NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> _at_d.Tech.Chicago: 7/30/98 - Report #9
ONLINE-ADS>> _at_d.Tech.Chicago: 7/30/98 - Report #9
richard_at_tenagra.com
Fri, 31 Jul 1998 09:35:19 -0500 (CDT)
_at_d.Tech.Chicago
Report 9
July 30, 1998
This is the ninth in a series of 10 reports from Richard Hoy, who
covered _at_d.Tech.Chicago. You will receive these reports in addition
to your normal Online Ads posts/digests.
This coverage is archived at:
http://www.o-a.com/adtech.Chicago/adtechChig-archive.html
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This conference coverage is generously underwritten by:
AdKnowledge makes planning, placing and tracking web advertising easy.
If the web spells chaos to you when it comes to developing a web media
plan, it's time to check out MarketMatch and SmartBanner from
AdKnowledge. Find out how to automate the entire web advertising
process from pre-planning to billing and everything in between. Gain
control over your campaigns with a single point of contact. Save time
and money with the experience and know-how of AdKnowledge. Contact us
today!
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phone: 1-800-286-6778
URL: http://www.adknowledge.com/
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INTERNET MARKETING TIP: WHAT I LEARNED JUDGING THE _at_D:TECH AWARDS
-- by Cliff Kurtzman
In addition to orchestrating the Tenagra Awards each year,
this year I was also invited to serve as a judge for the 1998
_at_d:Tech Awards. These awards were presented at the _at_d:Tech
Chicago Conference in May along with the Tenagra Awards.
While the Tenagra Awards recognize high-level achievements
that fundamentally impact the way marketing is done on the
Internet, the _at_d:Tech Awards judge specific creative efforts
in a variety of different areas.
Tenagra is frequently hired by clients to evaluate their Web
sites, so I expected that judging these awards would be
pretty straightforward. But when Tenagra undertakes a
formal Web site evaluation, it is a rather extensive
undertaking. We put together a team of people with
backgrounds in the areas of online marketing, public
relations, Web design and information systems. We then
generate a report that evaluates the Web site from the
point-of-view of content design, architectural design,
graphic design and its ability to meet strategic
objectives.
For the _at_d:Tech Awards, I was asked to rate, over a very
short period of time, a total of 47 entries in the
categories of Best Sales Generating Site; Best Interactive
Design; and Best Overall Creative Design. Obviously, it was
not feasible to go through anything approaching the same
kind of formal evaluation process that we use in a standard
Web site evaluation. It reminded me a good bit of playing
speed chess, where many of the usual strategies and thought
processes used in playing regular chess must go out the
window in order to beat the clock and your opponent.
On the other hand, I discovered there is a lot that can be
learned by spending just a few minutes on a Web site. Web
surfers typically expect instant gratification, and if they
cannot find what they are looking for on a Web site in a
very short period of time, then they are usually "out of
there" and on to another site. So my quick evaluation
process, in many ways, mirrored the evaluation process that
Web surfers typically go through when looking for
interesting or useful content on the Web.
All the Web sites I was asked to evaluate were
professionally created. Most were created by Web
development, Web marketing or advertising agencies, but some
were also created by in-house groups. In each case, the
developers must have felt that the effort was good enough
to be worth spending the $150 entry fee for a shot at winning
a Bronze, Silver or Gold award. Further, it was obvious
that many of the Web sites that had been submitted for the
award had been created with very significant budgets (i.e.,
well over $100K).
Many of the entries I evaluated were wonderful examples of
Web design, and I'll describe some of them below. But I was
also somewhat surprised by how many flawed entries there
were. Some of them were so lacking in usability that it
only took two or three minutes on the site to come to the
conclusion that they were not award contenders. Some of the
more glaring problems included:
* There were several Web sites where I had great difficulty
figuring out what the purpose of the Web site was and what
audience it was attempting to serve.
* In nearly every Web site that I evaluated that had used
frames, they were used in such a manner that significantly
detracted from the experience of visiting the Web site.
Problems included non-intuitive interfaces, slowness, and
windows that were too small to include a significant amount
of useful content on my screen without up/down or
right/left scrolling. In nearly all cases, good Web design
could have accomplished the designer's original objectives
without the need for frames or their associated problems.
