The requests just keep pouring in! I can’t seem to keep up with them but I aim to please so I’m straying off my path of randomness once again. This request couldn’t possibly live up to the epic APCO Credit Union analysis but I’ll give it my best shot.

WEBSITE: http://www.springofknowledge.com/

Holy text Batman! Within 5 seconds of viewing this page I had to look away because my eyes hurt. Actually, I had something in my eye at the time but still, I would have looked away anyway. It was hard for me to make it through the first paragraph without being distracted by the extremely unpleasant look of the yellow highlighted copy, “visual learning method”. Is that the most relevant text to highlight and is it truly the thing you want your readers to draw their attention to? Probably not. From there I just jumped around in no real order, chuckling along the way, as I thought of many ways to be overly cynical in my analysis. (The image of the 3 dudes in blue jeans, each with a lower cut shirt than the next, was too easy to make fun of so I won’t go there). But you know what? I’m a changed man – well at least for today. Instead of just overly criticizing everything, I’ll try to be as constructive as possible and offer just a few easy solutions to turn this site around.

These Guys Wail!

The main problem with the site is it’s near impossible to scan the text and digest why this software (it’s software right?) is so great. I have no desire learn about the software, let alone purchase it, because there is simply too much information. The intro paragraph is decent actually, but center aligned text is a design no-no (and I’m no designer). It is too difficult to read. On top of that, I had to take a deep breath to get through that entire first sentence (try it, you’ll see…can’t be done!). That first paragraph or top portion of the page needs to sell the product. Right now, it just looks like a Word document. Without having to do a major overhaul, you can drastically improve the top part of the home page by just picking 3 to 4 key features of the product and list them as bullets under a revised and shortened intro. This would immediately reduce the amount of time visitors have to take to understand what they are looking at and provide some sense of flow for the rest of the website.

The copy on the right side of the page that covers the entire length of the page is overkill. There may be some great information in there but it’s too much to spell out on a home page that is already chock full with text. A good idea would be to move this content to another area of the site, perhaps under a navigation labeled “Music University”. This would allow more room on the home page to feature the product and even include a call to action so people can actually purchase the software.

Come on Spring of Knowledge, make better use of the navigation (what the hell does Spring of Knowledge mean anyway?). People instinctively look to navigation to, well, navigate. There is no sense in cramming tons of information onto the home page if your content is laid out in an understandable and intuitive manner. Perhaps try adding a few navigation items like “Software Features” or “FAQ” so people can easily locate information or find answers to any questions.

I made mention of a call to action earlier but wanted to stress how important it is for users to not have to think about what to do next. Without a nice, strategically placed button that is easily found and shows visitors how to make a purchase, you’re reducing your chances of actually getting someone to open up their wallet, purse, or murse.  You can lead a horse to water (your product)  but you can’t make it drink (purchase), so you should do everything possible to make it easy for a consumer, or horse, to convert. Clicking on the “order” link in the navigation brings me here:

Uh oh!

This is preventing your horse to drink. Now, not everyone would be frightened by this warning sign, but I’m sure a great deal would be and would most likely leave your site. Potential customers – GONE! Update that security certificate and let your horsey drink!

This could seriously benefit from a major overhaul on the design and SEO front but unfortunately not all people have the money or resources to take on such a task.  If you can only handle a few things, start with cutting your home page copy in half and at the very least, move some of it to another page on the site and link to it. Add a button for software purchasing, get rid of the highlighted text and you are on your way….FREEBIRD!

Living in Southern California I am exposed to more surf and skate clothing than you could imagine.  As I took a short walk today to the beach I found my inspiration for my next analysis.  Some fellow walked by as I was “checking in” to La Jolla shores beach and he was wearing Hurley board shorts,  a Hurley t-shirt and and a Hurley hat.  Overkill? Quite possibly but it prompted me to take out my phone and Google “Hurley” to check out their mobile  (unfriendly) website.

Not Surfable!

