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Re: [LUG] A microcosm of the web

 

On Sun, Aug 01, 2010 at 08:17:21AM +0100, tom wrote:
> They're actually very cheap - they're called customers.
> It normally takes someone with an IQ of 50 to work out what they
> want from your web site:
> Will I want to view a 10 minute flash about the company? No!
> Will I want to spend 10 minutes searching the labyrinth of PR
> information? No!
> Thats 90% of most website binned.
> Will I want to buy your product easily: Yes!
Is there information about you that I want: Yes
Do I have fast broadband / modern computer: probably not
>     So councils and universities should have clear short routes to
> services, timetables etc and not 20,000 clicks through how the
> metadata was defined and presented.
> Will I want to find support info easily? Yes! see above.
> Once  you consider (honestly) how a 'customer' would like to use
> your web site and make it easy for them - and make it accessible: do
> this first - its a great lesson!!!!
> 
On a slow broadband / 4 year old computer

> You just have to imagine how a customer would like walk/click into
> your 'shop' and make it easy for them.

<Snip>

Just had a look at www.teignbridge.gov.uk and wanted to find out about
housing benefits: 2 clicks, and I was there:
- Housing
- Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit
Bingo, all the information anyone would want

Conversely I look at some other sites for "benefits" and I
-   Had to search using the available search engine
-   Had to allow scripts, 
And then nothing was available (until I scrolled down: presumably a clash
between IE and Firefox)

Then the whole issue of pdf / html: if I looking for information then the
easiest answer would be to have an html of the appropriate data with the
option of choosing pdf to save to disk.. oh well. We can but dream of
cost-effectiveness

Oddly enough my rule of thumb is that the more "glamorous" the site, the
less practical the organisation. And car companies and coca-cola site top
the list for me. (compare www.coca-cola.com / www.thecoca-colacompany.com
with www.pepsico.com / www.pepsiusa.com)

(Chinese sites are also heavily into flash)

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Henry
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