* Lack of respect for a full range of typical users. With
only the rarest of exceptions, a Web site should be designed
to be usable by someone with an older computer over a modem
connection. I recall evaluating a consumer oriented Web
site for a major car manufacturer, and clicking on a link
only to get a surprise message telling me that to view the
link I needed some esoteric plug-in I had never seen before.
After finding and installing the plug-in, I clicked again on
the link only to see a 15-megabyte file start downloading to
my computer. I'm sure the site worked great over the Web
designer's Ethernet with a state-of-the-art computer and
wide-screen display, but for a broad consumer audience this
site was nearly worthless.
* Splash screens are nearly always an annoyance. A splash
screen is a very low content Web page that serves as a
gateway to a Web site. After a short period of time or
after clicking on the splash page, the Web site visitor
finally gets to the "real home page." Clicking on the
splash screen supposedly gets the Web site visitor
"involved" with the content and interacting with the site.
In reality, these screens are often self-serving monuments
that prevent Web site users from finding what they need
quickly. If you have ever built a Web site with a splash
page and looked at your Web logs to see how many people punt
the site after seeing no useful content on the splash page,
you will never use one again.
* Web sites that thought they were print or TV ads. Wrong.
This is a very different medium, and needs to be used in
very different ways than print or TV. There were quite a
number of very elaborately produced Web sites that showed a
lack of understanding of how to use the medium to
communicate. Nearly all the sites that fit into this
category were designed by large ad agencies, although there
were a number of well-designed sites from large ad
agencies as well.
But not all was bad -- there were quite a number of wonderful
Web sites too. One trend I noted was that nearly all the
Web sites that were either for or about an audience under
the age of 15 were very well done. There were two reasons
for this: the Web designers had made a real effort to keep
the design simple; and the Web designers often approached
their subject matter with a great deal of humor. It is a
rare site that would not benefit from an appropriate light
touch or bit of humor in the right place. The lesson
learned from this is that, if you design a Web site so
a 12-year-old will find it easy and enjoyable to navigate,
most everyone else will be okay with it too. Child-test
your Web site.
Some of the winning sites that were children oriented included:
Gold Medal for Best Audience Building Campaign
Silver Medal for Best Branding Campaign
The Huggies Web Site
http://www.huggies.com/
Gold Medal for Best Interactive Design
The Chevron Toy Cars Web Site
http://www.chevroncars.com/
Silver Medal for Best Sales Generation Web Site
Christian Children's Fund USA Organization
http://www.ccfusa.org/
Bronze Medal for Best Interactive Design
Cadbury Chocolate: The Land of Cadbury
http://www.cadbury.chocolate.ca/easter
Bronze Medal for Best Overall Creative Design
The Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory
http://www.wonka.com/
There were other sites that came across as extremely well
designed because they consistently conveyed the look, feel
and message of the organization in a way that was attractive,
clear and easy to navigate. Mercedes Benz USA's Web site
( http://www.mbusa.com/ ), which drove home with the Gold
Medal for Best Overall Creative Design, just reeks of the
kind of class you would expect from Mercedes Benz on each
and every page, and the pages have been optimized to load
quickly in spite of the large graphics used.
Tektronix' Colorize.com site ( http://www.colorize.com/ )
won the Silver Medal for Best Overall Creative Design. This
site also creates a strong and consistent visual appeal --
although the site would have been even better if frames had
been completely avoided.
Garden.com ( http://www.garden.com/ ) won the "Best of Show"
award along with the Gold Medal for Best Sales Generating
Site. A beautiful site planted on a firm foundation of
attractive design and intuitive navigation, and fertilized
with lots of useful information and solid marketing
strategies. Learn from their success and, as ye sow, so
shall ye reap!
This ends the ninth report of _at_d.Tech.Chicago. Stay tuned for a final
in-depth session analysis.
======================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This conference coverage is generously underwritten by:
AdKnowledge makes planning, placing and tracking web advertising easy.
If the web spells chaos to you when it comes to developing a web media
plan, it's time to check out MarketMatch and SmartBanner from
AdKnowledge. Find out how to automate the entire web advertising
process from pre-planning to billing and everything in between. Gain
control over your campaigns with a single point of contact. Save time
and money with the experience and know-how of AdKnowledge. Contact us
today!
e-mail: mailto:info_at_adknowledge.com
phone: 1-800-286-6778
URL: http://www.adknowledge.com/
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