The no-nonsense way for SMEs to exploit the Internet

The MindMaps ZA "Rainbow System to Internet Bliss" is based on a few basic truths in life. This system is probably not right for those with loads of money and resources, but it may just be very relevant to entrepreneurs and small to medium enterprises.

Truth One - Rome was not built in a day

This truth is explained at GoEnglish.com as follows:

"Rome was not built in one day" says that we should not expect to build something great ("Rome") in a short period of time ("one day"). Example: "Are you still working on that same painting?" Answer: "Hey! Rome was not built in one day!" You must work hard and overcome many challenges if you want to complete your goal. Example: "It will be at least six more years of study before I can become a doctor." Answer: "Rome was not built in one day." The city of Rome, like all great works, was built over many years of hard work. "Rome was not built in one day" says that you must work hard and keep working hard if you want to build something great. Example: "It is taking me a long time to write this computer program." Answer: "Rome was not built in one day."

Truth Two - Crawl before you walk

We all know what it means. Eternity X gave it more meaning in their song Crawl before you walk. Here are the lyrics of the song:

The smoky mist it hovered over the distant echoes of your voice flow through
my soul
The wind blows silent like a mystery standing on a mountain top within my
dream
They comfort me

And I don't know how I'm supposed to feel
None of this makes any sense at all to me
Lullabies sung by a distant memory, seems to hold me when I'm down
In this world of quiet sadness
Golden chalices filled with madness they come for me
Broken hearts lie all around me
A flowing pastel red upon the ground in the place I'm in

I gazed up into the night sky
Shivering cold from a brave man's destiny
As I opened up my eyes a strange light seemed to shine all over me

I heard this voice from nowhere surrounding all that wasn't there
Confirming all believing it was the time it said
You have to:

Crawl, crawl before you walk, walk before you run, run before you die
You have to feel, feel before you hurt, hurt before you learn, learn before
you try

I feel like a wheel turning, turning on midnight - distorted - faces
I feel like a wheel lights up my eyes, happiness befalls me in some peculiar
way
I feel like a wheel turning, turning on midnight

You have to:
Crawl, crawl before you walk, walk before you run, run before you die
You have to feel, feel before you hurt, hurt before you learn, learn before
you try

Now the mist was clearing I could see the stars that lit the sky
I waited silent calls for a voice, a vision I could not find
Never heard but I wasn't jaded and that voice of reason never left my mind

You have to:
Crawl, crawl before you walk, walk before you run, run before you die
You have to feel, feel before you hurt, hurt before you learn, learn before
you try

Oh no it's looking right at us but you don't have to like this

Truth Three - Fix the basics first

Jakob Nielsen sums it up as follows:

What's the common theme in all these business-killing usability problems? They all involve simple usability principles that have been the same for ten years. None of them involve advanced "Web 2.0" technology; none would be fixed by implementing any of the fancy stuff that everybody's talking about.

Over the coming weeks we will reveal the Mindmaps ZA "Rainbow System to Internet Bliss."

Stay with us and bear with us.

Over the following few days we'll explore the issue of the "Basics". Lets start by lookin at what Jakob Nielsen had to say about this:'

Summary:
Clear content, simple navigation, and answers to customer questions have the biggest impact on business value. Advanced technology matters much less.

"Here are the biggest issues that led to lost business value in some of our recent consulting projects:

* An e-commerce site lost millions of dollars because overly aggressive homepage promotions made users distrust the price of any product that was not on sale. This is a classic example of the importance of trust-enhancing design in e-commerce.

* Rather than offering a unified intranet portal, one big company's intranet had inconsistent design and used different systems to manage different areas. As employees moved around the intranet, the navigation options and structural appearance changed. Parts of the intranet looked outdated compared to newer sections, which made users doubt the accuracy of the older pages' information. Again, this is a credibility problem -- trust is not just an e-commerce issue.

* Potential customers couldn't find a service company's outlets because the store finder required users to know the company's name for each location. People who used other names left the site, wrongly assuming the company didn't serve their areas.

* A content site chased users away with intrusive advertising that included few relevant ads.

* A completely novel Internet offering was lost on most users, who didn't understand the service, how it worked, or what it could offer them.

Given their vague inklings about the payoff, users were unwilling to register with the site. Among other problems, users didn't understand the site's terminology.

Top Three Design Priorities
What's the common theme in all these business-killing usability problems? They all involve simple usability principles that have been the same for ten years. None of them involve advanced "Web 2.0" technology; none would be fixed by implementing any of the fancy stuff that everybody's talking about.

Indeed, the biggest design flaws destroying business value typically involve:

1. Communicating clearly so that users understand you. Users allocate minimal time to initial website visits, so you must quickly convince them that the site's worthwhile.

2. Providing information users want. Users must be able to easily determine whether your services meet their needs and why they should do business with you.

3. Offering simple, consistent page design, clear navigation, and an information architecture that puts things where users expect to find them.

Get these three right, and you'll enhance your site's credibility, ease a user's way through the site, and thus do far more for the site's business value than any JavaScript trick.

Better Content
Content rules. It did ten years ago, and it does today. People don't use things they don't understand. Writing for the Web is still undervalued, and most sites spend too few resources refining the information they offer to users.

The same goes for photos: On countless sites, product images are too small, fuzzy, or murky, or they're simply shot from a bad angle, making the product hard to see. These same sites lavish pixels on big glamour illustrations that our eyetracking studies show attract no fixations. Go figure.

