About EPSS & Technology - Web ApplicationsLinking customer behavior to e-commerce strategy
CNet News.com: Consumer behavior should be the principal determinant of corporate e-commerce strategy. While technology will improve, consumer loyalty, for example, is likely to differ significantly between, say, online booksellers and providers of financial services. Two factors seem critical in predicting behavior and determining an appropriate e-commerce strategy. (2000-12-10)It’s Time to Go Beyond “Gee Whiz”
Grokdotcom: When it comes to using the Internet as a medium for sales, the game isn't about the wow of technology or the wow of design. It’s not even about the wow of marketing. E-commerce companies that have focused on the “wow” are going the way of the dodo, dying out faster than one major player every day; nobody even knows how fast the smaller ones are simply disappearing in silence. The time has come to move beyond wide-eyed wonder and put an emphatic wow into getting results. (2000-12-03)Hold the Bells and Whistles
Business 2.0: "One of the things we know about Web users from day one is they tend to be very goal focused," says Forrester Research analyst Randy Souza. Translation: They want to get something done. Forcing shoppers who want to compare the features of DVD players to look at shiny DVDs spinning to a rock 'n' roll soundtrack is more likely to annoy than help anyone decide to buy. (2000-11-26)Diss My Web Site, Please
Business Week Online: "Nielsen preaches a gospel of minimalist design. Sites should be laid out simply, with clear headlines and labels, directories of what's on the site, summaries of new information, and easy-to-spot search buttons. A pet peeve: Web links that strong-arm your browser window into opening a new window--something that you then have to close to get back to the page where you started." (2000-11-19)Stop Dumbing Down the Web!
E-Commerce Times: Keith Regan contents that: "A Web site should do all it can to be interesting to my eyes. Engage my mind, and the rest of me is likely to follow. Bore me, and I'm off to the mall. At least they've got a food court."
Comment: Unfortunately he provides no studies to back up his opinions. (2000-11-19)Web Guru: It's the User, Stupid!
Wired News: "Nielsen believes the industry's refusal to heed the calls of usability proponents directly affected the steep Internet market drop. Many of the recently dead dot-coms, he said -- especially in e-commerce -- made the fundamental mistake of drawing users to their sites with expensive promotions, then losing them forever with ineffective design or subpar services." (2000-11-19)The hollow promise of Internet banking
The Economist: "Convenience was supposed to be the big attraction of Internet banking. But service has proved unreliable. Servers crash and connections can be slow, especially over home telephone lines. Often it is easier, and quicker, to telephone. Internet-only banks have also been slow to offer a full product range. The convenience of online banking is greatly diminished if a customer has to maintain a current account, for example, offline." (2000-11-12)Does online shopping need a dose of technology?
Lighthouse on the Web: "After spending most of the late 1990s revelling in new browser-based technologies, many commercial Web sites have spent the past 18 months sobering up. They've ditched client-side Java, been cautious about the increasing popular Flash, and ditched eccentric interfaces for emerging standards. They want to succeed in selling by keeping things simple, the way Amazon, Yahoo, Dell and eBay do. The post-tech-wreck failures such as Boo.com have only encouraged them to Keep It Simple." (2000-11-12)Web Merchants Make Good on Hype
New York Times: "Executives and site navigation experts say that companies are finally getting the message that simpler is better. As the year progressed, most sites grudgingly gave up on multimedia filigree they hoped would get shoppers' attention and entertain them. Now, they are giving up on home pages that overwhelm customers with too much information." (2000-11-05)Skip Intro
This essay describes the Flash phenomenon in more detail, analyses Flash's aesthetics and discuss Macromedia's business strategies for its success. Developments towards a more corporate and controllable internet are contrasted with an analysis of the internet's underlying economic structures, followed by a discourse of possible outcomes and expectations for online experiences in the future. (2000-10-15)All They Want for Christmas is the Site to Load
According to this Cyberatlas report: "The Gartner Group, which already published its 2000 holiday e-commerce forecast, found that consumers are running low on patience for online stores that don't deliver the goods. Web merchants that fail to provide a positive Internet shopping experience this year risk being out of business by the second quarter of 2001..." (2000-10-08)Make-or-Break Time
According to this Internet News report "Gartner cited three major Web site problems that are driving consumers away: lack of product fulfillment information; poor customer-centric, intuitive site navigation; and a lack of reasonable, reliable shipping fees and delivery dates." (2000-09-30)Asking for Science, receiving Art
According to this article by David Walker: "Too many people find too many sites too hard to use. The Web is primarily a medium for doing things, not for having experiences. In such a medium, design's primary purpose must be to support user goals - the goal of Nielsen and other Scientists." (2000-09-17)The speed of business
InfoWorld.com: "SPEED KILLS, BUT not on the Web. When it comes to the Web, we love life in the fast lane. The faster your pages download, the more likely your customers are to stick around." (2000-09-17)Newsflash: So far, we're not impressed
According to this digitalMASS article by Julia Lipman: "Many designers are finding the Flash equivalent of the old HTML splash page irresistible. The result is scores of rococo intro pages that do little except showcase their designers' capacity for self-indulgence." (2000-09-10)E-Tailers Avoiding Advanced Web Technologies