Before I start let me say that I am a bit biased because I believe websites should balance the functional and the fancy, not just be billboards for your brand. I hate splash pages that serve no purpose but to have you click to enter the site.  Hurley’s site makes you do that very thing. You have to click or touch the image to enter the website. Absent is any intuitiveness. You are greeted with Hurley’s big “H Jeans” logo and a surfer…..uh, jeans and surfing? That doesn’t make much sense. Anyway, what am I supposed to do now? Where do I go? What do I click? Does something happen here? The mobile version (at least on my iPhone) doesn’t offer any indication of what to do. The full site is just as confusing. My suggestion would be to make it clear and easy for people to perform an action, something I preach over and over again. If you must separate your site into “store” and “site”, then make it distinguisable – keep the text visible that reads “store” and ‘site”. Don’t make people think too much…we are lazy and want our surfing (pun intended) to be simple.

After making to the ”site” section, the first thing I see are a bunch of videos that don’t play.  This is a major problem regardless if its just an iPhone issue.  The focal point of your site is to demonstrate, through video and flash, how your clothing fits into this action sport lifestyle and mobile visitors can’t even view them. A simple fix would be to convert all videos to a format that is compatible on iPhones, Droids and all other popular smartphones. You might not think many people are accessing your mobile site to learn about your brand but read this – according to a Pew Research Study, 40% of adults use the mobile phones to access web. This number is up from 32% last year and is probably much higher for the younger, more “Hurley” ish crowd. You might not think it is a big deal now but you watch – in 3 years time the mobile web usage will be bigger than desktop usage.

Despite the awkward entrance, the site isn’t a horrible user experience on a smartphone. It isn’t all in flash so I am able to navigate relatively easily but it could be much easier. A company like Hurley (owned by Nike), should invest in developing a mobile experience. Many brands do it well – Zappos and Amazon to name a couple. A simple sniffer script placed on the home page can dictate what type of browser or device the visitor is using and can serve the appropriate version of the site – “mobile”  for mobile users and “full” for desktop users.  Perhaps just start with making the videos compatible on the “site” version and then move on to a simple shopping experience on the “store” version.  Whatever route you choose, step back and ask yourself, what is the most important information we want to share with our users and what do they want to get out of this experience? It might not be as complicated as you think.

Instead of selecting a site to analyze by complete randomness today I decided to change things up and take a request. Yes that’s right, this guy takes requests. One of my avid followers asked me what I thought of this “special” website so I decided t humor him a bit and give it ago. Boy, was I amazed at what I found.

WEBSITE: APCO Employees Credit Union (www.apcocu.org)

Show me those rates on the abacus please

Am I in a time warp? Did I really just see  what I think I saw? I know credit unions don’t have the reputation of being  financial institutions with tons of glitz and glamor but come on, this just looks ridiculous. Where do I even begin? Okay, I know where.

First off, where do I log in? They claim “PC Banking is now available” (who calls it “PC banking” anyway? What about “online banking”) but there is no indication of any entrance to their web banking portal.  Oh wait, there it is, directly under the image that says “Map” in yellow letters. How intuitive! Totally confused here – not a good sign. If you want people to actually use your online banking, make it easy for them to access. I can’t stress enough how websites need to be simple to navigate. If I am confused, there is a good chance there are many more just like me.

Second, I do like the fact that the navigation is very easy to see  but the accompanying images couldn’t possibly be any cheesier and low budget. Is that an abacus they are using for the rates navigation image? Oh that is definitely how I want to portray my bank – the modern look of an abacus. Seriously, this is not the type of impression you want to make on new or existing customers. First impressions of websites say a lot and what you’ve got does not help your cause. Please update those graphics and you’ll immediately update the look of your 1994 website.

Finally, what are all of these banners in the middle of your page? You already want people to leave your site? I just got here and I’m having such a good time I don’t want to go! Having all of these links to various sites tells me as a visitor that nothing on this page is worth sticking around for. There is absolutely zero valuable content on the home page and any valuable content you do have is buried in the links. What about brining some of the helpful information right to the home page, like perhaps some “About Us” information or even a listing of the products and services, maybe even some financial calculators. Whatever it is, it has to be something that you feel your visitors would find the most helpful.  So rather than making a user choose between some navigation links or banners that link to another destination, keep them on the site and show them what APCO CU is all about.