So, we put some of the
most popular celebrity links right below the general
daily horoscopes.
4.
Driving Traffic -
Join me as I surf the new and improved AdZe site. I go
to the home page, see the very familiar (and most
important to me) word ‘Aries’ and I click on it. I
read my horoscope and, as soon as I am done, I see a
“call to action.” It is an invitation for a free
personal daily horoscope based on my birth date, place
and time.
5.
There even are secondary calls to action: a
choice of checking out another sign or seeing how I
would match-up with a mate. I can even fill out a
simple form and get a personalized Cosmic Greeting.
(Made me feel right at home!)
6.
Sales
- Gwenns’ ultimate goal is to upsell from the
free reports to the more advanced reports. Therefore,
she has added a call to action at the bottom of the free
daily personal horoscope which invites users to upgrade
to the more comprehensive suite of reports.
They’ve
Only Just Begun
Gwenn
and John are still redesigning the rest of the pages, but
there are numerous positive results already. The new site
has already seen a 7% increase in overall pageviews,
including a 40% increase for the Sun Signs, 50% for
Madonnas’ Horoscope, and a whopping 95% for the
Celebrity Directory. Along with all of this, sales have (ta
daaaa) doubled! Yup, doubled. And this is just the
beginning. I can’t wait to see the numbers when they’re
finished implementing all the improvements, and neither
can they!
|
Coming
soon to a website near you –
in fact, maybe YOURS!
Dear
Digital Entrepreneur:
You
guys and gals have been asking and asking, so OK:
I'm now making house calls. That’s right, I'm
visiting your own websites and will be writing in
future issues about how you can apply the stuff we
talk about here.
So,
want a free Grokanalysis of your site? It’s
simple. Just click
here, fill out the form, send it to us, and
if I think your site illustrates something that will
be of interest to a lot of our readers, you’re in!
Good
luck!!
The
Grok
|
Designing Useful Navigation
Not
much has changed in the year since Jakob Nielson wrote,
"Most sites have miserable information architectures
that mirror the way the company internally thinks about
the content and not the way users think about the content.
Predictably, users ignore such unhelpful structure."
Typically, they ignore by bailing, pronto.
Want to
employ useful navigation that helps your customers shop
and moves them ever closer to the close? Then design your
site the way your customer thinks, so your site anticipates
the way your customers want to interact with your
"store." And remember the three cardinal rules:
keep it simple, make it intuitive and be consistent.
Turns
out, it isn't all that difficult to figure out what your
customers probably want to do when they get to your site.
Studies demonstrate people search for and gather
information in fairly predictable ways. And navigation has
a very simple role to play. It orients the customer
by letting him know where he is, and it directs by
letting him know where he can go as well as how to get
back.
BASIC
HUMAN BEHAVIOR
·
A
“user experience” consultancy reported, “39
percent of test shoppers failed in their buying
attempts because sites were too difficult to navigate.
The potential benefit of improving a website's
usability is staggering.”
·
To
optimize your site, you need to recognize users are
task-oriented, or "goal-driven." They pursue
what they are looking for rather single-mindedly, and
even when they are browsing, they browse within a
narrow field.
·
"Users
rarely look at logos, mission statements, slogans, or
any other elements they consider fluff."
·
"If
a page does not appear relevant to the user's current
goal, then the user will ruthlessly click the Back
button after two or three seconds."
·
"If
users don't understand a certain design element, they
don't spend time learning it."
·
Most
users hate distractions, such as flashing gifs, and
also hate un-requested intrusions, such as pop-ups.
NAVIGATION
SCHEMES
There
are many different types of navigation schemes out there.
What is usually successful, though, is to combine pieces
from several and come up with a scheme directed to get your
customer to the “close” of your sales process,
whether that “close” is a purchase, a subscription, a
phone call or whatever else it is that you want your
visitors to do. Let’s talk about some of these schemes:
1.
