by Ivy Hastings
Many B2B companies are wondering how they can make their web presence much more valuable to their clients. Good marketers know that the days of the web site as online brochure are gone for good. So how does one go about creating a valuable user experience? One tactic is to make the site "sticky" meaning users come back to your site more often and stay longer.
An essential part of creating a sticky site is understanding one's target audience. Before you start thinking about what kind of content or features might be valuable to your users, start with a thorough Target Audience Analysis. An effective Target Audience Analysis includes first determining who the audiences are. They might be clients, the press, or employees of the company, or even all three. Once those audiences are identified, you need to understand their motivations. Why are certain target audiences on your site? What are their motivations? And most importantly how will you fulfill their needs? What about creating new needs your audiences didn't even know they had? During this process, eliminate the guesswork and go straight to your clients and ask them what they want to see.
So now that you understand their motivations, how are you going to fulfill them in the most effective manner? Take for example an engineering company whose clients want technical white papers. Let’s say this is the user’s top motivation for being on your site. You’ll want to ensure that these engineers can get to their white papers as easily as possible. Do this by putting links directly on the homepage, create many ways for users to get to the content with cross links. Develop strong calls-to-action. And make sure that your engineers can get to that content with only one click. In other words, identify key user paths.
Many companies make the mistake of using their sites to brag about themselves. One of our current clients was convinced that they needed an extensive About Us section with Mission, Values, Executive Summary, a Timeline of the company, Executive Bios, and Accomplishments. What user outside of an investor is really going to read all of that?
Rather, take the time and offer information that is priceless to your customers and that really gets them engaged. You can do this by offering white papers, webinars, video tutorials, forums, RSS Feeds, etc. Allow them to interact with you. Your clients will thank you by becoming lifelong clients.
Ivy Hastings is a Project Manager at Fusionbox, a Denver web design and development company.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
RSS - What You Need to Know
Many Marketers are wondering how they can use RSS Feeds to leverage their marketing initiatives. RSS Feeds are the ultimate in permission marketing because they allow users to subscribe to content updates that they receive immediately in their aggregators. This means marketers can commumnicate immediately to the clients and partners who are most interested in their company. And the best part is, it's free.
Additionally, RSS Feeds have the added benefit of getting users back to your site. RSS fed content that is filled with links, means users can link directly back to your site and read more about your products, news, or services.
The advent of RSS Feeds could even mean the death of traditional press releases. Take this example from Google. When the government asked Google to release search records, Google made the decision to get the word out by posting it on their blog. This meant that news outlets had to go directly to Google's blog to get the news. This also levels the playing field because industry insiders get the news the same way everyday users do-- by subscribing to Google's RSS feed of their blog.
RSS has quickly changed the landscape for communication with clients, the press, investors, and especially potential clients. Keep your name in front of interested parties on a permission basis by creating an RSS Feed for your blog, news, or even your press releases.
Ivy Hastings is a Project Manager at Fusionbox, a Denver web design and development company. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Ivy has published many articles about Internet Marketing. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for Arts Street, a local non-profit that teaches at-risk youth the craft and business of the Arts.
Additionally, RSS Feeds have the added benefit of getting users back to your site. RSS fed content that is filled with links, means users can link directly back to your site and read more about your products, news, or services.
The advent of RSS Feeds could even mean the death of traditional press releases. Take this example from Google. When the government asked Google to release search records, Google made the decision to get the word out by posting it on their blog. This meant that news outlets had to go directly to Google's blog to get the news. This also levels the playing field because industry insiders get the news the same way everyday users do-- by subscribing to Google's RSS feed of their blog.
RSS has quickly changed the landscape for communication with clients, the press, investors, and especially potential clients. Keep your name in front of interested parties on a permission basis by creating an RSS Feed for your blog, news, or even your press releases.
Ivy Hastings is a Project Manager at Fusionbox, a Denver web design and development company. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Ivy has published many articles about Internet Marketing. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for Arts Street, a local non-profit that teaches at-risk youth the craft and business of the Arts.
Beware the Flog
by Ivy Hastings
Some advertisers thought they'd be clever and launch fake blogs (blogs) to promote products. Users quickly find out that these blogs are staged attempts by advertising agencies to create positive viral buzz about their products but it often has the opposite effect.
Take Walmart for example. Walmart's ad agency decided it would be a good idea to launch a blog from a couple travelling across the USA. They raved about the Walmarts they had visited. Problem was, they were hired writers and personalities who were being paid to write about Walmart.
Soon after the flog launched the jig was up. Suspicious users (because what smart user is not suspicious about what they read on the Web?) figured out quickly that it was all a sham.
The result was obviously a massive amount of negative PR for Walmart. The worst thing you can do on the Web is try to trick users; you'll lose customers forever-- an advertiser's worst nightmare.
So before you decide to be sneaky and clever, think twice about launching a flog. Your users will find you out no matter what measures you take to cover up the scam. Instead, do like Target does and allow users to rate products. If you're putting out a great product, users will do your PR for you, by rating your products positively, and then telling two friends and so on and so on and so on.
Ivy Hastings is a Project Manager at Fusionbox, a Denver web design company.
