LETTERS

Website design is not about looking pretty

I recently was in London attending ECMOD, the U.K.'s version of the Direct Marketing Association's Annual Conference, only smaller and friendlier. These days, I love speaking internationally — Asia, Europe, South America, and anywhere else people are really interested in improving their Websites.

It's refreshing when you ask how long it will take to make a change and they say a few days — as opposed to months, sometimes even years. It's also invigorating when folks want to design for the user of the site and not to appease the marketing director, the CEO, the stockholders, and so on.

During the Q&A session at my third half-day workshop, someone from the U.K.'s version of Wal-Mart raised his hand. I've worked with his company before, and I knew that he wasn't crazy about the style of Websites that I recommend. “The sites you have shown examples of are…”

I cut him off, knowing full well that I was already running late and by the time he figured out how to say what he wanted to say we'd have lost three to five minutes. (They're very polite in the UK.)

“Uglier than a dog's breakfast?”

The audience laughed. “Um, well, um, yes,” he stammered.

He was right: The sites I think are the sites to emulate are usually not the most aesthetically pleasing. In fact, some of them are downright awful looking. But most people are in business for the money and right, wrong or indifferent, the “ugly” sites often yield the most conversion.

I don't really care what a Website looks like. I just want it to perform — to get the biggest bang for the marketing buck. My primary goal is to entice the user to convert to an order or an inquiry.

We can contemplate our navels all we want, but the reality is that users visit Websites with specific intentions, and giving them what they want as fast and efficiently as possible is the key.

The user is the king.

It's their experience that counts.

Not mine, not yours, but the person who is at your site doing whatever it is that they want to do.
Amy Africa
president, Eight by Eight

Finally — some fan mail

Liberty Medical is well known for having actor Wilford Brimley in our commercials and for our work in the diabetes area. I've read your publication for years and wanted you to know I think it's great. It's well shared by my colleagues, too.

Looking forward to the next issue.
Ronald C. Pruett, Jr.
executive vice president/chief marketing officer, Polymedica/Liberty Medical

CONTACT US…

E-mail: melissa.dowling@penton.com

Phone: 203-358-9900 Fax: 203-358-5823

Letter: 11 River Bend Drive South, Stamford, CT 06907 or visit us on the Web at www.MultichannelMerchant.com