Hierarchical - that
sideways, tree-like line of text that indicates where the
user has been. It reminds me of those little kids in the
fairy tale who “left breadcrumbs” so they would know
how to get home and often looks like this:
Home
Page > Automobiles > Classics > Convertibles
2.
Global -
this scheme offers access to all areas of your site, using
tabs or a running list. Take a peek at the site of my
buddies ,
Future Now <http://www.futurenowinc.com>.
See the tabs across the top? Real simple and easy to use.
You can access this navigation from any page of the site,
too,
because Future Now makes the system consistent over every
page.
3.
Local
- allows users to get to related information within a
category, not between categories. This is most helpful
when your visitor landed on your site via a search engine,
but hasn’t landed on quite the right page. Take another
look at Future Now <http://www.futurenowinc.com>.
See the right bar of information with links? There you go;
also very easy.
4.
Embedded Links
- This is another very easy scheme. You simply place a
hyperlink within the body of some text. You just have to
be careful how you phrase the link to suggest where it
will take the user. (NOTE: the links in the following
examples are not real.)
Less
effective use of embedded links: I am writing
a novel
about a woman who was murdered.
Will
that link to how to write a novel? Thoughts about writing
a novel? The novel itself? It's not terribly clear.
More
effective
use of embedded links: I am writing a novel about Jack
the Ripper. Want to read an excerpt?
The
user can more easily assume these links will take her to a
discussion of Jack the Ripper and a sample of the
manuscript.
5. Site
Maps
- hate to tell ya, but most folks skip these completely.
It’s too much information for most visitors to bother
with, nor does it strike most users as being as creative
as some designers would like to think. You could argue a
site map does have some value as a supplemental navigation
tool just in case your customers can’t find what they
were looking for using your primary navigation. But in
that case, redesigning your primary navigation would be a
much more effective use of your time, budget and site
space!
TIPS
FOR NAVIGATION DESIGN ‘A LA GROK’
OK,
here come my secret tips and tricks for great navigation
design. As I said earlier, a perfect blend of
schemes usually works best to get your customer closer
to the close. It always depends on the type of
product/service you are offering. However, keep these
pointers in mind as you create the structure for
successful and painless movement throughout your website
and you’ll be on the right track.
·
Use
standard icons and conventions whenever possible.
For example, people recognize what a shopping cart is
for and know that blue-underlined text means hyperlink.
Leverage on what they already know. Contradict it just
to be “original” and you will lose sales.
·
Keep
it simple and make it intuitive. Ease of
use makes for happy customers.
·
Keep
your scheme consistent from page to page. Your
customer should only have to figure it out once.
·
Show the
basic structure of the navigation system. It helps your
visitors feel more confident, and more confidence leads
to more sales.
·
Stick
to clear, concise labels for your navigation
elements. This is not the place to get creative or coy.
·
Use text for navigation elements; avoid graphics.
Graphics take time to load, and also don’t always load
properly. Some folks even go so far as to have images
turned off in their browsers,
in
which case, all those pictures you created to direct
your traffic were a waste of time and money. If you feel
you must use pictures, always include accompanying text.
·
Don't link everything to
everything.
Less is more. Anticipate where your customer is likely
to go and build that into your scheme. And above all,
keep your links within your page; don't require your
customers to use their browser's back button. If you do,
you hand them a chance to leave your site completely.
(On the other hand, never disable their browser’s
back button. Hijacking their computer is a great way to
lose customers forever.)
·
Don't overuse embedded links,
and make sure they clearly identify what they link to.
·
Test! Test! Test!
On lots of different users, different browsers,
different viewing options. Remember the Mom
Test <http://www.grokdotcom.com/momtest.htm>?
Do it!
·
Provide help,
online and offline.
Again,
it’s all about designing your information architecture
around the searching patterns and psychology of your
visitors, not coming up with something that looks cool but
sends your visitors clicking for the hills. When you make
it easy for your visitors to find what they want to buy
quickly and intuitively, more of them will buy. And that's
the point, isn’t it?
|
Home