Some advertisers thought they'd be clever and launch fake blogs (blogs) to promote products. Users quickly find out that these blogs are staged attempts by advertising agencies to create positive viral buzz about their products but it often has the opposite effect.
Take Walmart for example. Walmart's ad agency decided it would be a good idea to launch a blog from a couple travelling across the USA. They raved about the Walmarts they had visited. Problem was, they were hired writers and personalities who were being paid to write about Walmart.
Soon after the flog launched the jig was up. Suspicious users (because what smart user is not suspicious about what they read on the Web?) figured out quickly that it was all a sham.
The result was obviously a massive amount of negative PR for Walmart. The worst thing you can do on the Web is try to trick users; you'll lose customers forever-- an advertiser's worst nightmare.
So before you decide to be sneaky and clever, think twice about launching a flog. Your users will find you out no matter what measures you take to cover up the scam. Instead, do like Target does and allow users to rate products. If you're putting out a great product, users will do your PR for you, by rating your products positively, and then telling two friends and so on and so on and so on.
Ivy Hastings is a Project Manager at Fusionbox, a Denver web design company.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Website Templates Buyer Beware
Web design templates aren't always a good idea for a number of reasons. Most importantly because templates rarely fit your needs exactly, and clients often end up spending more time and money in the long run tweaking the design to fit their content. It’s like trying to stuff a large man into a small suit. Fusionbox always prefers to design around your content rather than trying to fit your content into an already established design. Here are some more reasons not to use a template:
1. Code – Fusionbox uses search-engine friendly code. Many web template designers do not. Be especially aware of templates created entirely in Flash. Search engines cannot spider content in Flash sites so if you go this route, you will inevitably have miserable search engine results.
2. Cross Browser Compatibility – The template you buy may not display the same in different browsers and on different platforms.
3. W3C Compliance – The W3C sets the standards for how web pages are codes, we follow these standards, many designers and developers do not. This also means that your site will be accessible to more users and international users. www.w3c.org
4. Look and Feel – It’s important to really understand your goals and objectives, target audience, and how you want your target audience to act on your site. We build toward all of these concepts so that if your goal is to sell more ad space, the user is presented with a call-to-action to buy ad space front and center on your site. We also look at eye-mapping data that shows where people typically look first on the web in order to place important information.
5. Usability – It is important to follow web best practices on where certain items should be placed. (Your logo should always be presented at the top left hand side.) Many web templates do not follow these important conventions.
6. Navigation - The Navigation of templates rarely fit your actual needs so again, you need to redesign that portion of the template. (This is also not to mention the usability issues that many of these templated designs use.)
You'll want to be very careful when considering a web template. Make sure that the template you choose meets all of the above criteria. You just may end up saving quite a bit of time and money.
- Ivy Hastings
Project Manager
Fusionbox
Fusionbox is a Denver web site design and development company.
1. Code – Fusionbox uses search-engine friendly code. Many web template designers do not. Be especially aware of templates created entirely in Flash. Search engines cannot spider content in Flash sites so if you go this route, you will inevitably have miserable search engine results.
2. Cross Browser Compatibility – The template you buy may not display the same in different browsers and on different platforms.
3. W3C Compliance – The W3C sets the standards for how web pages are codes, we follow these standards, many designers and developers do not. This also means that your site will be accessible to more users and international users. www.w3c.org
4. Look and Feel – It’s important to really understand your goals and objectives, target audience, and how you want your target audience to act on your site. We build toward all of these concepts so that if your goal is to sell more ad space, the user is presented with a call-to-action to buy ad space front and center on your site. We also look at eye-mapping data that shows where people typically look first on the web in order to place important information.
5. Usability – It is important to follow web best practices on where certain items should be placed. (Your logo should always be presented at the top left hand side.) Many web templates do not follow these important conventions.
6. Navigation - The Navigation of templates rarely fit your actual needs so again, you need to redesign that portion of the template. (This is also not to mention the usability issues that many of these templated designs use.)
You'll want to be very careful when considering a web template. Make sure that the template you choose meets all of the above criteria. You just may end up saving quite a bit of time and money.
- Ivy Hastings
Project Manager
Fusionbox
Fusionbox is a Denver web site design and development company.
Fusionbox Featured in the Denver Daily News
Fusionbox was recently asked for their expert opinion by the Denver Daily News on Denver political candidates web sites.
Web site cost questioned
By PETER MARCUS - October 22, 2006
Congressman Bob Beauprez has paid a company owned by his son-in-law $64,870 since last year to manage the operation of his gubernatorial campaign Web site. The cost reflects a $53,241 discrepancy between that of payment for his opponents Web site.
A search of “Web site” campaign expenditures filed with the Secretary of State’s office indicated that since October of last year, Bill Ritter’s camp has spent $11,629 on its gubernatorial campaign Web site. Almost all of those expenditures were made to Merchant Engine, LLC, a Web site developer operating out of Lakewood.
Beauprez’s Web site expenditures have all been made to Flat Creek Management, LLC, an operations management and outsourcing firm located in Washington, D.C. The company’s founder and president, Allen Fuller, is Beauprez’s deputy campaign manager and son-in-law. He and Beauprez’s daughter, Melanie Beauprez, are expecting their first child in April. Fuller also previously served as the press secretary and communications director for Beauprez.
