Overstock's Paradigm Changing Redesign

Overstock may have just changed the ecommerce game on us. They have released a major redesign that uses search as the primary navigational metaphor. Such a brilliant move and I think users are actually ready for it. I believe this redesign will serve as a paradigm shift in the online shopping metaphor. It will be interesting to see how this move plays out. Have a look at the new overstock.com

Free Usability Advice

I have been looking for new ways to keep the Suimple blog current and I think I stumbled across one this morning. The boys over at Expero have a blog where they give away Free Usability Advise. Giving away something free is a great way to contribute to the community, create relationships and share knowledge. Good ideas are always worth emulating so I am jumping on their band wagon. If you are struggling with an interface, have a Usability question or are trying to navigate the murky waters of SEO send me a quick question or screenshot and I will do my best to get you an answer or a second opinion. Send your questions to contact[@]suimple.com.

Worst Form Labels Ever

I have seen some pretty bad form ideas during my tenure as a UI designer, this one beats them all. I was renewing my Surfer Magazine subscription over at magazines.com when I ran into this…

magazines.com payment form

…not so bad right? Wrong, as soon I you tab into billing address you get this…

disappearing labels

Where did my label go? I have no idea what to type in this field do you, looks like billing address. Nope there are two fields for billing address below, so I guess I will have to clear the field and tab out so I can see the label again. Yikes, that was awkward.

I almost abandoned my cart out of principal and would have if Surfer Magazine hadn’t neglected to ask me if I wanted to renew. Maybe they are mad because I moved to Portland, anyway I soldiered on and finished the purchase but I bet not everyone has enough land locked surfer motivation to push them though this form trickery.

Labeling your form has been well researched by Luke Wroblewski and countless others, there is really no excuses for this type of UI hackery.

Print the labels outside the fields run a A/B split test on it and I bet you get increased conversion rates.

just a bit more space to make it work

How to Build Quality Traffic

Everyday I get a forwarded e-mail from a client wondering if this particular piece of SEO spam is the trick to generating more traffic for their site or should we use this company to boost our Google Page Rank. My answer is always NO. The only way to build quality traffic is by providing something of value. Yesterday Seth Godin made available a free ebook on this subject that I am going to use as my default reply.

CLIENT: “Jake I got this email regarding SEO Services and I was wondering, Do you know what LSI is? Are we doing that?”

JAKE: Read this “Money for Nothing and the Clicks for Fee

Bow Low Before the Perfect Product Page

I spend a lot of time tweaking ecommerce sites and am always looking for companies that are providing good user experience. This morning I bought some Adidas indoor soccer shoes for my daughter at the temple of simple ecommerce.

Target: shoes.com

My five minutes at Shoes.com has left me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside and it doesn′t even bother me that I spent $25 over my budget. If you have an ecommerce site you need to visit shoes.com and humble yourself before its simple design and powerful user psychology. Here are some of the high points.

Customer Anxiety Down, Conversions Up

Notes from the MarketingExperiments.com (MEC) webinar “Site Design Tested: 7 ways to increase site conversion by reducing customer anxiety” by Dr. Flint McLaughlin

UPDATE:* Marketing Experiments has released a “Brief” of the Webinar “Site design tested Reducing Customer Anxiety.”

Wikipedia defines Anxiety as an unpleasant complex combination of emotions that includes fear, apprehension and worry, and is often accompanied by physical sensations such as palpitations, nausea, chest pain and/or shortness of breath.

Target: MarketingExperiments.com

This is not the emotional state you want your users to be in when they hit your order form, so what can you do to reduce anxiety? Grab the dial and turn up the certainty, serenity and tranquility.

Simplicity by Google

Ever since last months iPhone debut at Macworld (if you missed it you can view it at apple.com) there has been a buzz brewing over the power of simple. Simple is focusing on a small idea and executing that idea flawlessly. Simplicity is what makes Apple such a great success story however simple isn′t for everyone it seems.

Target: Zappos.com

While still buzzing from Job′s keynote I came across a wildly successful top 50 etailer that stands as the antithesis of simple, Zappos.com.

Skip to the “Before & After” Continue Reading…

A Little Context Goes a Long Way or Bigger Isn't Always Better

“My users can′t find the ‘forgot password’ link can you make it bigger or into a button or something.” On one occasion or another you have probably heard or personally requested this of your design team. If your team had a keen ear the only part of this request they would have heard is “…my users can′t find the ‘forgot password’ link…”

Target: Design it Yourself

When someone can′t find an element on your site 90% of the time it is because it is in the wrong place. Before you start making things bigger take a look at the element in question and see if it is placed in the correct context. Continue Reading…

Page Naming for SEO and Usability

Years ago I had a manger that cared passionately about accessible URL’s. To this day I am not sure if he had OCD, a bad URL childhood experience or if he just hated to type. An amazon.com product URL could literally reduce this man to tears.

