Hello!
Please note: This answer is not finished until you're satisfied with
it. If you choose to rate this answer, please do so after asking for
any additional information/clarification. Thanks for your
understanding.
I invite you to take a look at another web critique I've done, as I'll
be applying similar reasoning to the critique of your site:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=148119
FIRST PAGE ENCOUNTERED
----------------------
www.conferences.com
Overall, very commercial and professional appearance.
Does the following text really belong on the front page?
"Welcome to the next generation . . .
The superior technology used in full-duplex voice and video conference
phones can't be compared with old-fashioned, semi-duplex
speakerphones. If you haven't experienced a conference phone, you've
just got to hear the difference for yourself. No more tinny sounding
voices. No more talking over each other, and no more half heard words.
The problems of speakerphones are gone."
Is this is the main thing you want to stress to the customer? Is it
absolutely necessary for them to see this on the front page?
Remember, the less clutter -- the cleaner -- the better.
I might emphasize this even more:
110% Price Protection
Free Shipping
Free Return Shipping
60 Day Money Back Guarantee
As a customer, don't quite know where to go first. Your product
categories are where you want to immediately steer your customer.
Great price protection, free shipping, free return shipping, and 60
money back guarantee should be emphasized second. Being the first
thing you want to steer them to, they're currently off to the left
side in a very low-key format. I would want to see them much larger
and possibly in a different place. Use fonts, sizes and colors to
prioritize what the customer looks at first. Otherwise he can get
easily frustrated within a few seconds.
SECOND PAGE ENCOUNTERED
-----------------------
I selected SMALL OFFICE/PERSONAL from the PRODUCTS pull-down menu.
This brought me to
http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/voice/personal_office/personal_office.html
First thing that strikes me as being a little odd is that there's only
one product listed.
Secondly, I see this phone, I like the description. I want to buy it.
Where's the "add to cart" button?
THIRD PAGE ENCOUNTERED
----------------------
I selected "view details" on previous page, and it brought me to this
page:
http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/voice/personal_office/polycom_soundpoint.html
The bottom of this page is a little confusing. As a customer, I
specifically selected only the one item, and it's listing the other
two accessories and their prices below the price of my item -- looking
as if I have already added them to the cart. Even though you have the
orange writing [which is easily overlooked] and the checkboxes on the
left side, the format makes me think that I've got either 2 items with
a total, or 3 items that have yet to be totalled. At any time you
don't want the customer to ask "what's going here" in his mind.
Because these accessories are incidental to the main purchase, you
might want to indent the accessory items and bring the prices in more
toward the center. Change the fonts and attributes such that they're
not as bold [especially the price]. Perhaps something like:
Check here __ to add Polycom Intelligent Terminal Adapter (ITA)
[$119.00]
Check here __ to add Plantronics M110 Over-the-Head Headset [$25.95]
for just [$144.95]
And possiblly change "add to cart" to "Add item(s) to cart" with no
arrow or line pointing anywhere from that icon.
FOURTH PAGE ENCOUNTERED
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http://www.conferencers.com/cgi-bin/cart/addcart.cgi
A more accessible way of of avoiding confusion with the
quantity-in-cart issue [as well as the need to use "0" to remove an
item] is to make the quantity option an automatically updating
pull-down menu. It's set to 1 by default, with a little clickable
arrow to bring down the other available quantities. When any
different quantity is selected, it autmatically updates the price.
Here you can conveniently have a "remove item" option on the menu, so
the user need only select this to remove the item. No need for an
update button, no need for the "0" quantity, no need to refresh the
screen, no possible confusion.
Does the total include Shipping and/or taxes? Taxes and shipping
should MOST DEFINITELY be included right up front so that the customer
knows the real total without feeling apprehensive about continuing.
Also, it says "You've saved $ 29.98 ordering from Headsets.com" -- but
I only know this as "conferencers.com." What is the association you
want in the customer's mind? Should that read conferences.com?
FIFTH PAGE ENCOUNTERED
----------------------
https://www.conferencers.com/cgi-bin/cart/checkout.cgi
Good. I might change your "Thank You" font below. It's of a
different feel than the rest of your site.
SIXTH PAGE ENCOUNTERED
----------------------
https://www.conferencers.com/cgi-bin/cart/purchase.cgi
Might want to add an icon to go back to the home page.
