In case you missed it, the Symantec.com team has launched an interesting refresh. Think of it as a new top layer over what is essentially three totally different Symantec microsites that march to the tune of their own drummers: Norton.com (one of our perennial favorites that always “gets it”), its SMB site (did I mention we like Norton?) and a new enterprise home page (cleaner, but hardly pushing on anybody’s envelope).
Our intrepid case studies team has been reviewing this refresh and there are new case studies in the Library. A little birdie tells me there are plenty of lessons to be learned.
Meanwhile, I thought I’d take you for a spin through one of this refresh’s good practices. I like to call it the “Let’s Make a Deal” front door.
You’ll see what I mean the instant you land on the Symantec.com site. A lightbox invites you to enter the site based on your affiliation (company size, relationship) or brand (Norton).
At first blush, you might think this is just another expensive bright and shiny object. You’d be wrong.
Why? Let’s go back to my comment about Symantec.com being a federation of microsites (which is, by the way, the bane of any dotcom team trying to manage a cohesive company experience). In this case, the lightbox plays a huge role in directing traffic to the right Symantec microsite. You have four doors – and (hopefully) everybody fits into one.
So what’s the catch? Don’t pick the wrong door or you’ll end up running around like a mouse in a maze.
One confusion point is that the enterprise microsite is the default home page – instead of a global brand home page that lets you navigate to the different brands.
And don’t stumble into the Norton zone by accident. It doesn’t even acknowledge that any other Symantec site exists.
Thus, there are a couple of lessons to learn. Playing “Let’s Make a Deal” on your home page can be a good thing. But if you are going to go down this path keep two more things in mind. Back up your design decision with a one-size-directs-all home page — and make sure that every zone on the site provides a hand off to everybody else.
