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Archive for April, 2009

Navigation Architecture: Show the user where he is!

April 28

Hello, Thank you for visiting - I hope that you will find useful information. Leave a comment but if you have any comments on the subject.

It has in recent years already gotten around that we will show users where they are and so a user can easily orient within a site. But as easy as it sounds, this commandment is so often ignored or is there some subtleties here that have not yet gotten around everywhere.

Active menu item to select
The standard now requires to select active menu items. Here, this selection is to make visually evident. The difference between selecting andnot selected navigation elements should be immediately recognizable at a glance. In addition, it should be noted that work is in all levels with navigation highlighting. Again and again we see sites where the main menu item is selected well, but from the second or third level of the optical chaos breaks out.

Breadcrumb Navigation integrate
Navigation. The more complex and deeper navigation structure of a website is built, the more important is a breadcrumb navigation. Thereby one can create some problems from the neck and has a global reference point created for the user. darstellen. However, a breadcrumb navigation should never be the only option. In my view, are the "bread crumbs" for quick reference in an emergency and urged users can also abuse this to navigate.

Each side of their menu
Each side should be assigned to a menu item. Especially on the front page one often sees the sub-items are displayed in the menu anywhere. This results in pages that are more or less in the "empty air" space. Classic examples include, for example, pages that link to the home page a banner, but then no menu item to be assigned. The user clicks on the corresponding banner and then has no clue where he is. At the same time, the "Home" page is only one page and should not contain numerous sub-sites.

Back button will not forget!
A classic: the site should not use the "Back" buttons work in the browser. Therefore, strictly implement back buttons in the right places. With the right places, I think that the button should appear only as where you need it. Such a link is back on the home page rather pointless. Only on the detail pages for a "read more" link, not accessible from the menu's are in my view makes sense.

Integrated Sitemaps
Another way to give the user a good overview of the side structure provide integrated sitemaps. die man in den letzten Jahren immer öfters sieht. By that I mean this global, integrated in the footer to the Sitemaps in recent years seen more often. Zwecken nutzen. Honestly I have no idea what you call those things officially, but these ichfinde pretty handy, and, incidentally, these sitemaps to use good SEO purposes.

Conclusion:
These were some tips to guide the user through the site to better and less internetafine users to run through the site without frustration. in bestehende Websites eingebaut werden sollen. Of course, the whole thing with the increasing complexity and depth of navigation more difficult and particularly tricky when it is nachträgich navigation levels in existing sites will be installed. It is better to take into account at the beginning of a project has a level more.

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Posted in Design & Usability

The Top 10 - the most successful contributions to the last 5 months

April 22

Since this blog has got over the first few months to grow well and nice and slow starts, it is high time the most popular posts of this blog to evaluate. Of course I will not deny that list and maybe even a couple of interesting, older posts are in the process the one or the other is not yet known.

The most successful contributions of the past 5 months have been:

Thus, the were the top 10 and thus this blog will start in the next hopefully successful 5 months. Happy reading.

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Posted in This & That

Design of landing pages (Part 3)

April 15

We continue with the continuation of the same and the final part of this little trilogy.

This post is part 3 of a three-part series:
Rough Concept: economy, generate traffic (Part 1)
Detailed concept: Render (Part 2)
Evaluating, optimizing and Practice (Part 3)

Testing, optimizing
The website was created, it is advisable to test the whole thing of people from the audience to leave. This result does not necessarily have a highly professional usability study. Often it is already known or to ask colleagues to detect small mistakes or pitfalls in the use.
After the launch, it makes sense potential optimizations using Google's Website Optimizer to test. This allows easy abzutesten different versions as different image or button names. It provides the tool from Google, the various versions that are tested automatically for visitors to the landing page, then you can look at a statistic which version is best converted.

Statistics, analysis, ROI
Very important is the integration of a statistical tool. This should already be defined before creating the landing page, which is integrated statistics tool, and what KPIs (key performance indicators) should be measured. Nothing is more annoying than the end of a scenario campaign to have no meaningful figures are available.
Interesting values ​​are: visits, conversion rate, cost per click, click-through rate, ROI, origin and language of the user, form dropout rate

Examples:

Landing Page Template Zanox
This template can be used for affiliate programs via Zanox. The basic concept is based on a tidy, uncluttered landing page, the number of products is very transparent and compares.

Zanox Landingpage

Tourism: Complex family vacation landing page
The special feature of this Landigpage is that it goes from here to generate inquiries. For this reason, an integrated function of the user via a shopping cart system makes a request. This request will be automatically based on the user's selection made on several providers.
The basic idea is very good only the operation must be understood first. With the flood of information the site also seems a bit full.

Familienurlaub Landingpage

Landing Page: Slippers
Example of an integrated into the website landing page on slippers.

Landing Page: Lottery
Very nice, simple landing page for a raffle. The only drawback is, in my view, that must be scrolled, and so entry form button and are not immediately visible.

MacBook Landingpage

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Posted in eCommerce , eMarketing

Design of landing pages (Part 2)

April 7

We continue with the sequel on landing pages.

