A Closer Look: Critical Reviews of Corporate Websites - Lou takes on www.gm.com's main page - WebBusiness Magazine Feb. 21, 2000

<body bgcolor="WHITE"> <table width="730"> <tr><td colspan=3> <p align=right> <font size="-1" FACE="Verdana,arial,helvetica,geneva"><a href="0200_toc.html" target="_top">Feb. 2000</a> Issue of <a href="http://webbusiness.cio.com/" target="_top">WebBusiness Magazine</a><br><br> <a href="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/closer.html">A Closer Look Index</a> </font> </P> <FONT color="red" FACE="arial,helvetiva,geneva" size="2"><B> A Closer Look: Critical Reviews of Corporate Websites<br><br> </B></FONT> <img src="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/images/wb_0200_closer.gif " width="400" height="100" alt="Take my main page...please!" border="0"> <BR CLEAR="ALL"> <BR CLEAR="ALL"> <BR> </td></tr> <tr><td valign=top width=150> <BR> <BR> <FONT color="BLACK" FACE="arial,helvetiva,geneva" size="3"> <B>BY LOUIS ROSENFELD</B> </FONT> <BR><BR><BR> <table width="157" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td align="left" valign="top"> <img src="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/images/lou_rosenfeld.gif" border="0" alt="Lou Rosenfeld"><br> <FONT color="BLACK" FACE="arial,helvetiva,geneva" size="-1"> Louis Rosenfeld is president of <a href="http://argus-inc.com" target="_new">Argus Associates</a>, which specializes in providing information architecture consulting to Fortune 500s. He is coauthor of the best-seller, <a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/infotecture">Information Architecture on the World Wide Web</a>.<br><br> <a href="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/closer.html">Read previous installments of "A Closer Look."</a> </FONT> </td></tr> </table> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <IMG SRC="http://images.cio.com/images/ads/cio_serv_ctr_1.gif" WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="56" BORDER="0" ALT=""><a href="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/022100_closer_content.html?printversion=yes" target=_top> <IMG src="http://a772.g.akamai.net/7/772/1328/be7bc81ddae262/www.cio.com/archive/images/cio_serv_ctr_2.gif" WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="13" BORDER="0" ALT="Printer Friendly Version"></a> <form method="post" action="http://www2.cio.com/archive/wb_email_article_form.cfm" target=_top> <input type=hidden name="filename" value="022100_closer.txt"> <input type=hidden name="date" value="Feb. 21, 2000"> <input type=hidden name="title" value="A Closer Look: Critical Reviews of Corporate Websi"> <input type=hidden name="folder" value="archive"> <input type=hidden name="by" value="Lou Rosenfeld"> <INPUT type="image" value="submit" src="http://a772.g.akamai.net/7/772/1328/57003afca89cac/www.cio.com/archive/images/cio_serv_ctr_3.gif" WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="13" BORDER="0" ALT="Email Article to a Friend"> </form> <A HREF="http://subscribe.cio.com/archive.html" target=_top><IMG src="http://www.cio.com/archive/images/cio_serv_ctr_5.gif" WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="13" BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe to CIO"></A> <BR CLEAR=all> <P><BR><BR> <BR> <BR> </TD> <td width=40> <br></td> <TD valign=top width=370> <img src="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/images/letter_blue_sans_L.gif" align="left" width="30" height="34" alt="L">et's start with a single, seemingly simple premise: A website's main page should allow users to find the answers to basic questions. Amazingly, this fairly obvious rule is often ignored. <BR><BR> Up until two weeks ago, General Motors was one information architecture's worst offenders. While the main page one of the company's websites, <i>www.generalmotors.com</i>, provided users with a wealth of important information, the main page of the other, <i>www.gm.com</i> did precious little. <br><br> <img src="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/images/wb_0200_closer_gm.gif" alt="www.generalmotors.com" border="1" width="300" height="241"> <br><BR><BR> Unlike most main pages, which overwhelm the user with too much information, <i>www.gm.com</i> consisted only of:<br> <li>a link to <i>www.generalmotors.com</i>; <li>a link to the GM BuyPower site-GM's commerce site; <li>a separate link to GM BuyPower's special spring deals; <li>and, as of Feb. 7, 2000, a link to GM's North American Auto Show site, although, it should be noted, the show ended on Jan. 23, 2000. <BR><BR> The logo and logotype also served as a link, though not to <i>www.generalmotors.com</i>, as you might expect, but to the Auto Show site. <BR><BR> So what lessons can we learn from the sparsely populated main page that was <i>www.gm.com</i>? <BR><BR> A main page should provide answers to the most common questions that users bring to the site. In the case of GM, visitors might want answers to questions such as:<br> <li>How can I learn about GM's cars? How do I buy one? <li>Where can I find a special site for Chevrolet? Buick? Saab? <li>How do I invest (or keep track of my investments) in GM stock? <li>How can I (or my company) do business with GM? <li>How can I get a job at GM? <li>What's the news at GM these days? <BR><BR> But <i>www.gm.com</i> gave users only these facts: You've reached GM. Now click on the link for <i>www.generalmotors.com</i> to go to GM. We've got something called GM BuyPower. It may or may not help you do something. By the way, there are current incentives for something. We were at the North American Auto Show; wish you'd been there. <BR><BR> General Motors got its act together, and redirected <i>www.gm.com</i>, so that it now simply points to <i>www.generalmotors.com</i>. GM could have avoided these goofups by following some basic guidelines: <BR><BR> <b>Talk to your customers.