Beauprez’s campaign manager, John Marshall, said the reason the expenditures are so high is because the campaign lumped Fuller’s consulting fees as deputy campaign manager together with the Web site development fee.
“It’s more of an accounting issue,” said Marshall. “It would be better [to split it up] but we only get a little room to explain the expenditures in the disclosure … it shows the limitations of the system.”
In Beauprez’s filings, separate listings are recorded for “campaign consulting” and “consulting,” but Marshall said the campaign decided it would be easier to combine Fuller’s services for the son-in-law’s particular case.
Colorado state law does not prohibit contributions from family members of a candidate as long as they are within the contribution limits allowed by law, said Dana Williams, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Gigi Dennis.
“If a tangible product is produced as a result of such services, ‘contribution’ includes the reasonable value of the materials involved, unless such value is negligible,” states Colorado State Law.
In other words, campaign expenditures to family members are allowed as long as the compensation is in line with fair-market value for the services.
Following this Denver Daily News report, ProgressNowAction.org is looking into plans to launch an investigation into the financial relationship between Beauprez and his son-in-law to determine if any campaign finance laws were broken, the organization said Friday.
“This is another example of Both Ways Bob at his worst,” said Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNowAction. “He asked the public to hold him accountable and now that we’re holding him accountable it turns out that he has been spending campaign resources well beyond the norm. There should be an immediate investigation as to whether Beauprez is violating any state laws.”
Filings with the Secretary of State’s office show that Beauprez’s Web site expenditures were just above average compared to Ritter’s Web site filings from October 2005 through April 2006. One payment on March 24 to Flat Creek Management, LLC, jumped from an average monthly payment of $2,108 to a single payment of $5,000.
But on May 15, Beauprez more than doubled that campaign Web site expenditure with a payment of $10,831 to Flat Creek Management, LLC. No other single payment has since been less than $5,900, and there was a Web site expenditure of $9,975 on June 30.
On the other hand, Ritter’s Web site expenditures have never topped $4,047 when on Aug. 10 a payment in that amount was made to Party2Win, based in Alexandria, Va. All other payments were made to Merchant Engine, LLC, never topping $2,062 with an average monthly payment of $947.
Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said at the beginning of their campaign, they were paying $300 every time a page was added to Ritter’s campaign Web site. But realizing that would add up, the campaign moved away from that format and now pay an hourly fee to Merchant Engine, LLC.
“I like our Web site — it’s functional and easy to navigate, and it displays a lot of information,” said Dreyer. “Maybe the Congressman’s son-in-law is ripping off the Congressman,” he joked.
“I feel like we get great service and a fantastic product for the amount of money we pay,” continued Dreyer. “Maybe [Beauprez] is paying too much, maybe he’s paying too much because it is his son-in-law.”
Marshall said the idea that the Beauprez campaign is paying more to Fuller because he is Beauprez’s son-in-law is not realistic because of the tight budget they are already operating off of.
“When working off of a budget as lean as we are, I can assure you that we don’t drop one dime that we don’t need to,” he said.
Records, however, filed with the Secretary of State indicate that Beauprez’s expenditures are for “Website” purposes. Local Web site design experts notice a significant discrepancy between Ritter and Beauprez’s site.
“My initial thought is that Beauprez has a more professional Web site, it’s more professionally done, [and] Ritter’s is more of an amateurish Web site,” said Chris Miller, a Web site designer with Denver-based Havoc Interactive.
He said that over the course of a year, it is possible that Beauprez could have spent $52,241 more on his Web site. He added that Web site designers take many factors into consideration, including additional features, content management, e-commerce, to name a few.
“From a design standpoint, Ritter could have gotten a better design for the money he spent,” said Miller.
Ivy Hastings, a Web designer with Denver-based Fusionbox, agreed.
“Ritter should have invested more in his Web presence for a much more professional result,” she said. “He tried to do it cheaply and it shows.”
That being said, after her firm analyzed each site for design, usability, search engine optimization, the quality of the HTML code, accessibility for sight-impaired users, server-side code, features, information, overall quality and budget, she determined that it is unlikely that Beauprez spent $64,870 on his Web site over the course of a year.
“Beauprez spent a lot of money — way too much money,” she said. “He easily could have had his site developed for half of what it cost.”
Fusionbox is a Denver Web Design Company.
Web site cost questioned
By PETER MARCUS - October 22, 2006
Congressman Bob Beauprez has paid a company owned by his son-in-law $64,870 since last year to manage the operation of his gubernatorial campaign Web site. The cost reflects a $53,241 discrepancy between that of payment for his opponents Web site.
A search of “Web site” campaign expenditures filed with the Secretary of State’s office indicated that since October of last year, Bill Ritter’s camp has spent $11,629 on its gubernatorial campaign Web site. Almost all of those expenditures were made to Merchant Engine, LLC, a Web site developer operating out of Lakewood.
