I tend to agree with users who’ve posted reflecting on their substandard experiences using the Dell and Microsoft sites. These sites provide a good example of the difficulty of designing “one size fits all” navigation scheme for a large site. For sites like this I’ve found that navigation designed for your primary audience backed by a usable search feature for quick access often works best.
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Michael
I just had to visit Dell.com this week to look up some specs on a Dell flatscreen monitor at work. All I wanted to do was go to a Products page, click on Monitors or Hardware, etc., and find what I needed. I had to drill down eight links from the main page to find what I was looking for.This, of course, was after a failed attempt with their site search engine because I initially did not want to self-identify (but gave in, and went back to the main page to start from scratch).
I hope to God that none of your readers take that part of your article seriously and base their site’s navigation off of Dell’s.
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Fredrik
Writing for the web isn’t always obvious.
I am one of those guys who thinks that many Blogs are an abomination. Especially when related to a Portfolio site. You don’t want to read everything about the designer. You want to know what he can do for you.
2advanced.com, while probably the final frontier when it comes to “Flash Interface Artists” now that WDDG has “turned to the light”, has a healthy bit of advertising text. In many ways what writing directed to the customer is all about. It’s a lot of cookie-cutters but sometimes that is what seem to work.
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Hanan Cohen
External referrer logs will only give you war, fuzzy feeling inside.
Internal search logs are the most powerfull tool to analyze user behavior. See what search words are used in your Search Box (you ave one, don’t you???) and see what pages do they get at the top.
Watch carefuly the zero results search terms. Those are the first terms that should be taken care of.
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Anand Kumria
Dell.Com isn’t user-centric. Whenever I visit Dell’s site I have to determine the context of my visit ahead of time.
Sometimes I’m buying for myself; sometimes for a large company; sometimes for my parent’s small business.
I’d rather identify what I’m after: a product or a service. Then I can continue from there.
What does identifying yourself as a consumer, small-biz or large company serve to do? It allows Dell to discriminate you buy presenting different pricing to you.
Word reduction is a fantastic technique: take what you want to say to the user and cut it down to plain and straight-forward language (allowing for tone, of course. ;) ).
To paraphrase acclaimed copywriter, Luke Sullivan, “If you can’t reduce your [statement] to a few crisp words and phrases, there’s something wrong with your [statement].”
Note: Please don’t confuse my use of the word simple with simplistic. I don’t mean to be simplistic. Just. Simple.
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phil wigglesworth
Generally a good article, but I have to take issue with the use of Dell as a good example of design.
When I go there, I want to buy a computer. These days Dell doesn’t let me do that – instead it wants to know what type of organization I work for! I find this hugely frustrating, not to mention an invasion of my privacy. Are the computers on sale in each section the same machines, and are they the same price? There’s only one way to find out, and that involves a lot of clicking.
Imagine if your local supermarket insisted on asking what you do for a living before agreeing to sell you some bacon.
So I’d add to the article: “don’t put stupid marketing things between your customers and what they’re trying to find”. In this case, it’s computers, in case that’s still not clear.
… that the folks that really need to read this aren’t. I’d have to say that the article did a great job of summarizing the arguments by the preacher to the choir. Thats not bad, as even the choir strays and sins (which is probably worse because you know better)!
Many good points, an excellent read.
However, i’m a follower of a tactic a friend calls mind-surfing. Basically it involves space-claim management of content based on the methods people use to scan content prior to choosing a course of action.
With this paradigm, both images and text matter in the context of the medium and the relevance of size and location.
Or put more simply, .. some see the picture first, and associations commence from there, others seek the title/heading/keyphrase first. Managing content in the terms of visitor Cognition has value in this regard, effective for task-based navigation.
I have been looking for someone to collaborate on crafting something of a dissertation on this, since i sincerely believe that such cognitive mode attention coupled with your observations are quite key to truely effective outcomes.
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Martijn
Ever considered this. Try going to the Dell site knowing you want a computer. Then ask yourself, what should I buy and then try getting something you want….
35 Reader Comments
Back to the ArticleAndrew
I tend to agree with users who’ve posted reflecting on their substandard experiences using the Dell and Microsoft sites. These sites provide a good example of the difficulty of designing “one size fits all” navigation scheme for a large site. For sites like this I’ve found that navigation designed for your primary audience backed by a usable search feature for quick access often works best.
Dante-Cubed
Wow. I’m suprised someone from ALA would say something nice about Microsoft. No sarcasm, I really am.
