ETD: 952 What Site Visitors Find Annoying; Fixed Width or
Liquid Sites?; Building the Ideal Product Page
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Wed Feb 1 20:46:55 GMT 2006
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0952 February 2, 2006
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] What Site Visitors Find Annoying
[3] Fixed Width or Liquid Sites?
[4] Building the Ideal Product Page
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
We're building news sites for two clients, and I
thought I would share some of our experiences.
With one client (not-for-profit), the National
Director wants a "jazzy" site - lot's of action,
music, Flash, etc. We had the most difficult
time trying to explain how those "features" are
not conducive to finding your site in search
engines. He was not convinced, and said
"everybody is doing it." It was coming to the
point where we were ready to resign from the
account. Then a miracle happened: he saw a
template that he loved, so we got a demo copy and
I loaded it on his laptop. As soon as he opened
it, he had nothing, as XP blocked pop-ups! I
finally convinced him that in the real world,
folks have pop-ups blocked and will not see your
site if it is Flash. (One of our new list
members has the same problem right now). It may
look beautiful, and may even win the designer an
award, but in reality it will not draw traffic.
In researching for these clients, I cam across
three pieces of information that is helpful to
sell out point, and to get them to realize what works and what doesn't.
The first is a survey of 2,500 people who tell
what is annoying to them when they visit your
site. And they say what they will do if they
come upon one of these annoyances.
The second is one of design. Should you use a
fixed width size or a liquid (variable)
width? Should the site expand to the size of my
screen, or be in a fixed width format? What do you think?
The third is from renowned Internet usability
guru Jakob Nielsen, who has been commenting on
usability since the Internet began. He used to
rank sites and award medals. The problem was if
your site was poor, he said so, and it remained
on his site for everyone to see. We were brave
enough to submit one of our sites way back when,
and I am proud to say we got a silver ranking (gold was highest).
So, if you are re-evaluating your offerings, take
heed. This digest could be most important to you.
I'll keep you posted on our progress.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, LLC
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] What Site Visitors Find Annoying
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Market research firm TNS, part of NFO WorldGroup,
Inc. conducted a survey online on behalf of
Hostway Corporation to learn the pet peeves
visitors have when visiting a site. Hostway's
national Pet Peeve survey assembled a list of 15
irritating website practices and asked those
surveyed to rank what they found most irritating.
93.1% Pop-up ads
88.8% Requiring the installation of extra
software to view the site (e.g., Flash, Adobe, etc)
86.0% Dead links
84.4% Confusing navigation hard to find pages, too many clicks
83.1% Requirement to register and log-on before viewing the Web site
83.0% Slow-loading pages
82.4% Content that is out of date
80.3% Ineffective site search tool
76.0% Inability to use the browser’s “back” button
75.1% No contact information available (Web form only)
69.4% Overdone sites unnecessary splash/flash screens or animation
59.9% Text that moves
54.9% Poor appearance colors, fonts, format
52.5% Music or other audio that plays automatically
38.4% Opening a new window for a link
The survey then asked what the visitor would do
When they encounter a company whose Web site has
the “pet peeve” identified in the previous question.
76.7% said they refuse to visit the site again.
74.2% said they would unsubscribe from promotions or messages from the company
71.3% would view the company in a negative way
71.0% refuse to purchase from that Web site
54.9% will complain about the Web site to friends/associates
45.1% refuse to purchase from the company’s
brick-and-mortar store (if applicable)
Only 24.8% would complain to the company.
http://www.hostway.com/media/survey/petpeeves.html
Source: Market research firm TNS, part of NFO
WorldGroup, Inc. conducted a survey online on
behalf of Hostway Corporation between July 7 and
11, 2005 among a nationally representative sample
of 2,500 U.S. adults, aged 18 and older selected
from TNS-NFO ACCESS panel. "Survey says ...
Internet pet peeves: what drives customers away
from your e-business." Press Release. Hostway.
August 1, 2005.
http://www.hostway.com/aboutus/press_releases/2005/07012005.html
Ratings were based on a five-point scale from 1
(not at all annoying) to 5 (extremely annoying).
Percentages cited combine responses of 4 (very)
and 5 (extremely). For more information about
TNS, please visit www.tns-global.com
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[3] Fixed Width or Liquid Sites?
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When developing a web site, one of the initial
considerations is whether to use a fixed-width layout or a liquid layout.
Fixed-width layouts, as the term suggests, are
sites where the main content area of the layout
and design has a static pixel width. One example
of a fixed-width site is www.redenvelope.com.
While the content area does remain in the center
of the browser window when the browser window is
resized, the actual width of the content area does not change.
Liquid layouts describe sites where the entire
layout of the site stretches or shrinks to fill
the entire browser window when the browser window
is resized. One example of a liquid site is
www.amazon.com. While the left and right columns
have the same width, the center content area
resizes and flexes according to the width of the browser window.
Other sites, such as the home page of PixelMill
http://www.pixelmill.com/, combine liquid
elements (the header and footer) with a
fixed-width content area. For the purpose of this
document, layouts such as the home page of
PixelMill will be considered as fixed-width
sites, since the main content area is fixed-width.