Beauprez’s Web site expenditures have all been made to Flat Creek Management, LLC, an operations management and outsourcing firm located in Washington, D.C. The company’s founder and president, Allen Fuller, is Beauprez’s deputy campaign manager and son-in-law. He and Beauprez’s daughter, Melanie Beauprez, are expecting their first child in April. Fuller also previously served as the press secretary and communications director for Beauprez.
Beauprez’s campaign manager, John Marshall, said the reason the expenditures are so high is because the campaign lumped Fuller’s consulting fees as deputy campaign manager together with the Web site development fee.
“It’s more of an accounting issue,” said Marshall. “It would be better [to split it up] but we only get a little room to explain the expenditures in the disclosure … it shows the limitations of the system.”
In Beauprez’s filings, separate listings are recorded for “campaign consulting” and “consulting,” but Marshall said the campaign decided it would be easier to combine Fuller’s services for the son-in-law’s particular case.
Colorado state law does not prohibit contributions from family members of a candidate as long as they are within the contribution limits allowed by law, said Dana Williams, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Gigi Dennis.
“If a tangible product is produced as a result of such services, ‘contribution’ includes the reasonable value of the materials involved, unless such value is negligible,” states Colorado State Law.
In other words, campaign expenditures to family members are allowed as long as the compensation is in line with fair-market value for the services.
Following this Denver Daily News report, ProgressNowAction.org is looking into plans to launch an investigation into the financial relationship between Beauprez and his son-in-law to determine if any campaign finance laws were broken, the organization said Friday.
“This is another example of Both Ways Bob at his worst,” said Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNowAction. “He asked the public to hold him accountable and now that we’re holding him accountable it turns out that he has been spending campaign resources well beyond the norm. There should be an immediate investigation as to whether Beauprez is violating any state laws.”
Filings with the Secretary of State’s office show that Beauprez’s Web site expenditures were just above average compared to Ritter’s Web site filings from October 2005 through April 2006. One payment on March 24 to Flat Creek Management, LLC, jumped from an average monthly payment of $2,108 to a single payment of $5,000.
But on May 15, Beauprez more than doubled that campaign Web site expenditure with a payment of $10,831 to Flat Creek Management, LLC. No other single payment has since been less than $5,900, and there was a Web site expenditure of $9,975 on June 30.
On the other hand, Ritter’s Web site expenditures have never topped $4,047 when on Aug. 10 a payment in that amount was made to Party2Win, based in Alexandria, Va. All other payments were made to Merchant Engine, LLC, never topping $2,062 with an average monthly payment of $947.
Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said at the beginning of their campaign, they were paying $300 every time a page was added to Ritter’s campaign Web site. But realizing that would add up, the campaign moved away from that format and now pay an hourly fee to Merchant Engine, LLC.
“I like our Web site — it’s functional and easy to navigate, and it displays a lot of information,” said Dreyer. “Maybe the Congressman’s son-in-law is ripping off the Congressman,” he joked.
“I feel like we get great service and a fantastic product for the amount of money we pay,” continued Dreyer. “Maybe [Beauprez] is paying too much, maybe he’s paying too much because it is his son-in-law.”
Marshall said the idea that the Beauprez campaign is paying more to Fuller because he is Beauprez’s son-in-law is not realistic because of the tight budget they are already operating off of.
“When working off of a budget as lean as we are, I can assure you that we don’t drop one dime that we don’t need to,” he said.
Records, however, filed with the Secretary of State indicate that Beauprez’s expenditures are for “Website” purposes. Local Web site design experts notice a significant discrepancy between Ritter and Beauprez’s site.
“My initial thought is that Beauprez has a more professional Web site, it’s more professionally done, [and] Ritter’s is more of an amateurish Web site,” said Chris Miller, a Web site designer with Denver-based Havoc Interactive.
He said that over the course of a year, it is possible that Beauprez could have spent $52,241 more on his Web site. He added that Web site designers take many factors into consideration, including additional features, content management, e-commerce, to name a few.
“From a design standpoint, Ritter could have gotten a better design for the money he spent,” said Miller.
Ivy Hastings, a Web designer with Denver-based Fusionbox, agreed.
“Ritter should have invested more in his Web presence for a much more professional result,” she said. “He tried to do it cheaply and it shows.”
That being said, after her firm analyzed each site for design, usability, search engine optimization, the quality of the HTML code, accessibility for sight-impaired users, server-side code, features, information, overall quality and budget, she determined that it is unlikely that Beauprez spent $64,870 on his Web site over the course of a year.
“Beauprez spent a lot of money — way too much money,” she said. “He easily could have had his site developed for half of what it cost.”
Fusionbox is a Denver Web Design Company.
Kerry Cooper Joins Fusionbox
Fusionbox is proud to announce the addition of web developer, Kerry Cooper to its team. Kerry comes from a long background of IT and web development experience.
Kerry's experience spans 20 years and many competencies including PHP, Java, Linux, and MySQL among others.
Fusionbox is a Denver web design company.
Kerry's experience spans 20 years and many competencies including PHP, Java, Linux, and MySQL among others.
Fusionbox is a Denver web design company.
