Microsites
Microsites. Campaign sites. Sub sites. They all mean the same thing - a site apart from the brand's corporate site that contains narrowed and specific data, whether it's for a certain audience, to promote a special product or for an event. According to Blink Interactive, sub-sites can face an identity crisis and I couldn't agree more. Below are some of Blink's recommendations for helping to build awareness of those sub-sites and keeping users housed within their sub-site experience :
- using and marketing memorable URLs that create a unique identity for the sub-site (such as www.npr.org/music)
- working with owners of the parent site to improve navigation to the sub-site, and
- optimizing the site-wide Search tool such that certain keywords and synonyms display results that direct users to the sub-site.
Keeping Users in Control of their User Experience
This is another posting from Blink about allowing users to maintain control of their user experience:
Keep users in their comfort zones. Keeping users in control of their experience is an important usability principle. This can take many forms, from providing a clear sense of place or progress in a flow to offering "undo" options. We tested a few web sites last year that pushed video or audio content to unsuspecting users as soon as they opened a page. Auto-play distracted users from their primary task or caused them to search for quick exit points. Other sites with multimedia content kept users in control by offering "Listen" or "Watch the video" links and obvious playback controls. Sometimes keeping users in control involves stepping them through complicated processes at their own pace or allowing them to filter and process emotional or sensitive information gradually, enabling them to retreat if overwhelmed. We observed the latter when testing health-related content explaining serious illnesses and procedures.
Micro Interactions improve Google Rank
This is an interesting AdAge article that discusses "micro interactions", such as "twittering" and "widgets" and how these little "micro interactions" can help get some 'shelf space' on Google. We all know that the more "discussions" you have out in "online land" the more relevant Google things you are. One quote from the article states that "Dell has 20 people dedicated to engaging social media", but suggested an alternative would be "To tell a wider swatch of company's employees to dedicate 10% to 20% of their time to it." Another example of a "micro interaction" is Harley Davidson's "video-rich widget" that users can add to their iGoogle page (among other places) to watch broadcasted content from its annual Sturgis gathering.
Banking Website
We've designed and developed a few bank websites so I'm always keeping my eye out on ones that are well done (since so many of them are not). Kiwi Bank of New Zealand does a particularly good job on their site...well, on their home page (only). They have great content prioritization, their site is easy to navigate and is visually appealing. Again - they failed like most other banks once they got past the home page - but... good job on successfully creating at least 1 page! I also found a "campaign site" they created in an attempt to "Stop the Aussie Bank Invasion"... which I found particularly amusing since we recently worked on a website for an Australian Bank entering the US market. Guess it's a commonality.