Michael
I just had to visit Dell.com this week to look up some specs on a Dell flatscreen monitor at work. All I wanted to do was go to a Products page, click on Monitors or Hardware, etc., and find what I needed. I had to drill down eight links from the main page to find what I was looking for.This, of course, was after a failed attempt with their site search engine because I initially did not want to self-identify (but gave in, and went back to the main page to start from scratch).
I hope to God that none of your readers take that part of your article seriously and base their site’s navigation off of Dell’s.
Fredrik
Writing for the web isn’t always obvious.
I am one of those guys who thinks that many Blogs are an abomination. Especially when related to a Portfolio site. You don’t want to read everything about the designer. You want to know what he can do for you.
2advanced.com, while probably the final frontier when it comes to “Flash Interface Artists” now that WDDG has “turned to the light”, has a healthy bit of advertising text. In many ways what writing directed to the customer is all about. It’s a lot of cookie-cutters but sometimes that is what seem to work.
Hanan Cohen
External referrer logs will only give you war, fuzzy feeling inside.
Internal search logs are the most powerfull tool to analyze user behavior. See what search words are used in your Search Box (you ave one, don’t you???) and see what pages do they get at the top.
Watch carefuly the zero results search terms. Those are the first terms that should be taken care of.
Anand Kumria
Dell.Com isn’t user-centric. Whenever I visit Dell’s site I have to determine the context of my visit ahead of time.
Sometimes I’m buying for myself; sometimes for a large company; sometimes for my parent’s small business.
I’d rather identify what I’m after: a product or a service. Then I can continue from there.
What does identifying yourself as a consumer, small-biz or large company serve to do? It allows Dell to discriminate you buy presenting different pricing to you.
A.
Lorenzo Gabba
Word reduction is a fantastic technique: take what you want to say to the user and cut it down to plain and straight-forward language (allowing for tone, of course. ;) ).
To paraphrase acclaimed copywriter, Luke Sullivan, “If you can’t reduce your [statement] to a few crisp words and phrases, there’s something wrong with your [statement].”
Note: Please don’t confuse my use of the word simple with simplistic. I don’t mean to be simplistic. Just. Simple.
Scott Brainard
I side with Mathew, and agree that Apple.com is extremely usable, and has one of the clearest and most effective interfaces I have ever seen.
Dell and Microsoft I agree suffer from the problems others have mentioned.
phil wigglesworth
Generally a good article, but I have to take issue with the use of Dell as a good example of design.
When I go there, I want to buy a computer. These days Dell doesn’t let me do that – instead it wants to know what type of organization I work for! I find this hugely frustrating, not to mention an invasion of my privacy. Are the computers on sale in each section the same machines, and are they the same price? There’s only one way to find out, and that involves a lot of clicking.
Imagine if your local supermarket insisted on asking what you do for a living before agreeing to sell you some bacon.
So I’d add to the article: “don’t put stupid marketing things between your customers and what they’re trying to find”. In this case, it’s computers, in case that’s still not clear.
Joe
… that the folks that really need to read this aren’t. I’d have to say that the article did a great job of summarizing the arguments by the preacher to the choir. Thats not bad, as even the choir strays and sins (which is probably worse because you know better)!
Jeff Johnson
Many good points, an excellent read.
However, i’m a follower of a tactic a friend calls mind-surfing. Basically it involves space-claim management of content based on the methods people use to scan content prior to choosing a course of action.
With this paradigm, both images and text matter in the context of the medium and the relevance of size and location.
Or put more simply, .. some see the picture first, and associations commence from there, others seek the title/heading/keyphrase first. Managing content in the terms of visitor Cognition has value in this regard, effective for task-based navigation.
I have been looking for someone to collaborate on crafting something of a dissertation on this, since i sincerely believe that such cognitive mode attention coupled with your observations are quite key to truely effective outcomes.
Martijn
Ever considered this. Try going to the Dell site knowing you want a computer. Then ask yourself, what should I buy and then try getting something you want….
In my humle opinion the Dell site SUCKS big time!
Burt Stockman
Absolutely nothing new. This article repeats dozen of articles on this theme.
Nic Flook
Reading your article made me smile as it validates our argument for splitting our new site into customer groups.
Great article.
Jan Rune Bjørkelo
I enjoyed reading this article. General articles on designing webpages are fun, and I’ve learned a lot from them. =)