This got me thinking about what makes up a best practice. Here’s my take:

Best practices don’t accidentally happen. They are the reward gained from identifying a goal, developing or implementing the best tools, behaviors, or ideas that achieve that goal, and executing them.

Identifying the goal is important. It is the single spark that causes improvement to happen. But a goal must be changed based on resources and circumstances. Flexibility sustains momentum.

The tools and behaviors implemented don’t have to be revolutionary. They don’t even need to be new. But they must achieve the goal in the most efficient and graceful way possible. Innovation is extra credit.

But execution is the one absolute requirement. Ideas that aren’t executed don’t exist. It doesn’t matter if the final product is borne from inspiration or imitation. What matters is that it makes something better than it was. It moves the ball down the field. It achieves the goal.

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:

1. This year Oracle.com retained its title as the content “big foot” on the siteIQ eBusiness Index (1)—and this footprint worked to deliver it the first place ranking. On the other hand, a broader look at the enterprise software industry shows that Oracle.com doesn’t have any room to rest on its laurels. Now it has CA.com gunning to be an enterprise software Goliath and IBM Software is upping the usability bar. To compete in the future, Oracle.com needs to up its game.
2. Incremental change was the name of the game at CA.com. That’s not to say there were any major splashes or “ta da’s”. Just a series of re-launches and endless tweaking that ended up creating a noticeable transformation. On the other hand, one look at CA.com’s scores and rankings shows that change isn’t always a good thing. CA.com lost its #1 usability ranking (dropped to third)—and is the only site that registered a net decrease in its usability & effectiveness score.
3. IBM Software’s latest site redesign is part of IBM.com’s Centennial revamp that is trying to change all of the rules. Here, The IBM Software team’s hard work—and CA.com’s tumble—delivered it the first place usability & effectiveness ranking and the only Good Practice rating in the group. The site’s renovation also delivered more content & features—but the real story is the site’s impressive string of 13 “Good Practice” usability ratings. The fact that its online communities are now visible on the site didn’t hurt either.
4. We didn’t add Symantec.com to the enterprise software mix this year because it’s selling large, complex software solutions. We added it because the enterprise systems “big wigs” are continuing to move down market with SMB and SaaS solutions that rely on the kinds of marketing and eCommerce capabilities that have long been a Symantec.com forte. So how did Symantec.com fare when compared to its mega software brethren? On the one hand, there’s no doubt that Symantec’s content & features are the size of a newt (relatively speaking). On the other hand, Symantec.com proves that small can be mighty. It usability & effectiveness debuted at second place—which proves that it knows how to capitalize on every single asset.
5. In April the German giant SAP.com unveiled a ginormous make-over that is still a work in progress. But if early scores are any indication, this new site is likely to give other sites a run for their money. Within a month of launch, this partial implementation was already moving the site’s content and usability & effectiveness scoring needles in the right direction. It ranks fifth to be sure—but its strong showing tells us that SAP.com will be a serious competitor within the next 12 months.
6. SAS.com’s scores paint a picture of a site that is running hard to stay in place. Here, substantial corporate marketing-class additions and improved communities visibility delivered the largest increase in overall content, features & capabilities scores—but burning the content midnight oil didn’t move its usability & effectiveness scores one whit. It ends up in 6th place (that’s dead last) with a 50.96% score and two stars (below average).

There’s plenty more rankings & ratings – and our take on the evaluation results – in our new Enterprise Software Report.

(1) Note: Oracle.com’s hardware product areas (a.k.a. Sun Microsystems hardware & systems) were not reviewed for this industry segment.

Subscribers Login Here.
Non-subscribers can learn more about The Library here.

