For the last week I have been scouring some sites for best practices. During my search I have come across the occasional moment of interest. But more often I have found great ideas that weren’t fully executed. Fantastic puzzle pieces that never create the whole picture. Missed opportunities for sites to really shine.
This got me thinking about what makes up a best practice. Here’s my take: 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→
Overall: IBM.com
Usability: IBM.com
Content, Features & Capabilities: HP.com
But the siteIQ eBusiness Index is always about more than just rankings, ratings, and numbers. So what’s the story about what happened over the past 12 months? Here’s the rundown from first place to last: Read More→
With some best practices and innovations in store.Recently Marty Gruhn and I put IBM.com’s new mega-menu under the microscope and the results were…well…less than stellar. But a couple accidental slips of my cursor exposed some other new designs and approaches that are well worth taking a spin around the IBM.com site.
Navigation first, content second. If you click on one of the artfully hidden “all” links in IBM.com’s mega-menu (i.e. “all solutions” or “all services”) you will land on a page that is so simply designed and elegant that you will think you landed on a different site. You didn’t. This is the highest of the high levels of the new IBM.com. Sophisticated design aside, what is most notable is how the page is focused solely on navigating to the rest of the site. Broad, big-bucket links take visitors to more specific information, while the content only sets the context. Read More→
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→
Think you know how to design the perfect home page? Engineer the most efficient Website architecture? Think again. Because SAP.com has changed all the rules of the game.What would you think if someone told you they could eliminate the first 3 layers of your site? The blizzard of landing pages. Semi-redundant content. Pesky page load times. All of it.
Sounds impossible? It’s not. Read More→
Kenna posted four new case studies last week – all around IBM.com’s Smarter Planet zone and the new “cult of personality” we see on this site. If you haven’t spent some quality time on this piece of IBM.com real estate, it’s time to dust your dancing shoes off and go for a spin.
Each of the case studies focuses on a different design or content best practice—but for my money, the “cult of personality” discussion is a compelling moment of brilliance. It looks like the IBM Smarter Planet team has actually cracked the code on how to marry social media behaviors with the company’s core business propositions. Here’s a thirty second summary of Kenna’s POV.
In a world where content has been king, white space design is the new tail that wags the dog.I’ve had space on my mind. Not the kind that Stephen Hawking talks about. The kind that’s finally getting the attention of enterprise-class Web design teams.
It is the power of white space—negative space—empty space–the void.
The importance of using white space in Website design isn’t a brand new concept. One can find plenty of blogs and examples on the subject. A couple of IT sites have also tinkered with it over the past few years. Apple.com has mastered it. Intel.com isn’t far behind.
But now the results are in regarding how negative space designs directly enhance usability. This has turned designing with white space from an avant garde concept into a usability requirement.
So what’s so great about negative space? If you aren’t into design or have been too busy with your day job to pay attention, here are the main benefits:
I can’t quite figure out why so many companies avoid putting prices on their Website. Actually, I do know. The company’s sales force wants to embargo product prices to force Web visitors to fill out that pesky contact form or engage in an online sales chat. This, they say, allows them to sell the product’s value and benefits, and work around the product’s price.
This is a big mistake. Here’s three reasons why.
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Cisco.com launched its new mega menu and fat footer designs this morning.
Its entry into these design arenas pushes both approaches well past the innovation point and on the way to becoming a competitive requirement. In other words, if mega and fat aren’t on your plan for next year, it’s time to get them on the list.
Of the two, fat footers are the closest to a tipping point, and are a great place to put all of those “must have but no room” links that stakeholders clamber to have on the home page. Mega menu adoption rates are slightly behind, but heading for a tipping point over the next 12 months. They are powerful navigation and marketing real estate for the companies that know how to use them. Read More→
