Overall: IBM Global Services
Usability & Effectiveness: IBM Global Services
Content, Features & Capabilities: Accenture.com
The ripples of IBM.com’s latest site redesign reached the professional services segment this year and has rocked Accenture.com’s first place ranking. The question now is whether or not the tide will turn in 2012. Here’s the rundown from first place to last: Read More→
Overall: Symantec.com
Usability & Effectiveness: Symantec.com
Content, Features & Capabilities: Microsoft.com
Each business software site’s redesign over the past year has caused content and features to shrink on a huge scale. But did these diets help the sites’ usability scores? At least one Website should think so. Here’s the rundown from first place to last: Read More→
Overall: Cisco.com
Usability & Effectiveness: Cisco.com
Content, Features & Capabilities: Cisco.com
Site refreshes, redesigns, and company acquisitions. All were in play in the networking systems segment last year. Did these facelifts improve these site’s usability? Did HP’s acquisition of 3Com give the old ProCurve site a new lease on life? Here’s the rundown from first place to last: Read More→
Overall: Oracle.com
Usability & Effectiveness: IBM Software Group
Content, Features & Capabilities: Oracle.com
With two companies performing complete site overhauls–and one nudging its site into place over the past year—rankings were bound to change in 2011. So which sites were the major movers and shakers over the past 12 months? Which ones are the sites to watch through 2012? Here’s the rundown from first place to last: Read More→
This week, we took the new Intel.com site for a spin. Let’s just say there’s more (and less) to this site than meets the eye.Intel.com’s latest redesign is like buying an exotic car. It is visually striking, can be fun to drive, and has more bells and whistles than other cars on the road. But going exotic has tradeoffs. Choosing to pass on getting the full options package can leave the driving experience far less exciting than advertised. In fact, it may even break down–always in inconvenient locations. And the unique controls and design that seems edgy and innovative in the beginning quickly become confusing and irritating.
When Cisco.com launched its mega-menu last year it set the best practice bar—and it was high. The mega-menu provided greater access into a large (and sometimes unwieldy) site. Its design was easy to scan and use. And, it was also attractive—which is no small feat in a small space. In the siteIQ blog Cisco launches drop down mega menus & fat footers, we applauded the design and architecture of its Product and Services menu. This post welcomes the Support menu into the best practice fold. Read More→
You’d think that all support sites are created equal. If so, you’d be wrong.Turns out that support sites that target home and home office customers are very different than those that target large enterprises. Different features, architectures, strengths, and challenges. In fact, they are horses of a completely different color.
One would think that this observation would be a no brainer. Turns out, it’s a challenge for a lot of companies — especially major enterprise players that are wading into the consumer markets, including Cisco.com and CA.com. But, well-known consumer stalwarts, such as Dell.com and HP.com, haven’t broken the technical support code either. Simple fact, “one-size-fits-all” support thinking will get you into plenty of trouble.
We’re putting the finishing touches on a new best practice case study report that identifies the best of the best in home and home office markets. Companies like Apple.com and Adobe.com, plus outstanding support zones at Dell Home & Home Office, HP Home & Home Office, Symantec Norton, McAfee Home & Home Office, and Cisco Home Networking.
Kenna will be filling you in on some of the key details from her drive across the IT Web and her deep dives into these great sites. She tells me that the devil’s in the tricky details. Stay tuned.
Once upon a time, search was a lot like socks. One of the basics you need to operate a well-dressed Website.
Search has also been pretty simple. Put out a box, fiddle with some “advanced search” explanations, spend some quality man-months meta-tagging mountains of content — and let the rest take care of itself.
That is, until today.
Just in case you haven’t checked, search isn’t your father’s Oldsmobile anymore. A new roster of features & capabilities are changing the rules. Read More→
I’m always getting questions about which site has the best search capabilities in the IT industry. For my money, the answer is Sun.com. Here’s why.
Sun's redesigned search pages still deliver an industry best practice. Detailed content category, type, format and language filters make navigating results a snap
Sun.com’s search design is very effective for delivering mountains of organized and logical search results because it sorts and presents information based on common categories as well as resource type or affiliation. Each category-specific page clearly indicates the number of results found within the category — and each list opens to display additional subcategories.
The “Search Help” link leads to useful, instructive information that is designed to help visitors construct a search that will yield the most relevant results. This page also includes several search hints designed to assist visitors in entering the most accurate key words or phrases that will yield the results they require.
Best of all, Sun.com offers an advanced site search feature under the “More Options” link that provides users with some truly unique capabilities. Users can specify that returned pages meet specific file format criteria (.PDF, XML, Text, HTML), and can also specify content written in up to 13 different languages.