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:

1. IBM.com lost sole ownership of its first place position–and with that some bragging rights. Although they added another “Best Practice” rating under their belt, they lost three “Good Practice” ratings due to HP.com’s massive site footprint—which only got larger over the past year. Nevertheless, IBM.com still holds its own—albeit by a margin that is half of what it used to be.
2. Believe it or not, HP.com has a lot to crow about. It garnered a first place ranking for Content, Features & Capabilities, making it the most robust enterprise systems site on the siteIQ Index. It also added another “Best Practice” rating in eCommerce, bringing its total up from two to three. However these accolades can’t hide a dismal ranking in site usability, which just happens to be what really counts this year. Just goes to show, just because your site is big doesn’t mean its usable.
3. Not surprisingly, Dell.com spent the last 12 months focused on core marketing and selling requirements: product marketing, online communities, call to action, and eCommerce. This has always been its tactical modus operandi. Overall improvements in corporate marketing areas are also evident—the most notable being a massive increase in its investor relations.
4. Oracle.com added site content and features across every area of the site—except support. Meanwhile usability scores stayed flat. However, the scoring trend shows that Oracle.com tends to do a more with less. In general, areas that had fewer content additions showed stronger usability scores than zones that went through major overhauls.
5. EMC.com’s story of the past year is largely one of treading water. With the exception of its tanking online support scores, all other areas received minor investments in content and features that resulted in minor upticks in its usability scores. Corporate and product marketing areas got the most attention. Corporate blogs made the biggest splash—from being a no-show in 2010 to a score of almost 60% in 2011.
6. In the past 12 months Intel.com introduced the barest glimmer of an eCommerce facility and corporate blogs area. These two additions alone are responsible for virtually all of Intel.com’s scoring increases over the past year. Most other categories registered less than 1% change in content or usability scoring. (1)

To get all the gritty details–star ratings, competitive rankings, and detailed scoring–by category, by Website, and overall–click here to buy the report.

(1) At the time of this post, Intel.com introduced a new Website that had not been launched before the siteIQ eBusiness Index Enterprise Systems evaluations. siteIQ Best Practice Case Studies detailing the Intel.com redesign launch will be available in the Best Practice Case Study Library.

Subscribers Login Here.
Non-subscribers can learn more about The Library here.

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.

Introducing the mini-menu. With the popularity of micro-site Website architectures on the rise, moving around the dot com sites is becoming a problem. Some micro-site teams don’t want the big bulky navigation panel across the top of their pages*, while others want to design something that fits their own artistic vision. Enter the mini-menu. This design zips up the highest level of the global navigation panel into a tidy drop-down menu. In IBM.com’s case, it is activated by moving the cursor over the logo—another stroke of genius.

So, do these couple of accolades mean we are changing our stance on IBM.com’s mega-menu? Nope. Today it still has the same usability problems it did then. But one bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch.

In fact, I highly recommend taking the top 2 to 3 levels of this site for a serious ride. If you bounce around long enough, you can begin to catch glimpses of the new IBM.com emerging. And if they actually pull off what it looks like they are shooting for, the new IBM.com will be a work of art—and a site to follow.

*See SAP.com’s new site (and read our post about the latest launch), some areas of Cisco.com, and the granddaddy of mega-micro-sites, Microsoft.com.

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.

Last week, Cisco.com introduced a substantially expanded support panel into its mega-menu portfolio. One look from the untrained eye will see it as stuffing 10 pounds of potatoes in a 5 pound sack—a recipe for a mega-menu disaster for any site. But, support is a different animal than marketing. It is truly task-based. More access is key—the quicker the better. That requires functionality, scannability, and a nod towards popularity. This is where Cisco.com gets it—and the gold.

Functionality | Cisco.com’s support menu didn’t just throw more links at customers. It added support links for the products and resources that customers need the most–and access to others just a click away. But the functionality that sets it apart is the support documentation and downloads search boxes, and links to open or check support cases right in the menu. That makes these features available from anywhere on the site. Now that is customer service.

Scannability | This is actually the cornerstone to the success of Cisco.com’s mega-menu. They put as much effort into its panel design as its Web pages. Links are categorized into high-level segments using common terms. Sub-categories are separated by lines that make it easy to see where each group of links begins and ends. A bit of consumer product imagery does double-duty by helping home/home office users identify their product, while spicing up the design. Customers can find what they need (or realize it isn’t in the menu) in seconds—and support is where seconds count.

Popularity | This is where Cisco.com’s support menu truly pushes the boundaries. The Downloads menu lists the most popular downloads at the time. This isn’t your Mother’s static mega-menu. Its dynamic, real-time, and addresses customer’s immediate needs. That’s real innovation.