New Series: Small Changes and DIY Tweaks

He may have been a bit left of center but there was a kernel of wisdom in his obsession that can be used to improve usability and increase your search engine visibility.

Zune.net, See-through Marketing

Last week Microsoft released its Zune website, a site I really hoped would be a move away from the corpo marketing we have seen from Microsoft in the past. I was disappointed. Zune.net tries so hard to be art in-crowd street hip hop whatever that is has become the physical embodiment of the “Get a Mac” ad; you know the one with the super model as the iMovie. When looking at the site I can′t help but envision fifteen overpaid marketers going through veer lightboxes for months at a time.

Target: Zune.net

Pushing new product is Suimple with RSS enabled eCommerce

People that have given you money once are much more likely to give you more of it. With RSS enabled eCommerce you can get more product in front of more customers more often with less friction then you can with traditional methods (email).

Target: The Mode

I have recently come up with an RSS eCommerce design pattern that addresses the need to get new product in front of customers without an email requirement. I am calling this pattern "The Mode." The new weapon in your eCommerce marketing arsenal.

This is not your freshman science book

When I was a freshman at the University of Arizona I used to get carried away with my highlighter. Everything seemed like the most important information on the page and it was. By the time I was finished each and every page was covered in yellow highlighter, page titles, whole paragraphs, margins, pictures nothing was safe. In my abuse of the highlighter I had effectively rendered the highlight meaningless.

Target: freshbooks.com

Highlight techniques translate well to the Web and are great at influencing sight path. Use them with restraint or you might as well not use it at all. Has FreshBooks crossed the line? I think so.

figure 1

How to Kill User Motivation

Much of the work we do as designers and marketers is done in an attempt to properly motivate our users. The "Why" is simple, we want them to convert, make a purchase, sign up for our Web 2.0ish social networking application or simply read what we are writing. We spend hours crafting value propositions, elaborate flash presentations (I won’t but some will) even going as far as offering steep discounts and trial offers.

Target: gamesnake.com

Our assumption is that the user is not already properly motivated. Huge mistake, next time you assemble the team to brainstorm make the pre-motivated user a part of the discussion and make sure your Web site is great at staying out of the way. Selling to someone that is already sold can be a frustrating experience for everyone as I found out last week.

Warning: I have already made my point so feel free to bail out now however if you are interested in learning how to interface with a properly motivated user stick around.

A/B Split Testing Demystified

Are there any Seth Godin readers out there? All Marketers Are Liars, Purple Cow, The Big Red Fez do any of those best selling titles ring a bell? Anyway the guy is tuned in and he can move some serious traffic around the web when he wants to. Last week I was both thrilled and discouraged after reading his Where are the tweakers? post.

Target: squidoo.com

Sure he had totally validated my Quickly Redesign offering and the expense of my recent MEC Certification Course but he had also mobilized an army of freelance Web designers under the banner of Tweaker.

Skip to the "Before & After" Continue Reading…

I Can′t Stand a Hypocrite

…especially when that hypocrite is me. For the last couple of weeks I have been vilifying the practice of embedding text, especially keyword rich text, in images. A good Web designer knows that this practice is bad for SEO and can cause problems with accessibility. Well this week I am going to have to stop pointing fingers, get all Michael Jackson and "Start looking at the man in the mirror." While critiquing my own work I came to the painful realization that I had imprisoned valuable content in images.

Target: www.thegreenloop.com

Let's take a quick look at how this happened and discover how a radical redesign can set this content free and create a more flexible layout for my client.

A Plea to Surfline, Think Like a Surfer

Target: Surfline.com

Skip to the "Before & After" or Continue Reading…

Library Site Visit Results in Link Overload

The other day my Sister needed help using her local public library's Web site to renew some books. She called me because she was unable to find the information she needed and figured I would be able to help. Together we were able to complete the task but she assured me that it was much easier to take the books back to the branch and that she would not be using the site again.

Target: San Diego Public Library

Is it easier for your customers to shuttle two kids and fifty pounds of books ten minutes through Southern California traffic then it is to use your Web site? If so it's time for a usability redesign.

Skip to the "Before & After" or Continue Reading…