(Continued — 2)

Design Priorities
Beyond simple asthetics and corporate executives' expectations of a glossy online shop, marketing and research play a very important part of the design process. Companies which don't do sufficient research as to what their customer wants, and where their customer might be having problems with the online shopping experience, might lose potential sales. Many companies waited until this past year to launch their online shop, determining that the technology had become more affordable, and that there was a sufficient online audience to warrant the e-commerce investment. One of the side benefits of waiting to start an e-commerce venture until more recently has been that smaller companies without the budget or assets to conduct proper research can, in some cases, piggyback on the shoulders of their competition who have already gone through several stages of learning. By following the earl-adopters of e-commerce, who have found their audience, competitive research can be equally as valuable as raw research of the market audience to which the business is aimed.

Inglewood, California-based Imageologists (www.image65.com) chose to launch their online commerce site in 1999 after many years of traditional mail-order. Because their product line is primarily digital imaging products and supplies, they chose to develop a site which contained a strong graphical look, much like their printed catalogs. "For our e-commerce site the graphic design was and is very important," says Andrew Goggin, Sales Manager. "The look of the site is very important to draw customers to the site. The goal was to balance the graphics to have enough to draw customers to the site but not so many that the speed of the site would be compromised. If you have too many graphics going from one page to the next it becomes too time consuming — and people do not return to the site."

After a few months of operation, Goggin's team was able to obtain further feedback from actual customers using the site, which caused him to reconsider the direction of the site's look and feel. Although they had made some decisions based on their competition, already online, they found that their audience wasn't necessarily happy with the approach taken by their competition. "The people we interviewed preferred the simpler look versus too many graphics," said Goggin. Although the site was developed using a mid-range database-driven system with a very fast engine, and running on a Sun Enterprise server, Imageologists found customers still preferred fewer graphics and simpler information and navigation. The conclusion was that although the site was acceptably fast relative to what others were doing, it still wasn't as fast as customers expected or desired. "We have moved from a heavy graphics site to more HTML and will continue in this direction," says Goggin. "I think sales, especially repeat sales, are successful (for us) with limited graphics."

The Candle Connection (www.candleconnect.com), a Santa Monica California-based manufacturer and reseller of specialty gifts, hired an outside company to assist in the research for their site design. Owner Dina Lasky knew she wanted a highly graphical, engaging site which would be similar to a glossy online printed catalog of gifts. She was concerned that too many images might affect performance and the shopping experience, but found that all of her successful competitors who had been online much longer had graphic-rich Web sites containing many images, animation, and artwork to guide the customer to product categories. The goal then was to ensure the chosen software and Web site could handle the design priorities. "The graphic design was very important," says Lasky. "After we launched, people reported to us that they found they could surf around this particular Web site for approx 15-20 minutes looking at different photos, info, etcetera, and that it made for a more interesting shopping experience."

The specific audience to which the site was marketed wanted to spend time on each page, rather than quickly zipping through options and pricing. The slowdown for Candle Connection customers came at the checkout stage, so that portion of the site was designed with almost no graphics whatsoever to speed the process when the client has already made a buying decision.

www.iZoom.com, a new online automotive portal and start-up company currently building their online Web presence, also determined that their graphic design would be a priority to launch their new brand identity. "Graphic design considerations are extremely important," says Stephen Monaco, Chief Internet Officer. "Although creating pages that look gorgeous need to be balanced with response-time delays that are a main determinant of Web usability."

iZoom.com will launch Summer of 2000 with a large national media campaign and strong brand graphics. Monaco takes exception to the movement toward all-text HTML style Web sites (such as Amazon.com, Netcenter.com and others). Said Monaco, "Recent studies (conducted by John Morkes Jakob Nielsen, and reported in Nielsen's book, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity) indicate that 79 pecent of users always scanned any new (Web) page they came across. Further research proved that users would rather scan than read, so too much text is definitely a drawback to attracting customers." Indicating their intent to go with cool, sports-themed graphics, Monaco pointed out that it's all about knowing who your audience is or will be. "I believe that the highly graphical Web site has a positive impact on sales, as long as the graphics don't get in the way of intuitive navigation."

Cachet Fine Art Photographic Papers (www.onecachet.com) launched their e-commerce site in 1998, but toward the end of 1999 determined they needed to redevelop their site. This decision was based on both customer research and because they had originally rushed online without a lot of knowledge, and their experience as an e-retailer provided insights they would not have been able to obtain without jumping in first hand. Their current focus includes a complete re-design and adding additional "sticky" content in order to offer more value versus a simple shopping experience. "When we first got our site up and running on the Net, being there was good enough to make us feel that we were somewhere near the cutting edge of this strange new world," said Ike Royer, president. "That didn't last long. A constellation of Web sites soon proliferated into a galaxy. The novelty was gone and Web travelers were looking for substance and not just "pretty." Design has to be at once seductive and sensible, titillating and informative, witty and at the same time helpful. It was, and is, "do or die". Sites that don't meet these criteria just don't get a bookmark and end up like dead stars floating in this galaxy on its way to becoming a universe." Part of Cachet's approach to renewal was to move from using a small design company to hiring an experienced Web development company with e-commerce experience. They expect to launch their new site in the Spring of 2000.

Study Your Audience
When it comes to "designing" an e-commerce site there are many, many considerations. Graphic design, back-end, audience, and budget. Stephen Monaco offered the following advice, "Modern life is hectic and people simply don't have time to work too hard for their information. Keep the design simple and tasteful. Design for an optimal user experience under realistic conditions. Keep pages very short with secondary information relegated to supporting pages."

Andrew Goggin agrees with the idea of the optimal user experience, "Really think about your business from the customer's perspective so the things you use the graphics for are really what your customers will see as beneficial to them."

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