This error has an extraneous "x" at the end of it:
Items marked with * are required to correctly fulfill your order!x
This was at the bottom of this page:
[Sat Aug 23 17:03:16 2003] global_functions.pl: Database handle
destroyed without explicit disconnect.
Also, in the email you sent for confirmation, the following line:
"We hope you come to love conferencers just as much as we do. "
... didn't seem like it fit(?)
SUMMARY
-------
Overall, very professional. Took my order without a hitch.
If you'd like to post another question to my attention, I'd be glad to
critique your entire site. Please let me know how I can be of further
service.
Thank you,
jbf777-ga |
Clarification of Answer by
jbf777-ga
on
25 Aug 2003 20:29 PDT
Additional critique:
Live Person was good. A bit of a delay however, when seeing my
responses pop up. Representative seemed responsive and friendly.
Searching is excellent and intelligent. I might change it so that
there's only one thing clickable on each return item. Right now, the
title and the URL are both clickable, but it could create confusion as
to whether or not each go to the same or different pages. You might
want to indent all the description information as well, for easier
reading.
I know the sites are affiliated, but on this page --
http://www.conferencers.com/cgi-bin/search/search.cgi -- and I believe
throughout your whole site -- you have headsets.com physical address.
Should probably be conferencers.com:
Headsets.com, One Daniel Burnham Ct., 310c, San Francisco, CA 94109
An "add to cart" button should be underneath the "view details" button
for *every* product. In addition, when you click on view details, it
takes you to the product information page with a "buy now" icon. For
consistency, this should probably say "add to cart" instead. Right
now, it sends the user to the bottom of the screen which is a little
confusing. Did "buy now" place the item in my cart? It didn't, but I
might think so if I select that. Remember, you have to cater to the
lowest common denominator of customer, and that's the one with little
to no web experience. The idea is to minimize selectable options and
eliminate anything that might be misinterpreted. It should probably
say "Add this item to my shopping cart" as well. And there should
probably be only one instance of it on the page.
The "buy now" option for this Konftel 200 page:
http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/voice/large_conference/konftel_200.html
takes you to the bottom of the Konftel 50 page:
http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/voice/small_conference/konftel_50.html#buy
This doesn't seem right.
--
For: http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/voice/personal_office/personal_office.html
(1) "Small Office/Personal
Enjoy the benefits of a conference phone at a reasonable price. These
products are designed for smaller rooms, but offer the same high
quality
that larger conference phones offer."
To reiterate before, we have only one product on this page, even
though it references more than one.
This is universal:
(2) This text is too faded:
home > products > voice > small office/personal
(3) Is this text necessary?
"you save $xx.yy"
Saved from where? How? Do I need to know that?
--
For: http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/voice/small_conference/small_conference.html
(1) Small Conference
Geared towards small conference rooms, these phones offer high quality
duplex sound at a reasonable price.
Should this read "full-duplex"?"
(2) 16 digit LCD displays Caller ID & time of day & duration of call.
Should read: 16-digit LCD displays caller ID, time of day, and
duration of call
(remove period for consistency as well; ampersands are unprofessional
in the middle of sentences or phrases)
--
For: http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/voice/medium_conference/medium_conference.html
(1) When polled about conference phones, our customers value clarity,
reliability and ease of use.
Necessary? I would think this would be desired by anyone looking for
a phone.
--
For: http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/video/personal_office/personal.html
Another instance of only one product. Before creating an entire
category of products, I would have at least 4-5 products to show.
--
For: http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/specials/special.htm
(1) "A voucher has been added" should be "A voucher will be added"
(2) "(and we bet you will!)" is a little imposing? :)
(3) "Your neck and shoulders will surely thank you" doesn't belong at
the end of the sentence. As written right now, it's read as: "neck
and shoulders will surely thank you for returning the product."
--
For: http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/center/testimonials.html
I would insert a slight spacing in between the quote and the person
quoted.
--
For: http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/center/international.html
For special order requests outside the United States please e-mail us.
internationalorders@headsets.com
[replace period with colon]
--
For: http://www.conferencers.com/conferencers/center/privacy.html
It may be a bit unprofessional to name names of other companies in
this instance.
======
I hope this works for you. I'll await your information about the
other sites. If you're interested in an on-going arrangement for
critiquing, usability assessments, and proofreading, I'd be glad to
talk about it.
Thanks!
jbf
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