This post is part 2 of a three-part series:
Rough Concept: economy, generate traffic (Part 1)
Detailed concept: Render (Part 2)
Evaluating, optimizing and Practice (Part 3)

Detailed concept: Render (Part 2)
The second part deals with the detailed design of the landing page. This of course depends very much on the purpose of their website. Basically one can say that (looks at branding campaigns, there is something different) the following very important key elements for sales-oriented landing pages are:

Avoid distractions
On the landing page, everything should be on the defined goal oriented. For example, if a product is sold, then it should be avoided other products or provide additional links to other websites. This would be a risk that the user is distracted too high. For this reason, a landing page is not even involved in the actual corporate site or the main navigation of the corporate Web site can be integrated on the landing page. If there be a cross-linking or main navigation needs, these should be distinguished optically clear. The user has to recognize at a glance that the links will take away from the landing page and has nothing to do with the actual action have. This may appear as optically hidden by a navigation, the menu items only when mouseover on a button "Company Website", or (integrated main navigation with low opacity on mouseover, the opacity is increased to a normal value) through a low contrast can be achieved.

On the question of whether a landing page is to be integrated into the actual site, there is also a contrary opinion. Representatives of this view argue that returns are not user subsequently on the landing page because they are not firmly anchored in the site. Yet I see landing pages always be a separate page, however, of the corporate Web site can be linked very supportive and also to.

Meet the expectations
If the user had to click on a switched on the landing page, this is usually an expectation. These expectations should be met. This means that the wording should be adapted to the Adwords campaign and used the images or the whole design of the graphical advertising should be adapted.

Call to Action
Call to Action describes a prominent message that the user may use the title. Like this are striking, using buttons with a clear request (for an order, etc.). Here, the graphic design is very important. The respective elements must stand out clearly as a clickable and discoverable.

Target group oriented design
Another very important point is the target group-oriented design of the landing page. So specific age should be taken into consideration and computer affinity. For senior citizens as target group, it makes perfect sense points such as accessibility, ease of use, large fonts, etc. to attach more importance than at a site for teens.

Convey seriousness
The whole landing page must be serious and also act serios. Therefore, in any case, imprint, contact details and, if present, e-commerce seal of approval to be integrated. In addition, testimonials and reviews seem positive.

Easy to operate
The ordering process must be very easy to use. Any lack of clarity can confuse potential customers and lead to a sale demolition. Therefore should be taken to ensure that the customer with as few clicks and a minimum number of filled form fields reach their objective.

Additional incentives
If the possibility of additional incentives for our customers is to create should be utilized. Thus, special offers and coupons at any initial order, etc. are prominently announced. But also a temporal shortage can have a positive impact on your conversion rate. See also my article: " shortage as a means to increase sales "

Reference to other offers
Now that's a contradiction to the first point, but depending on the offer, it can be quite useful at the end of the page to point to other offers. According to the motto: "Does this product not meet your expectations? Browse more in our offerings. "Here, however, important that this call does not compete with the product on the landing page is. Would offer such a thing as the end of a list of several products. This allows a visitor to the landing page could not be convinced, but may be excited for another product.

Other points I have this in a separate article, " Optimization of registration processes, "published in my blog.

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Posted in eCommerce , eMarketing

Design of landing pages (Part 1)

April 2

Landing pages are often designed to advertise a single product or to support a particular campaign. The basic idea is as many inquiries, orders, addresses, etc. to generate. Depending on the target, there are different approaches and variants of the corresponding landing pages. Before starting, however, should be developed in any case a concept. In this and subsequent articles I will then personally I like something like this regards.

This post will be published in 3 parts:
Rough Concept: economy, generate traffic (Part 1)
Detailed concept: Render (Part 2)
Evaluating, optimizing and Practice (Part 3)

But now enough of an introduction and get started with Part 1:

Rough Concept: economy, generate traffic
How will users be directed to the new landing page? The best landing page is of course pointless without visitors. Conventional methods for this are newsletter mailings, Google Adwords, with high budget and desired branding effect and banner campaigns. Aktionen oder klassische Direktmarketing Kampagnen zum Ziel führen. Furthermore, however, social media campaigns, guerrilla or traditional direct marketing campaigns result in the target. Package can not be answered, and always depends on the target audience and product.

Traffic is generated in most cases also associated with a cost, should be considered in the design and coordinated with the planned sales targets.
von EUR 0,60 entspricht das ca. 16.666 Clicks via Google Adwords. For example, could be invested EUR 10,000.00 in Google Adwords, assuming a CPC of EUR 0.60 which is about 16 666 Clicks corresponds via Google Adwords.
10.000,00 Gewinn erzielt werden um profitabel zu sein. Therefore must be reached on these 16 666 clicks more than EUR 10,000.00 profit in order to be profitable.
All business administration will probably curse me now for this miscalculation, but I'm feeling here only to show which way to go about the whole thing was.
Of course it is at the beginning of many values ​​is difficult to assess but can gain experience you will always get closer to realistic values, and can sometimes detect early problems.

The following elements should be included in the concept:

  • Definition of all actions relating to budget with concrete
  • Measurable objectives
  • Assessment of the economy
  • Definition of a schedule, with key milestones

schätzen. One more tip: the estimated cost CPC on Google Adwords can be relatively well within Google Adwords Traffic Estimator tool on the estimate. The necessary keyword research you can even grab still in the same concept with pure.

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Posted in eCommerce , eMarketing