Independent Thinking » Web design

What British Airways Web Site Teaches Us About Smart Design

Daria Steigman — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:05:21 +0000

British Airways has apparently never heard of Gerry McGovern.

McGovern won my heart when I heard him describe what Google’s home page would look like if it were a typical corporate home page. (Think ”Hi, I’m Sergey” and “Latest News: Announcing Google+”). Google knows people go to the site to search–so there’s a can’t-miss search bar in the middle of the page with lots of white space around it.

The point is that the customer’s top task is search–and Google makes it easy for us to do that.

British Airways is burying what customers want.

There are three main reasons people go to an airline Web site:

Ticket information
Online check-in
Current flight information

The flight information is buried 3 clicks into the site. What? And it’s not updated. (Double) Whaaat?

This matters to your customers.

My dad was flying back from London the other day. My mom called me 90 minutes after he was due to arrive back in Washington. She’d called the airline, only to be told that the flight didn’t exist. I logged onto the Web site, eventually found the flight status page, plugged in the flight number, and got the original departure and arrival information. At this point, I started to wonder whether the plane was flying over the Bermuda Triangle.

Fortunately, Dulles International Airport has accurate flight information–and the link is right on the home page. So I was able to learn that the plane had left London late and was due to arrive shortly. Ten minutes later my dad’s flight landed and he called home.

Make sure what’s most important to your client, customer, or prospect is front and center. A Bermuda Triangle moment isn’t fun–and it can cost you business.

Photo by puuikibeach (Flickr).

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How Not to Be Dumb, Slow, and Expensive

Daria Steigman — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:06:55 +0000

When a colleague asked me whether I wanted to review David Siteman Garland‘s new book I did what every Web-savvy marketer would do: I went to Amazon to read the reviews. I got no further than the author’s own video introduction.

In other words, he found a smart, fast, and cheap way to hook me in.

Garland lays out the premise of Smarter, Faster, Cheaper on page 1:

When you break down all the fluff, there are two ways to promote and market your business: dumber, slower, and expensive–or smarter, faster, and cheaper.

The other point Garland makes is that savvy entrepreneurs and smart business owners can compete against big brands. (Sometimes we even have an edge.):

Lean companies are at a distinct advantage in the new world of business building, marketing, and promoting, because they aren’t required to ask a board of 739 people before posting something online… David has been given a slingshot and can outmaneuver Goliath.

Faster, Smarter, Cheaper is filled with marketing advice about being human, building trust, growing your community, and leveraging social platforms to expand your reach and demonstrate your uber-smarts. While the book seems aimed at newbies, there’s plenty of advice for seasoned business owners and marketers alike.

In fact, the book saved me big time the other day. I was reading Garland’s chapter on “Creating a Sharable and Spreadable Website” when I came across a bulleted list of things to consider in addition to content. One of the bullets: “Is it clear to users how they can contact me? Do I tell them what the best way to reach me is? E-mail? Phone?…”

I was so focused on making sure I was getting my shiny social media icons on my new Web site that I’d forgotten to include e-mail and telephone information front and center. Fortunately, the site wasn’t yet live.

There are lots of reasons we read business books. Some are for Big Ideas. Others for inspiration. Still others are designed to help us do what we do, but a little bit better. Smarter, Faster, Cheaper is great for this.

*Disclosure: I received a free copy of Smarter, Faster, Cheaper in exchange for agreeing to review it–but without any restrictions on what I might say.

Photo by puuikibeach (Flickr).

Web Site Redux

Daria Steigman — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:04:05 +0000

Ever find yourself saying “do as I say…”?

I’ve known for some time that my Web site needed some work. The calls to actions were mostly hidden (or missing altogether). The font didn’t, as my brother so succinctly put it, “do justice to your design sensibility.” The social media buttons were disjointed–or missing altogether.

Now I’ve rolled out some changes, including making it easy for people to subscribe to this blog via e-mail, adding big “connect with me” buttons and a newsletter sign-up, and creating a custom 404 page. There’s also a new font to give the site a more updated look.

What’s your impression? (If you’re reading this in an RSS reader, please click over to my Web site and let me know what you think.)

And while you’re here, will you consider signing up for my newsletter?

Photo by Bernadette MacPherson Morris (Flickr).

11 Months, 1 Web Design, and the Perils of DIY

Daria Steigman — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:21:40 +0000

Eleven months. Eleven months, which equals a cautionary tale about good intentions. As in mine, and my time and ability to brand a Web site.

When I migrated SteigmanCommunications.com onto a self-hosted WordPress platform in January (or, more accurately, when my friend and uber-trainer Lee Watts did this for me), I had every intention of adding design elements quickly. The problem: I thought I could do it myself. And that, at the time, meant learning hooks and understanding CSS style sheets–not my forte.

Not my forte, as in: smart business owner, take your own advice and farm out the tasks that aren’t your specialty (like accounting and Web design). So eventually I figured out that I wasn’t going to do it (and certainly wasn’t going to do it well), and hired someone who actually gets this design stuff.

If you’re reading this post via feed reader or e-mail, pop over to the site and check out the new design. It was 11 months in the making.