According to this Internet News article by Michael Pastore a recent Jupiter Communications Inc. ".. report advises that online retailers abandon conservative Web site development practices and optimize their interactive presence in order to match the technical capabilities of most online consumers, which can now adequately support a rich interface." (2000-09-10)Just the Facts, Please
According to this Slate Magazine article by Ronna Abramson the major media sites should "Forget video-streamed speeches, 360-degree cameras, interactive polls, and political chat rooms. It's good old-fashioned information that voters want from the Net as they ponder who should be the next president. That was the conclusion of a recent telephone poll by the Pew Internet & American Life Project." (2000-09-10)Personalisation goes one-on-one with reality
This Lighthouse on the Web editorial contents that: "the very idea of Internet personalisation is flawed on three levels; (1.) Customers don't want relationships with corporations; (2.) Personalisation technology understands consumers poorly; and (3.) Personalisation costs. (2000-09-04)Internet Companies Learn How to Personalize Service
Ask a handful of Internet executives to define the term "personalization," and invariably the conversation turns to the analogy of a shopkeeper who knows not only his customers' names, but how much they can afford to spend and what size shirt they wear. (2000-09-04)Beyond "One-to-One": The Power of Purposeful Communities
According to this ArsDigita Corporation white paper "Personalization is an important but incomplete answer to building loyalty and driving retention on the Web. Capturing the real value of a web presence depends not just on "one-to-one", but in enabling "many-to-many". A growing consensus is emerging around online communities as the preferred tool for generating and capturing "network effects". (2000-09-04)Why Internet Sites Fail
In the Advistor.com article Linda A. Rossetti presents four reasons why Web sites fail. 1. Misunderstanding the true currency of the Internet: the customer relationship; 2. Missing the opportunity to engage the appropriate parties in the discussion; 3. Difficulty separating the objective from the implementation; and Aiming for perfection vs. structured learning. (2000-08-27)Power to the People
According to the CIO Magazine article about customer relationship management (CRM) "For consumers, it can mean service that meets their expectations better than ever before, whether they're shopping for a product or service online or in a retail store. For companies, it can mean reduced costs, improved customer satisfaction and the ability to learn more about customers' requirements and preferences. (2000-08-27)"Outside-In" Prospect Personalization Techniques
In this Personalization.com article by Bob Schmonsees "As the Web evolves, and competition for the prospects' hearts and minds increases, B2B web sites must become more effective at quickly educating visitors on complex products and services, answering their specific questions, and helping them articulate their unique issues and requirements." (2000-08-27)The Web's Still-Unfulfilled Personalization Promise
"Personalization -- the idea of content that's custom-tailored to a site's every visitor -- has long been touted as the Web's coup de grace, the quality that differentiates it from how business is done in the real world. Some call it customization. Others say it's only a fancy term for direct marketing. But whatever its moniker, personalization may represent the best chance for survival by online merchandisers in the ongoing Internet shakeout." (2000-08-27)End of Web Design
In this very controversial article Jakob Nielsen advises that: "...each Internet service needs to be based on a task analysis of its specific users and their needs. You can combine standardized user interface elements in many ways, and the better sites will support the way users want to approach the problems." (2000-07-30)Usability Experts are from Mars - Graphic Designers are from Venus
According to this article by Curt Clominger "There is an unarticulated war currently raging among those who make web sites. This war is between usability experts and graphic designers." (2000-07-30)Proceedings, CHI 2000 Workshop Designing Interactive Systems for 1-to-1 E-commerce
This site contains articles and papers on Web site trustworthiness, personalization and user experience. (2000-07-01)The Elements of User Experience
This one page pdf document prepared by Jesse James Garrett provides a clear and concise model of the roles and processes involved in the development of web site (content) and web applications (software). (2000-06-04)The best of sites, the worst of sites
According to this Sunday Times article "For a medium that is supposed to make our lives easier, the web is a pretty erratic performer. On retailer websites, two thirds of customers abandon their shopping trolleys before they reach the checkout, while one third of web shoppers cannot find what they want online; and on corporate websites, less than half the visitors find the information they are looking for." (2000-05-29)The Myth of a Big Screen
According to this uidesign.net.com editorial "The need for a big screen is simply a poor excuse for bad design" The editorial explores the emergence of hand held internet access devices and the need to use human factors principles to design for multiple platforms. (2000-05-21)Lying Ad Banners
In this editorial, Mark Hurst of goodexperience.com argues that "Ad banners posing as Windows errors are wrong. It's wrong to mislead the user, wrong to do business that way -- but especially on the Web, treating customers poorly is a bad financial decision. Remember, a good customer experience is the key to online success. Tricking Web users into visiting a site will not succeed." (2000-05-21)Trapped on the Web?