Pros and Cons
A liquid layout will usually help a site to be
more accessible by being “device-independent”
that is, it won't matter if your user has an
800x600 resolution monitor or a 1600x1200
resolution monitor. Your site will expand to fill
the screen in either case, so users with smaller
screens won't have a horizontal scroll bar as
they might with a fixed-width site that was wider than their screen.
Liquid layouts are also helpful in cases where
maximum real-estate of the screen is preferable.
For e-commerce sites and catalog layout pages,
liquid layouts are often used because you can
display more products across the screen. One
example is the catalog layout used at
www.pixelmill.com. When the screen is smaller,
two products are shown. As the screen is resized
to be larger, the products “wrap” so that more products are shown.
Liquid layouts, however, result in less control
over the layout of a web site. As the text and
content expand to fill a screen, you lose control
over where text and images show up. From a
marketing standpoint, you then have less control
over what your viewer sees, and are less able to
guide your viewer visually to what you wish them
to focus on. It is for this reason that many
major e-commerce sites choose to at least have
the main pages use fixed-width layout. With
fixed-width layout, you can position ads more
easily, create an area that is the main focus
visually, and have a better “wow” factor.
(Amazon.com is one of the major companies who
chooses not to go for a wow factor, interestingly
enough, and sticks with their liquid but not as attractive layout.)
Liquid layouts can also make a site less usable
when displaying articles or long blocks of text.
Narrower columns of text are easier to read
because the eye doesn't have to travel as far to
go back to the left side to the next line of
text. Many news providers, blogs, and other
providers of content will have fixed-width content areas for this reason.
Recommendation
We recommend both liquid layouts and fixed
layouts, and even a mixture of both, depending on
what the purpose of your site or pages are and what your market is like.
If your site is mainly an e-commerce site, with
most pages being in a catalog layout, then a
liquid layout for your catalog pages will give
you the maximum use of screen space. You may
consider a fixed-width layout for the home page
only if you will be marketing heavily on the home page.
If your site will have a lot of text content,
then a fixed-width layout is probably better for most pages.
The PixelMill site itself demonstrates this
flexible use of both fixed-width and liquid
layouts. The home page and main product category
pages use a fixed-width layout which allows for
precise placement of content and images. The
support article pages also use a fixed-width
layout for more legible text. The actual catalog
pages which display multiple products from search
results, however, use a liquid layout to use as
much screen space as possible when viewing products.
Think about your market and the purpose of each
page in your site, and determine which pages
would benefit from a fixed-width layout or a liquid layout.
Corrie Haffly,
PixelMill Staff Writer
http://www.pixelmill.com/(9cp6v05y1lroqhpbepe2hmjh)/support/support_article.aspx?ArticleID=kb101620
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[4] Building the Ideal Product Page
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Jakob Nielsen, a leading Internet usability guru,
offers his advice on the essential principles of
product page design. A well-built product page
must include certain key elements:
» It has a clearly descriptive title, and if possible a photo
Any search engine expert will tell you that a
page's title is how it's found in search engines,
so a descriptive title is a must in a product
page's title and text. As for the photo, it's
best if a shopper can click to enlarge it, and
that this enlarged photo is significantly bigger,
not just a little bigger. (And to enlarge the
photo, the shopper should be given the choice of
clicking the image itself or a "click to enlarge" link.)
When the enlarged photo appears, it should be
accompanied by the same (or more) product
information as the small photo — don't ever leave
the information behind. And the enlarged photo
should definitely include a 'Buy' button.
Ideally, the alternate photos should show
different views, allowing the shopper to visually
"stroll around" the item. Nielsen describes the
ideal product photo as "big, detailed and free of
visual distraction." (And if that picture doesn't
reveal all the product's details, accompanying text should fully describe it.)
» It provides ALL the information a shopper will need
A product page should include not only a detailed
list of product attributes (with a nearby link to
still more information) but also final cost,
including, if feasible, shipping charges and tax.
In Nielsen's consumer research studies, 11
percent of "sales catastrophes" (a failure to
make a sale) were due to the product page not
providing enough information. Also important:
avoid jargon or industry-specific lingo.
» It states product availability and, when appropriate, delivery time
You've ruined a customer relationship when you
force a customer to go through check out to
discover that the item won't ship for three
weeks. On the other hand, letting them know the
item is "in-stock" and "usually ships same day"
is an attractive offer. "The bottom line is that
the product page should clearly indicate whether
an item is in stock, and if it is not, the page
should explain the situation," Nielsen notes.
Lack of information about ship date and
availability "really lowers willingness to buy."
» It links to your site's guarantee policy, and,
if possible, the manufacturer's warranty
Many experts have noted that a prominently
displayed guarantee policy, with a money-back
offer, is a trust builder (and hence a sales
builder). In fact, many design gurus say that
guarantees should be on every page of a site, not just the product pages.
» The no-brainer: a prominently displayed 'Buy' button
If shoppers can't get it into the shopping cart —
easily — they're not going to buy it. Remarkably,
in Nielsen's studies of consumer interactions
with e-commerce sites, "We've had cases where
people haven't been able to find out how to buy,
because it's so complicated." His study found
that six percent of sales catastrophes were
created by a user's difficulty getting the item into the cart.
Jakob Nielsen: http://www.useit.com/
More information on site design...
http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/building/article.php/3579196
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