Fusionbox Recent Projects
Fusionbox recently completed the following projects:
Quickbooks – Quickbooks is really an online marketing leader. They are way advanced in what they are doing and needed a good team to implement some of their ideas. We have been developing custom web-based software for them since 2001. One of the most recent projects we completed was to create a tool that allows an administrator to create dynamic web landing pages that are served to users based on either the domain, location, or link from which they are coming. This means, they can serve different content to different users based on all kinds of variables. So, for example, if a user came from an IP address in New York, they would be presented with different pricing models, than say someone from Ohio. We have also completed A/B testing and Multivariate testing. This is also completely dynamic—which means the client can go online, create campaigns on the fly, and then track the success of each creative.
National Geographic – For National Geographic, we are creating a social networking site based around the map community. This means users can track trails on their GPS, upload their waypoints and create dynamic maps. They can then rate, comment on, and share maps. Users will be able to create and join different groups.
McClain Finlon Advertising – McClain Finlon advertising was having issues with their previous website. The usability was terrible, load times were long, the Flash video on the site wasn’t working, and they could not make updates. Plus, their site was not showing up on search engines—even when users searched for “McClain Finlon.” Ouch!! Most of the problem was the Flash programming. The first thing we did was take their site out of Flash and create a combination of Flash and HTML. Then we improved the usability of the entire site and gave them content management, so their marketing staff could update their portfolio pieces (including text, images, audio and video). We also gave them an RSS Feed for their press releases. The result was more traffic, better search engine results, up-to-date content, and a happy agency.
ManiaTV – For ManiaTV we redesigned their entire site and added a “Create your own channel tool” using AJAX technology. This allows users to search and browse video, add them to their favorites and them string them together in a playlist by dragging and dropping thumbnail images into position.
VerusLive – For VerusLive, an Evergreen-based market research company, we are creating a site built around Flash video content. The users will view video and then comment on video using recordings of themselves that they upload directly to the site. The tool will also connect directly to the users web cam and record video directly to the server.
Quickbooks – Quickbooks is really an online marketing leader. They are way advanced in what they are doing and needed a good team to implement some of their ideas. We have been developing custom web-based software for them since 2001. One of the most recent projects we completed was to create a tool that allows an administrator to create dynamic web landing pages that are served to users based on either the domain, location, or link from which they are coming. This means, they can serve different content to different users based on all kinds of variables. So, for example, if a user came from an IP address in New York, they would be presented with different pricing models, than say someone from Ohio. We have also completed A/B testing and Multivariate testing. This is also completely dynamic—which means the client can go online, create campaigns on the fly, and then track the success of each creative.
National Geographic – For National Geographic, we are creating a social networking site based around the map community. This means users can track trails on their GPS, upload their waypoints and create dynamic maps. They can then rate, comment on, and share maps. Users will be able to create and join different groups.
McClain Finlon Advertising – McClain Finlon advertising was having issues with their previous website. The usability was terrible, load times were long, the Flash video on the site wasn’t working, and they could not make updates. Plus, their site was not showing up on search engines—even when users searched for “McClain Finlon.” Ouch!! Most of the problem was the Flash programming. The first thing we did was take their site out of Flash and create a combination of Flash and HTML. Then we improved the usability of the entire site and gave them content management, so their marketing staff could update their portfolio pieces (including text, images, audio and video). We also gave them an RSS Feed for their press releases. The result was more traffic, better search engine results, up-to-date content, and a happy agency.
ManiaTV – For ManiaTV we redesigned their entire site and added a “Create your own channel tool” using AJAX technology. This allows users to search and browse video, add them to their favorites and them string them together in a playlist by dragging and dropping thumbnail images into position.
VerusLive – For VerusLive, an Evergreen-based market research company, we are creating a site built around Flash video content. The users will view video and then comment on video using recordings of themselves that they upload directly to the site. The tool will also connect directly to the users web cam and record video directly to the server.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Fusionbox Featured in CU Journal
Fusionbox was recently featured in the technology section of the national publication, the credit union journal.
The article discusses the use of eyetracking data and how we used this data to place certain elements of the site for better usability.
Fusionbox has designed three Los Angeles based credit union websites. The full article is posted below:
CU Uses Eye Tracking Studies To Create More User-Friendly Website
11/22/2006
by Kevin Jepson, Technology Correspondent
A burst of orange and persimmon floods the eye at the new E1Financial.org.
But not for long.
"We're ready to change the colors," explained LJ Tarman, vice president, marketing, at the $375-million E1 Financial CU here. "Our biggest complaint from members is about color."
Despite the color fumble, E1 Financial mainly hears compliments from members about last year's website "facelift," which was synchronized with the CU's new name and brand campaign, Tarman said.
Text Is "En Vogue"
E1 has also learned that text is "en vogue."
"Web users are jaded," explained Ivy Hastings, director of business development at the Denver-based website development and support firm, Fusionbox, Inc., which helped with E1's new site.
"Better websites are moving away from images and design elements to a clean, text-based call to action and list of the services and features of the site," she asserted.
In deciding where to put things on its new site, E1 Financial relied in part on multiple "eye-tracking" studies, which reveal what users see-or miss-on the web.
"We had six weeks to redesign the site-not a lot of time to really do it right," Hastings explained. "But there were a couple quick and immediate fixes that we knew we could make based on eye-tracking and best practices."