In this E-Commerce Times editorial Elizabeth Blakey asks, "So, why is it that many e-commerce sites feature clunky navigation? The so-called mousetrap -- a Web site that traps surfers because hitting the "Back" button takes the visitor right to the same site -- appears more often on the Web than one would imagine, and is emblematic of the failure of e-commerce companies to see the bigger picture." (2000-05-21)The Dao of Web Design
When a new medium borrows from an existing one, some of what it borrows makes sense, but much of the borrowing is thoughtless, "ritual", and often constrains the new medium. Over time, the new medium develops its own conventions, throwing off existing conventions that don't make sense. (2000-04-16)Tips on Owning the Customer's Experience
"...in the e-business world, we have to streamline and automate business processes, many of which take place on disparate back-end systems and some of which are manual (like picking, packing, and shipping). Yet some of the players in today's e-business landscape are succeeding admirably while others are failing. What makes the difference? Focus on the details that matter to customers, and use any practical means to handle those details." (via webword) (2000-04-09)Use and Abuse
It's easy to feel sorry for the people who visit websites; unless they've been sitting in on the meetings where blow-dried marketing executives wed brand identity to increased sales of boats and boating accessories, users have no idea that they're only valued for what they can spend at a website, and they're blissfully ignorant of the industry contention that the average web surfer is ... well, ignorant enough to be gulled by pricey ads and shiny graphics. (2000-03-26)Towards a Model of Trust for E-Commerce System Design
For users to adopt Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce, it is imperative that the benefits of using this new commercial medium significantly outweigh potential risks and inconveniences. Indeed, difficulty of use and lack of trust with respect to online payment, privacy and consumer service have been found to constitute a real psychological barrier to e-commerce. (2000-03-26)One-in-four suffer e-shopping failures
According to a new Boston Consulting Group study, 28 percent of all attempts at online commerce fail, for reasons ranging from technical problems to delivery mix-ups. (via webword) (2000-03-12)Mike Hurst on Customer Experience
In the world of e-commerce, companies often overlook the importance of the customer experience. Launch deadlines and million-dollar marketing campaigns can take precedence over fundamentals like navigation, search, and usability. If you want to succeed in the online market, you must recognize and improve the experience that customers have on your site. (via webword) (2000-03-12)Three Wise Strategists
"But why, oh why, do they have to make things so complicated? Strategists in their sharp-cut suits babble about the digital economy, integrated solutions, and the "user experience." Yet somewhere along the line they've lost the big picture. Despite what hype-meisters might tell you, the Internet hasn't reinvented business, nor has it changed its rules." (via tremendo.com) (2000-02-27)Web Denial
According to this KM World online editorial: "Most companies moving their businesses onto the Web are in denial. And their Web sites -- internal and external -- show it." (2000-02-27)E-Tailers: Bring Back the Humans
Sometimes there are things that are so amazingly dumb out there it's hard to believe that they even exist. But maybe it's not surprising. In a gold rush like we're having around the Internet today, one should expect that stupid business plans will get funded by Silicon Valley VCs who are totally out of touch with the real world, with the principals so caught up in their own brilliance they can't see any other perspective. (2000-02-20)On the Web, relaunches can sink you
Yet the evidence suggests site relaunches carry heavy risks. Most Web site visitors want to do something or find something. Make them change the way they do things at your site, and you may confuse or discomfit them to the point where they leave. (2000-02-20)Sticky Business
According to this Tom Davenport editorial: "THE IDEA OF "STICKINESS" is one of the most important ideas in electronic commerce—and business in general. In e-commerce, it's a measure of how much attention a website receives over time. In the information technology world, it's the first indication that we are focusing not just on information distribution but on usage as well. (2000-02-06)Is technology or content king?
"What will ultimately propel the Internet as an entertainment medium is creativity, not technology," he (AOL Chairman Stephen Case) added, contending the AOL-Time Warner deal had recrowned content as king of the Internet. (2000-02-06)