When it come down to business, the customer does not need advanced design to buy a shoe. They need clear and straight forward answers of where to find it, how to find it, and the very basic details of how to buy it.

Nielsen says some of the biggest issues that led to lost business value for some of their consulting projects were:

  • An e-commerce site lost millions of dollars because overly aggressive homepage promotions made users distrust the price of any product that was not on sale. This is a classic example of the importance of trust-enhancing design in e-commerce.
  • Rather than offering a unified intranet portal, one big company's intranet had inconsistent design and used different systems to manage different areas. As employees moved around the intranet, the navigation options and structural appearance changed.
  • Parts of the intranet looked outdated compared to newer sections, which made users doubt the accuracy of the older pages' information. Again, this is a credibility problem -- trust is not just an e-commerce issue.
  • Potential customers couldn't find a service company's outlets because the store finder required users to know the company's name for each location. People who used other names left the site, wrongly assuming the company didn't serve their areas
  • A content site chased users away with intrusive advertising that included few relevant ads.
  • A completely novel Internet offering was lost on most users, who didn't understand the service, how it worked, or what it could offer them. Given their vague inklings about the payoff, users were unwilling to register with the site. Among other problems, users didn't understand the site's terminology.

When I read over these issues I was so familiar with things that I have noticed in my own site that I felt a little overwhelmed on how to correct the issues.
Luckily my web site is my personal site that will have no ads, its not an e-commerce site, and navigation is fairly simple to use. However, my goal is too attempt compliance in all ways to make the best site for usability as possible

Top Three Design Priorities

So when it comes down to it, the common theme to "killing a business web site" begins with the basic, simple usability principle that have been established since day 1. Here they are:

  • Clear Communication.
  • Providing information users want.
  • Consistency with page design, navigation, and information structure.

"Get these three right, and you'll enhance your site's credibility, ease a user's way through the site, and thus do far more for the site's business value than any JavaScript trick."
-Nielsen

Better Content

"Generally, all you need are plainspoken words and clean photos." says Nielsen. These have been constant standards since forever ago and there is no better way to increase profits than by have clear, easy to see photos and precise, clear content. Writing for the web is by far the most overlooked and undervalued practice out there. I even have issue with that. I try to keep my assignments different from the rest of my site as far as content goes.

Why Useless, Fancy Stuff Gets Promoted

Generally, technology and the "cool stuff" that enhance our entertainment get the most recognition from the media. Nielsen thinks for these reasons "new technology equals news" and "companies champion technologies because they can be sold as products and consulting services".

"For 90% of web sites, it's more important to focus on communicating clearly, whether they're e-commerce sites, corporate sites, government sites, or non-profit sites."

Elite Experience vs. User Experience

The last reason that Nielsen say that less flash is more important to mainstream business web sites is because average users just want to complete tasks online and get back to their families. Elite users is a very small number and they are usually too overly engaged in the new trinkets that come out every 6 months.

One of usability's most hard-earned lessons is that "you are not the user." If you work on a development project, you're atypical by definition. Design to optimize the user experience for outsiders, not insiders...It's tempting to work on what's hot, but to make money, focus on the basics that customers value.

Because I am going into business, I welcome articles like this one becuase it reiterates and reminds me of what is the most imporatant to customers and vistors of ecommerce site and presonal sites. By hearing over and over why clear photos and consistent navigation is so fundamental, I tend to always check to see if I am compliant.
I will continue to look for the little things to make better and rely on user testing to make the best site ever.