First, E1 moved its logo to the top left, where users' eyes first land, said Hastings.
"This lets the user know who you are, and what you do," she said.
A clearly branded website was especially important as the CU changed its name and logo, said Tarman. "The last thing we wanted was for members to log in and think they were in the wrong place," said Tarman. "To address that concern, for the first several months we had our new logo and our old logo flipping back and forth while members had the site open."
Next, E1 filled the dead center of the page with large, graphic promotions and "calls to action," Hastings said.
"Eye-tracking shows that you start at the top left and move towards the middle," explained Hastings. "Also, we didn't want to use a size that looked like an advertisement, and we didn't use anything blinking or moving."
E1 then dropped in a link to homebanking on the upper right side. "That's where users expect they can perform some kind of action after they have stopped scanning back and forth on the site," Hastings said.
Three Clicks Away
In March, the site will reveal the results of an overhaul that is intended to improve navigation, Tarman said. "Best practices tell us that it shouldn't take more than three clicks to get to anything on the site," she said. "That way, members have more success finding the information they're looking for."
For example, every product on the site will link back to the rates page so that members don't have to search for rates.
E1 won't stop there. "We'll be working with Fusionbox and our agency, Simon + Associates Advertising, for a while. The web is always getting better and faster, and our members continue to demand more information from the site."
"You can never get a site perfect," Hastings added. "You constantly test and refine."
And how will E1 refine the opus in orange on its current site? "We haven't decided on any colors in particular, but our next colors will be more soothing," said Tarman.
CUJ Resources
For info on this story:
* www.e1financial.org
* www.fusionbox.com - a Denver Website Design Company
* www.useit.com
* www.boxesandarrows.com
* www.clickz.com
The article discusses the use of eyetracking data and how we used this data to place certain elements of the site for better usability.
Fusionbox has designed three Los Angeles based credit union websites. The full article is posted below:
CU Uses Eye Tracking Studies To Create More User-Friendly Website
11/22/2006
by Kevin Jepson, Technology Correspondent
A burst of orange and persimmon floods the eye at the new E1Financial.org.
But not for long.
"We're ready to change the colors," explained LJ Tarman, vice president, marketing, at the $375-million E1 Financial CU here. "Our biggest complaint from members is about color."
Despite the color fumble, E1 Financial mainly hears compliments from members about last year's website "facelift," which was synchronized with the CU's new name and brand campaign, Tarman said.
Text Is "En Vogue"
E1 has also learned that text is "en vogue."
"Web users are jaded," explained Ivy Hastings, director of business development at the Denver-based website development and support firm, Fusionbox, Inc., which helped with E1's new site.
"Better websites are moving away from images and design elements to a clean, text-based call to action and list of the services and features of the site," she asserted.
In deciding where to put things on its new site, E1 Financial relied in part on multiple "eye-tracking" studies, which reveal what users see-or miss-on the web.
"We had six weeks to redesign the site-not a lot of time to really do it right," Hastings explained. "But there were a couple quick and immediate fixes that we knew we could make based on eye-tracking and best practices."
First, E1 moved its logo to the top left, where users' eyes first land, said Hastings.
"This lets the user know who you are, and what you do," she said.
A clearly branded website was especially important as the CU changed its name and logo, said Tarman. "The last thing we wanted was for members to log in and think they were in the wrong place," said Tarman. "To address that concern, for the first several months we had our new logo and our old logo flipping back and forth while members had the site open."
Next, E1 filled the dead center of the page with large, graphic promotions and "calls to action," Hastings said.
"Eye-tracking shows that you start at the top left and move towards the middle," explained Hastings. "Also, we didn't want to use a size that looked like an advertisement, and we didn't use anything blinking or moving."
E1 then dropped in a link to homebanking on the upper right side. "That's where users expect they can perform some kind of action after they have stopped scanning back and forth on the site," Hastings said.
Three Clicks Away
In March, the site will reveal the results of an overhaul that is intended to improve navigation, Tarman said. "Best practices tell us that it shouldn't take more than three clicks to get to anything on the site," she said. "That way, members have more success finding the information they're looking for."
For example, every product on the site will link back to the rates page so that members don't have to search for rates.
E1 won't stop there. "We'll be working with Fusionbox and our agency, Simon + Associates Advertising, for a while. The web is always getting better and faster, and our members continue to demand more information from the site."
"You can never get a site perfect," Hastings added. "You constantly test and refine."
And how will E1 refine the opus in orange on its current site? "We haven't decided on any colors in particular, but our next colors will be more soothing," said Tarman.
CUJ Resources
For info on this story:
* www.e1financial.org
* www.fusionbox.com - a Denver Website Design Company
* www.useit.com
* www.boxesandarrows.com
* www.clickz.com
Fusionbox Featured in Denver Daily News
Fusionbox was recently asked for their expert opinion by the Denver Daily News on Denver political candidates web sites.
Web Site Cost Questioned
By PETER MARCUS - October 22, 2006
Congressman Bob Beauprez has paid a company owned by his son-in-law $64,870 since last year to manage the operation of his gubernatorial campaign Web site. The cost reflects a $53,241 discrepancy between that of payment for his opponents Web site.