If you are tasked with creating the “perfect” mega-menu and don’t have heartburn yet, you should. This implementation isn’t lightweight. It requires careful research, a rock-solid platform, and crystal clear objectives–hallmarks of all Cisco.com’s launches. This makes Cisco.com one to watch.

Other Stuff to Do:

Read our review of the new IBM.com mega-menu in Don’t Miss/Don’t Bother.

Subscribers can check out the detailed case study about Cisco.com’s Support mega-menu launch in the Best Practice Case Studies Library. If you are a subscriber, click here (login required).

If you are not a subscriber you can learn more about this service here.

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.

Last week SAP.com launched a monster redesign that promises to tip many rules on their head. Here’s four reasons to pay attention:

A new home page design & navigation. Believe it or not, SAP.com has been at the forefront of home page design trends for years.

When conventional designs put primary features in boxes, SAP.com made them the entire background. When mega-menus hit the airwaves, SAP.com invented the navigation mega-pane.

True to form, its latest design doesn’t introduce a totally new concept. It just executes an existing concept on a much larger, bolder scale.

Welcome to the pane-in-pane effect. The magic that totally changes the conventional Website architecture rules lies in SAP.com’s page-in-page mega-menus. This design allows visitors to browse two, and in some cases, three layers deep—without ever leaving the home page. Think of the implications. A world without long, boring landing pages. Navel gazing blather. Off the reservation designs. Long download times.

A peek into the future. One look at the site will tell you that the SAP.com site is still a work in progress, but you can see the end game in a couple of areas, such as the On-Demand CRM for Small and Medium Enterprises or On Demand Sales products. Here, SAP.com is laying the foundation for product marketing zones which operate as their own mini-sites. Sure, owners will have to color inside the lines and play inside the templates, but they will also get a clean, contemporary look and feel, plus control over their media, content, and message.

Don’t try this at home. Although SAP.com’s design is revolutionary and has some fantastic upsides, this approach isn’t for the faint of heart.  You need at least four things to pull this off—and none of them are optional.

1. Full buy-in from your boss, your boss’s boss, and stakeholders.  The first two will be easy.  The third? Not so much.
2. Execute centralized, iron-clad governance. A gulag mentality will probably work best.
3. Constantly monitor for rogue behaviors that quickly clobber the user experience. This is easier when you invest in #4.
4. Invest in a CMS system. If you don’t, you’ll go blind trying to chase stakeholders around.

SITEIQ VIEW | When you really examine the nuts and bolts of the new SAP.com site, you’ll see that it isn’t doing anything that we haven’t seen before. What sets it apart is that it’s taken a set of great ideas—and then reworked them to best effect. Used them on a grander scale. Pushed them a little farther.  Packaged them a little differently.  In the end, that’s what it takes to create a unique user experience — and a best in class Website.

The case study and video that details this re-design are available in the siteIntelligence Best Practice Library.

Subscribers Login Here.
Non-subscribers can learn more about The Library here.

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.

For the bulk of its 100 years, IBM has been the icon of the monolithic, faceless organization. The Machine. The Man. The System. This reputation was so entrenched that is employees were endowed with a unique nickname: “the blue suits”. Thus, it’s surprising – no shocking – that IBM should be the first company to successfully transform itself from a corporation into a clan. And its Website is playing no small role in its metamorphosis.

The strategy is brilliant because

• It leverages IBM’s core sales model (building relationships), gives it the golden opportunity to demonstrate expertise and passion, and translates a faceless corporation into actual people who are experts in their fields.
• It works by using photos, dynamic profiles, and links to start conversations.
• It wraps these attributes in a savvy design that takes advantage of new less is more white space trends and short, snappy & relevant content that is second to none.

And then there are the graphics. Relevant charts with factoids. Eye catching video panels. Moments of visual whimsy and delight (my favorite is the carrot that illustrates how long it takes to get from the farm to a store in California). This from that old stuffy IBM?

Library subscribers can read more about how and why this site works, view a video, and download these case studies at http://bit.ly/eOMKjU. Have your log in credentials handy—or contact us if you’ve forgotten them.

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:

• Pages are easier to scan
• Navigation options are easier to identify
• Visitor response times are quicker
• Content is easier to read

The (hopeful) end result? Better traffic metrics on non-sales content, better time-to-purchase ratios, and happier visitors and customers.

