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March 07 ABCs of Web Design Newsletter

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Introductory comments

I am always advocating to the people that I mentor that they should be brushing up on your skills. So I decided to take my own advice and sign up for the Usability Analyst certification offered by Human Factors International. I have actually wanted to get the certification for quite some time, but money and the amount of travel required to take the classes always were always an issue. But, this year, all four classes needed for the certification will be held in Columbus, OH, so I signed up! Now I am in a geeked-up frenzy for learning. One of the things the certification will cover is personas, so I am looking through my web site conversion books re-reading the information on personas (I am also thinking of redesigning some of the web sites I maintain for better conversion rates).

Comments about W-edge design web site:

"Wonderful and informative web site. I used information from this site -- it's great."

"I have been looking for sites like this for a long time. Thank you!"

Question of the month

Question: I have all the books by Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg. I took the Wizards of Web class from them in March 2005. Jeffery and I occasionally exchange emails -- I ask him if he is ever coming to Columbus so he can sign my other books (the closest he came was Cleveland). One of the things I love about their books is the great information they include on how people use the Internet.

Did you know?

Online shoppers use search engines: As of December 2004, 46 percent of all online shoppers started their shopping process through a search engine; 39 percent type the address of a web site directly in their browsers. And 176 North American firms with annual revenues in excess of $500 million expect to see significant increases in customer interactions through media-based systems (page 39, Eisenberg, Bryan and Jeffrey, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2006).

People use the Internet to do research before they buy: In 2002, a study by J.D. Powers and Associates indicated that for every one hundred new-vehicle buyers, sixty turned to the Internet for product research. They visited an average of seven web sites in the course of their research and began the process almost two months before they actually made a purchase. Eighty-eight percent of those sixty went online before they visited a dealership. Eighty-two percent of those sixty visited third-party automotive web sites which constituted the most popular web sites among new-vehicle buyers in the United States. Seventy-six percent of those sixty visited a manufacturer's web site while 48 percent visited a dealer web site. Nevertheless, only four percent of new-vehicle buyers in America purchased a vehicle online (page 122, Eisenberg, Bryan and Jeffrey, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2006).

I bought a used vehicle last year and did all my research online before I went to the dealership to test drive and purchase it. I was able to "talk" them down several thousand dollars due to the other prices for a similar vehicle I found.

The average e-commerce web site only manages to sell someone a product they really want, under these odd conditions, 30 percent of the time; 70 percent of the time, the customer who knows exactly what they want runs into some show-stopping obstacle that prevents the purchase (p 47 Call to Action Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results 2005, Future Now).

Recent Clients of W-edge design:

Cabella Creations
Compton Creative
Damesbond
DigitalEve Columbus
Healing Environments with Feng Shui
Moonhorse Art Studio

Wrap up

I am doing a presentation in April for DigitalEve Columbus on "Bullet Proof Your Career" and in it I talk about getting additional training and certifications to help stave off company layoffs and downsizing. And I am even looking into taking additional classes from Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg. So I am pretty excited about this certification. Thanks for reading my newsletter.

Please send all questions to theresaw@columbus.rr.com.

To see the articles from my print web column, go to http://www.w-edge.com/articles.htm

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