A search of “Web site” campaign expenditures filed with the Secretary of State’s office indicated that since October of last year, Bill Ritter’s camp has spent $11,629 on its gubernatorial campaign Web site. Almost all of those expenditures were made to Merchant Engine, LLC, a Web site developer operating out of Lakewood.
Beauprez’s Web site expenditures have all been made to Flat Creek Management, LLC, an operations management and outsourcing firm located in Washington, D.C. The company’s founder and president, Allen Fuller, is Beauprez’s deputy campaign manager and son-in-law. He and Beauprez’s daughter, Melanie Beauprez, are expecting their first child in April. Fuller also previously served as the press secretary and communications director for Beauprez.
Beauprez’s campaign manager, John Marshall, said the reason the expenditures are so high is because the campaign lumped Fuller’s consulting fees as deputy campaign manager together with the Web site development fee.
“It’s more of an accounting issue,” said Marshall. “It would be better [to split it up] but we only get a little room to explain the expenditures in the disclosure … it shows the limitations of the system.”
In Beauprez’s filings, separate listings are recorded for “campaign consulting” and “consulting,” but Marshall said the campaign decided it would be easier to combine Fuller’s services for the son-in-law’s particular case.
Colorado state law does not prohibit contributions from family members of a candidate as long as they are within the contribution limits allowed by law, said Dana Williams, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Gigi Dennis.
“If a tangible product is produced as a result of such services, ‘contribution’ includes the reasonable value of the materials involved, unless such value is negligible,” states Colorado State Law.
In other words, campaign expenditures to family members are allowed as long as the compensation is in line with fair-market value for the services.
Following this Denver Daily News report, ProgressNowAction.org is looking into plans to launch an investigation into the financial relationship between Beauprez and his son-in-law to determine if any campaign finance laws were broken, the organization said Friday.
“This is another example of Both Ways Bob at his worst,” said Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNowAction. “He asked the public to hold him accountable and now that we’re holding him accountable it turns out that he has been spending campaign resources well beyond the norm. There should be an immediate investigation as to whether Beauprez is violating any state laws.”
Filings with the Secretary of State’s office show that Beauprez’s Web site expenditures were just above average compared to Ritter’s Web site filings from October 2005 through April 2006. One payment on March 24 to Flat Creek Management, LLC, jumped from an average monthly payment of $2,108 to a single payment of $5,000.
But on May 15, Beauprez more than doubled that campaign Web site expenditure with a payment of $10,831 to Flat Creek Management, LLC. No other single payment has since been less than $5,900, and there was a Web site expenditure of $9,975 on June 30.
On the other hand, Ritter’s Web site expenditures have never topped $4,047 when on Aug. 10 a payment in that amount was made to Party2Win, based in Alexandria, Va. All other payments were made to Merchant Engine, LLC, never topping $2,062 with an average monthly payment of $947.
Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said at the beginning of their campaign, they were paying $300 every time a page was added to Ritter’s campaign Web site. But realizing that would add up, the campaign moved away from that format and now pay an hourly fee to Merchant Engine, LLC.
“I like our Web site — it’s functional and easy to navigate, and it displays a lot of information,” said Dreyer. “Maybe the Congressman’s son-in-law is ripping off the Congressman,” he joked.
“I feel like we get great service and a fantastic product for the amount of money we pay,” continued Dreyer. “Maybe [Beauprez] is paying too much, maybe he’s paying too much because it is his son-in-law.”
Marshall said the idea that the Beauprez campaign is paying more to Fuller because he is Beauprez’s son-in-law is not realistic because of the tight budget they are already operating off of.
“When working off of a budget as lean as we are, I can assure you that we don’t drop one dime that we don’t need to,” he said.
Records, however, filed with the Secretary of State indicate that Beauprez’s expenditures are for “Website” purposes. Local Web site design experts notice a significant discrepancy between Ritter and Beauprez’s site.
“My initial thought is that Beauprez has a more professional Web site, it’s more professionally done, [and] Ritter’s is more of an amateurish Web site,” said Chris Miller, a Web site designer with Denver-based Havoc Interactive.
He said that over the course of a year, it is possible that Beauprez could have spent $52,241 more on his Web site. He added that Web site designers take many factors into consideration, including additional features, content management, e-commerce, to name a few.
“From a design standpoint, Ritter could have gotten a better design for the money he spent,” said Miller.
Ivy Hastings, a Web designer with Denver-based Fusionbox, agreed.
“Ritter should have invested more in his Web presence for a much more professional result,” she said. “He tried to do it cheaply and it shows.”
That being said, after her firm analyzed each site for design, usability, search engine optimization, the quality of the HTML code, accessibility for sight-impaired users, server-side code, features, information, overall quality and budget, she determined that it is unlikely that Beauprez spent $64,870 on his Web site over the course of a year.
“Beauprez spent a lot of money — way too much money,” she said. “He easily could have had his site developed for half of what it cost.”
Fusionbox is a Denver Web Design Company.