Generally, all you need are plainspoken words and clean photos. Nonetheless, these two design elements get almost no coverage in the trade press. Every month, there seems to be a new article in a leading publication about 3D spinning views, even though 3D is nearly useless in most cases. But you never see an article about how to write better headlines or take a clearer product photo.

Why Useless, Fancy Stuff Gets Promoted
I have my theory for why the discussion is biased in favor of the things that do the least good: it's exactly because they are technologies that they get talked about. Two reasons:

1. New technology equals news. Whether in a newspaper or a blog, nobody wants to run stories about the same old, same old. As the saying goes, "man bites dog" gets press coverage, but "dog bites man" doesn't. Yet, if you're in charge of prioritizing health system resources, you should invest in helping humans who've been bitten by dogs. A clinic to cure dogs that have been bitten by humans would stand empty most of the time. That the main usability guidelines have remained constant for ten years is no reason to ignore them: it's a reason to believe that they have durable value and relate to deep human needs.

2. Companies champion technologies because they can be sold as products and consulting services. Go to any tradeshow and you'll see plenty of booths pushing various fancy technologies -- most of which will make very little difference to your bottom line. But each of these technologies has smooth-talking salespeople who will invite your executives out for a round of golf. In contrast, no trade show booth features Photographers' Society representatives saying "clear photos move more products," even though it's the truth. Nor does the Writers' Guild cold-call Internet managers to sell them on the value of bulleted lists.

This is not to say that there's no role for new technology. We're currently working with a company that's placing an extremely complicated application online. They can't do this with good usability unless they use several "rich UI" tricks. But that's an application, and a big one to boot. For 90% of websites, it's more important to focus on communicating clearly, whether they're e-commerce sites, corporate sites, government sites, or non-profit sites.

Elite Experience vs. User Experience
A final reason why attention flows to things that matter little to mainstream business websites: the Web's chattering classes tend to be overly engaged in the "Internet elite experience." They actually care about the 'Net for its own sake, and go gaga over new ways of showing maps. In contrast, average users just want to complete tasks online. They don't particularly like the Web, and they'd like to get back to their jobs or families as quickly as possible.

Wall Street experiencing Web Bubble 2.0 is one thing. But I'm concerned that Internet professionals are getting a dangerous sniff of bubble vapors as well, deluding themselves into thinking that their preferences and interests represent those of normal customers.

One of usability's most hard-earned lessons is that "you are not the user." If you work on a development project, you're atypical by definition. Design to optimize the user experience for outsiders, not insiders. The antidote to bubble vapor is user testing: find out what representative users need. It's tempting to work on what's hot, but to make money, focus on the basics that customers value.

Learn More
I discuss more of the basics that users really want in my Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability seminar at the Usability Week 2009 conference in Washington DC, San Francisco, London, and Sydney."

We are still exploring the issue of the Basics Of Internet marketing. Have a look at what Jacob has to say.

Internet marketing begins with seven very basics facts. The purpose of this essay is to provide a review of those basics facts, which many people overlook:

1. Your domain name must be easy to spell and remember. A domain name should also contain your most important keywords. If you are a golf course in Houston, Texas the best domain name is not the name of your company. The correct domain name would be GolfHouston.com or perhaps HoustonGolf.com. If someone if looking for a place to golf in Houston, which two words would you expect them to type into Google?

2. The word welcome means nothing, because it is assumed that every customer is welcome. Most importantly, the word welcome takes up vital space in your title tag, which is the most important tag on your website. Search engines expect the title tag to define the site. Use this opportunity to state your product or service and location.

3. You must know who your customer is, and what he (or she) wants. This may seem easy, but many major companies have spent millions of dollars on research to discover they were wrong. In 1982 Cadillac did a large survey and found that 65% of their buyers selected a Cadillac for prestige, while only 27% bought the car because they felt it was a great vehicle. As a result of this survey, Cadillac spent less on ads that stressed quality, and began to issue special "Gold Cards" to identify Cadillac owners when they came in for service.

4. Make your company easy to find. Your telephone number should be on the Contact page. When a consumer is shopping, they want answers now, not an email tomorrow. Many consumers hate to fill out online forms. By providing a direct email link and a telephone number, you are making it easy for a potential customer to contact you, which will greatly increase the odds that someone will do business with you.

5. Unless you are Amazon.com or some other well known major company, do not expect new customers to do business entirely online. Many consumers want to have a chat with you and develop a comfort level before giving up their credit card number to a company they have never heard of. A website is a vital addition to a regular "brick and mortar" business, but few businesses have been able to survive with just a website. At the very least, you need an address and a telephone number, so a consumer can talk to someone.

6. You need a quality website. A website is an essential business tool. This is your image. The website is not the place to cut costs. The public will judge your company based upon what they see. If you want to be professional you must look professional.

7. Your website must be optimized for the search engines. What good is a website if no one can find it on the Internet? You do not need to "register" with search engines and you should never pay a company to "submit" your site, but you do need search engine optimization. This can be done by some top level web designers, but do not assume that a great artist is also great at search engine optimization. If your web designer lacks experience in this area, look for a search engine optimization firm in your community.

The Internet is the marketing tool of the future. In the 1970s people looked in the yellow pages; today they look on the Internet.

Jacob Wissler, Jr. SEO Houston