It’s easy for relatively small sites to jump on this design trend, and quickly reap the usability rewards. For large enterprise-class sites where marketing, cajoling, and negotiating are the paths to progress, this transition is going to require some fundamental behavioral shifts – and is likely to be a bumpy (did I say really bumpy?) ride.

Why? Let me count the ways.

Negative space design will severely limit the space available for the mountain of features, marketing manifestos, and grab bag links found on every enterprise-class Website. This, in turn, will require content managers and stakeholders to slash marketing content, keep it on point, and fit into designs that allow visitors to cut to the chase.

Negative space design means that the same number of stakeholders will compete for less space on important pages, and will have to adhere to stricter design guidelines. Global Web organizations will have yet another standard to enforce [yippee!] – plus a cavalcade of aggrieved stakeholders who want to share 500 reasons why they shouldn’t comply.

Barriers aside, negative space is a design trend that cannot be ignored. Its usability benefits are too profound. Its impact on Website design too far reaching. It’s a trend that will revolutionize and define best-practice-class sites over the next 24 months.

Want to learn more about designing with white space? Here are some great sites to peruse about the subject and gain inspiration:

• Whitespace | Great article from A List Apart that defines “white space” in design and provides useful examples.
• Using White Space Effectively in Web Design | A great tutorial from Web Design Tuts on the elements of white space design and how to use them.
• Give me my Web space | Considerations, applications, and words to the wise from Website maven Molly E. Holzschlag
• Finding Information on the Web: Does the Amount of Whitespace Really Matter? | An informative brief about the effects of white space design on Website usability, including user testing results, from the Software Usability Research Laboratory at Wichita State University.

Most companies need to rethink their online price & lead generation strategies. Ignoring the sales force is the first step.

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.

Price pre-qualifies if the visitor is a real prospect (need and ability to buy) or simply a window shopper.

Lowers the costs of sales by sifting out the wannabees from the winners, which focuses the sales force on real prospects who have the budget to buy.

And here’s the third (and all important) reason. Creating an avalanche of unqualified leads requires salespeople to cherry pick through them trying to deduce which ones fit their requirements—and which they are going to ignore. This, in turn, leads to a cacophony of complaints from the sales force that the Website isn’t generating enough quality leads. What they conveniently forget, of course, is that they brought themselves to the pity party.

For those who can’t or won’t publish prices (or have complex products that require a lot of additional bells and whistles) here’s an alternative approach that works. Use the “starting at” pricing gambit. You’ll find that this simple change will instantly filter out the wheat from the chaff – and allow more qualified buyers to plop right into your prospect pipeline.

Click on this graph to see a lightbox of all best practices

Innovative twists on an emerging trend

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.

But back to Cisco, which provides some interesting variations on emerging themes. Important assets that were once hidden inside the site are now front and center. Direct links to Cisco.com’s stores. Fast paths to find a partner. Cisco’s primary product categories, industry focus and the ability to browse by company size.

But the really brilliant behaviors can be seen in the products & services and support mega menus. Rather than throw out a blizzard of well-organized links, Cisco.com’s new products & services mega menu contextualizes Cisco’s massive product portfolio by target market – with some nice interactive behaviors thrown into the mix. The support mega menu allows users to search for product support right from the home page – and brings previously invisible support zones (SMB and Linksys) directly into the visitor’s view.

Although not Web 3.0 per se (although Cisco.com is a leader here), these mega menu designs are part of a couple of important design trends.

First and foremost, they flatten a Website by allowing visitors to bypass (often dysfunctional) landing pages and drill directly into the site. In essence, it creates a Website that is perceivably flatter and less cumbersome for visitors to drive and use. As important, these techniques free up valuable home page real estate so companies can promote and market their wares. In Cisco.com’s case, it has also used some of this real estate to create an elegant home for those gnarly news feeds and important social media connections.

So what’s missing from Cisco.com’s new mega and fat design? From a home page perspective, not much. Inside the site, however, is a different story. In a perfect world, these savvy navigation capabilities would be persistent across the Cisco.com site (see Juniper.net and Novell.com for examples). Once Cisco.com achieves this objective, it will have some of the best global navigation behaviors across the sites we watch.