Warmest Greetings,

Why peeking at your website competition is a good thing.  

:: Monday, January 19, 2004 ::

I almost blew by this latest Alertbox from Jakob Nielsen, called How Big is the Difference Between Websites?because it sounded too technical and dealt with metrics, and I wasn't in the mood for brainwork yet. But, my usability addiction became too much and I read it. He wrote about competitive testing between websites.

"Competitive testing is a special type of usability study that compares designs from multiple companies in the same industry. Across the studies I analyzed, the average difference in measured usability was 68% when comparing two competing companies."

Even if you don't do what he did exactly, there were some things worth considering for your own website situations such as:

"On the Web, all advantages are temporary, and you must keep innovating to stay ahead."

"Indeed, one of the main reasons to run regular competitive studies is so that you won't be left behind by a competing site's improvements. The tendency to copy the best designs explains why two sites in the same narrow sector will have smaller differences in measured usability than one might expect. "

"When you run a thorough usability project in which you discover customers' needs and design your site accordingly, you can expect your site to improve by 135% on average. "

"You can patent usability innovations to keep the competition from stealing them. Most Web projects are managed by marketing departments that have no experience with the patent system. Websites, however, are inventions and should be protected when you invest in developing something new. Talk to people in your legal department."

I loved this. The folks at Adaptive Path have a piece called Seven Resolutions for 2004. Here's a few:

"I’ll collaborate more often with my team, get input from individuals throughout my organization, communicate personally with the people that matter about the ideas that matter. "

"At some point, every group whose work touches the user experience—information architects, interaction designers, marketers, and so on—seems to think that they own the user experience, that their focus is the most integral. But user experience never depends on any one discipline. Everything comes together to create the whole."

One thing I forgot to mention about the new usability newsletter debuting this week called Successful Sites Usability and Marketing Newsletter is that subscribers can submit sites for a possible website reviews. The newsletter is intended to be make usability related subjects easy to understand and implement yourself. No mind boggling techie stuff to confuse or slow you down!

If you wonder why. Cart abandonment is high, but e-retailers have more control than they know>

"The survey showed, for example, that 35% of the 600-plus consumers polled had abandoned carts due to additional costs such as shipping or because delivery times were too long. The second most-cited reason for cart abandonment was that web sites ask for too much information in order to make a purchase, which was mentioned by 30%. 17% of those surveyed said they abandoned online purchases due to a lack of product information, while 14% said they changed their minds and opted to purchase at a store instead of online."

SEO:

Karon Thackston writes SEO Copywriting - In the Wake of the "Florida" Update

"For those of us who have been focusing on search engine copywriting that appeals to both the engines and the site visitors, Google's upcoming changes should be very exciting."

Other:

Today, in the USA, we honor a King.

An Interview with Martin Luther King III

"The Internet has the potential to be a true equalizer among races, sexes, and ages. The Web's anonymity allows content to overshadow color. At the same time, the poorest and most underserved members of our society are not allowed the opportunity to utilize and benefit from this technology. They are falling victim to poor schools and low socioeconomic levels that prevent them from learning the technology."

"There are hundreds of Web sites dedicated to hatred and hostility. The Internet can promote division and racial insensitivity, but it can also promote love and harmony. I don't believe in suppressing freedom of speech, but I do believe that we can drown out hatred by creating 10,000 sites dedicated to justice and tolerance. We must show our children that there is far more love and fairness in the world than prejudice and hatred. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

Addendum to Friday's "Don't Say Hi" entry:

There's a new virus out with a subject line that says "Hi" and it comes with an attachment. Worse, "The worm harvests addresses from the following files and mails itself to those recipients, using its own SMTP engine." For more details, see W32/Bagle@MM

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 1/19/2004 01:35:21 PM

:: Today's Post Permalink | Back to the BLOG Home
:: Website Evaluations
:: Email this Post  
:.................................

Feed Bin

Learn how to make RSS Feed Buttons

Highly Recommended!
(Read review)
Search Engine Marketing Kit, by Dan Thies

• User Centered Design
• Usability Industry Research
• Increase Website Conversions
• Starter Ecommerce Checklist

• Web Design & The Usability Effect
• Usability and SEO Humor

Crooked sunglasses

My artistic friends love this picture.

• About Kim Krause Berg
• My Articles
• Me Again (My Fave Blog Posts)
• August 2005 : Expanding on Usability - An Interview with Kim Krause Berg
• Kim's Wish List

Recent Posts

Whatever You Do, Don't Say "Hi"

Can Adding Sound Enhance the Ecommerce User Shopping Experience?

What is the best way to design a site with SEO in mind?

Stemming, semantic web and SEO copywriting

Although I "retired" from performing SEO services ...

Is it helpful or risky to put that "Site Designed ...

I couldn't run past this one! The Nightmares of a...

Peanuts, Yahoo!, Google, and dare I add, Usability...

Here we go! Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs to Ma...

I had to laugh out loud when I saw this, written b...

Monthly Archives

It's That Book Again

Conversions Topic is New York Times Best Seller (Seriously)

Kim is a Member of the Usability Professionals Association

"This report exceeded my expectations. After reading it a few times, I went through and highlighted those parts of your actionable advice that I want to implement right away... I ended up highlighting most of the report. Stellar job. I won't hesitate to recommend you to one of my own clients." -- Andy Hagans of AndyHagans.com

"I have implemented the most obvious changes and I suppose the fact that we've seen an immediate increase in sales/conversions is no coincidence. I'd highly recommend your service to anyone running a serious web based business." -- Steve Clay, Plumeriabay.com

"As soon as we get our hands on one of her usability studies, my clients and I have a better understanding of what needs to be done with their sites to make them the best they can be from their site visitors' perspective."
-- Jill Whalen, HighRankings.com

"This is an exemplary piece of work." -- Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz.org

View more Testimonials | Clients
Learn about Website improvement services.