Web Site Cost Questioned
By PETER MARCUS - October 22, 2006
Congressman Bob Beauprez has paid a company owned by his son-in-law $64,870 since last year to manage the operation of his gubernatorial campaign Web site. The cost reflects a $53,241 discrepancy between that of payment for his opponents Web site.
A search of “Web site” campaign expenditures filed with the Secretary of State’s office indicated that since October of last year, Bill Ritter’s camp has spent $11,629 on its gubernatorial campaign Web site. Almost all of those expenditures were made to Merchant Engine, LLC, a Web site developer operating out of Lakewood.
Beauprez’s Web site expenditures have all been made to Flat Creek Management, LLC, an operations management and outsourcing firm located in Washington, D.C. The company’s founder and president, Allen Fuller, is Beauprez’s deputy campaign manager and son-in-law. He and Beauprez’s daughter, Melanie Beauprez, are expecting their first child in April. Fuller also previously served as the press secretary and communications director for Beauprez.
Beauprez’s campaign manager, John Marshall, said the reason the expenditures are so high is because the campaign lumped Fuller’s consulting fees as deputy campaign manager together with the Web site development fee.
“It’s more of an accounting issue,” said Marshall. “It would be better [to split it up] but we only get a little room to explain the expenditures in the disclosure … it shows the limitations of the system.”
In Beauprez’s filings, separate listings are recorded for “campaign consulting” and “consulting,” but Marshall said the campaign decided it would be easier to combine Fuller’s services for the son-in-law’s particular case.
Colorado state law does not prohibit contributions from family members of a candidate as long as they are within the contribution limits allowed by law, said Dana Williams, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Gigi Dennis.
“If a tangible product is produced as a result of such services, ‘contribution’ includes the reasonable value of the materials involved, unless such value is negligible,” states Colorado State Law.
In other words, campaign expenditures to family members are allowed as long as the compensation is in line with fair-market value for the services.
Following this Denver Daily News report, ProgressNowAction.org is looking into plans to launch an investigation into the financial relationship between Beauprez and his son-in-law to determine if any campaign finance laws were broken, the organization said Friday.
“This is another example of Both Ways Bob at his worst,” said Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNowAction. “He asked the public to hold him accountable and now that we’re holding him accountable it turns out that he has been spending campaign resources well beyond the norm. There should be an immediate investigation as to whether Beauprez is violating any state laws.”
Filings with the Secretary of State’s office show that Beauprez’s Web site expenditures were just above average compared to Ritter’s Web site filings from October 2005 through April 2006. One payment on March 24 to Flat Creek Management, LLC, jumped from an average monthly payment of $2,108 to a single payment of $5,000.
But on May 15, Beauprez more than doubled that campaign Web site expenditure with a payment of $10,831 to Flat Creek Management, LLC. No other single payment has since been less than $5,900, and there was a Web site expenditure of $9,975 on June 30.
On the other hand, Ritter’s Web site expenditures have never topped $4,047 when on Aug. 10 a payment in that amount was made to Party2Win, based in Alexandria, Va. All other payments were made to Merchant Engine, LLC, never topping $2,062 with an average monthly payment of $947.
Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said at the beginning of their campaign, they were paying $300 every time a page was added to Ritter’s campaign Web site. But realizing that would add up, the campaign moved away from that format and now pay an hourly fee to Merchant Engine, LLC.
“I like our Web site — it’s functional and easy to navigate, and it displays a lot of information,” said Dreyer. “Maybe the Congressman’s son-in-law is ripping off the Congressman,” he joked.
“I feel like we get great service and a fantastic product for the amount of money we pay,” continued Dreyer. “Maybe [Beauprez] is paying too much, maybe he’s paying too much because it is his son-in-law.”
Marshall said the idea that the Beauprez campaign is paying more to Fuller because he is Beauprez’s son-in-law is not realistic because of the tight budget they are already operating off of.
“When working off of a budget as lean as we are, I can assure you that we don’t drop one dime that we don’t need to,” he said.
Records, however, filed with the Secretary of State indicate that Beauprez’s expenditures are for “Website” purposes. Local Web site design experts notice a significant discrepancy between Ritter and Beauprez’s site.
“My initial thought is that Beauprez has a more professional Web site, it’s more professionally done, [and] Ritter’s is more of an amateurish Web site,” said Chris Miller, a Web site designer with Denver-based Havoc Interactive.
He said that over the course of a year, it is possible that Beauprez could have spent $52,241 more on his Web site. He added that Web site designers take many factors into consideration, including additional features, content management, e-commerce, to name a few.
“From a design standpoint, Ritter could have gotten a better design for the money he spent,” said Miller.
Ivy Hastings, a Web designer with Denver-based Fusionbox, agreed.
“Ritter should have invested more in his Web presence for a much more professional result,” she said. “He tried to do it cheaply and it shows.”
That being said, after her firm analyzed each site for design, usability, search engine optimization, the quality of the HTML code, accessibility for sight-impaired users, server-side code, features, information, overall quality and budget, she determined that it is unlikely that Beauprez spent $64,870 on his Web site over the course of a year.
“Beauprez spent a lot of money — way too much money,” she said. “He easily could have had his site developed for half of what it cost.”
Fusionbox is a Denver Web Design Company.
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