</b> Find out what questions users have when they come to the site. Probably 80 percent of the time, they're asking the same few questions. Make sure that the site's highest priority is to answer those questions. <BR><BR> <b>Don't air your dirty laundry in public.</b> Why did <i>www.gm.com</i> and <i>www.generalmotors.com</i> ever coexist as separate pages, instead of pointing users to the same place as they now do? It made no sense, especially when you visit <i>www.generalmotors.com</i> and find that it not only contains all the same links as <i>www.gm.com</i> did, but it includes many more. The <i>www.generalmotors.com</i> main page really does function better as a GM main page, but many users (like me) who don't know better would have assumed that <i>www.gm.com</i> was the main point of entry. <BR><BR> Why did GM drop the ball? The fault probably lays with some wrinkle in GM's interdepartmental politics. Perhaps a public relations agency owned <i>www.gm.com</i>, while GM's marketing department manages <i>www.generalmotors.com</i> in-house, and the two VPs refused to work with each other since one misstated his handicap at the last executive golf outing. Whatever the reason, this is a perfect example of an information architecture that was planned with something other than the customer in mind. <BR><BR> <b>Labels really do matter.</b> Corporations like GM pump unimaginable amounts of money and effort into their major initiatives. In order to build internal support, not to mention buzz among the media, these initiatives are dubbed with snappy names, like "GM BuyPower." That's all well and good, but not everyone, especially those outside the corporation, will have a clue about what those snappy labels mean. <BR><BR> Does "GM BuyPower," which was listed prominently on the front page of <i>www.gm.com</i> with no attempt at explanation, mean that GM sells cars via the site? Yes, and perhaps most users would figure this out. But dollars to donuts says that a fair number of people took this to mean that GM had entered the power utility business. Heck, GM provides financial services and lots of other stuff, so would electricity and gas be such a wild guess? <BR><BR> GM should have provided some context that explained very briefly what "GM BuyPower" is exactly. There was some descriptive text that appeared when you placed your mouse on the link; why not make it more prominent? There was plenty of white space on the page to sacrifice to usability. <BR><BR> General Motors thankfully corrected some major problems with what is arguably the most influential interface between it and its customers. Rather than let the existence of <i>www.gm.com</i> continue to jeopardize its whole web agenda, it (thankfully) put it out of its misery. <br><br> <a href="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/closer.html">Read previous installments of "A Closer Look."</a> <br><br> </td> <td width=20> <br></td> <td width=150 valign=top><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <table width="150" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 bgcolor="#CDCDCD"> <tr> <td width="150" align="CENTER" valign="TOP" valign="TOP"> <br> <table border=0 cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0 bgcolor=#CDCDCD width=130> <tr> <td align="CENTER" valign="MIDDLE"> <table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 bgcolor=BLACK width=100%> <tr> <td align=center><font face="Arial,Helvetica" SIZE="-1" color=WHITE><b>Advertisers</b></font></td> </TR></table> </td></tr> <tr> <TD> <NOLAYER> <IFRAME SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/idg.us.cioarchives/;pos=right;sz=150x800;tile=4;ord=?" width="150" height="800" frameborder="no" border="0" MARGINWIDTH="0" MARGINHEIGHT="0" SCROLLING="no"> <A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.cioarchives/;abr=!ie;pos=right;sz=150x800;tile=4;ord=?"><IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.cioarchives/;abr=!ie;pos=right;sz=150x800;tile=4;ord=?" border=0 height="800" width="150"></A> </IFRAME> </NOLAYER> <ILAYER id="layer2" visibility="hidden" width=150 height=800></ILAYER> </td></tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr></table> <br> <br> <TABLE BORDER=0 cellspacing=0 width=590> <tr><td valign=top width=150> <IMG SRC="http://images.cio.com/images/ads/cio_serv_ctr_1.gif" WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="56" BORDER="0" ALT=""><a href="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/022100_closer_content.html?printversion=yes" target=_top> <IMG src="http://a772.g.akamai.net/7/772/1328/be7bc81ddae262/www.cio.com/archive/images/cio_serv_ctr_2.gif" WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="13" BORDER="0" ALT="Printer Friendly Version"></a> <form method="post" action="http://www2.cio.com/archive/wb_email_article_form.cfm" target=_top> <input type=hidden name="filename" value="022100_closer.txt"> <input type=hidden name="date" value="Feb. 21, 2000"> <input type=hidden name="title" value="A Closer Look: Critical Reviews of Corporate Websi"> <input type=hidden name="folder" value="archive"> <input type=hidden name="by" value="Lou Rosenfeld"> <INPUT type="image" value="submit" src="http://a772.g.akamai.net/7/772/1328/57003afca89cac/www.cio.com/archive/images/cio_serv_ctr_3.gif" WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="13" BORDER="0" ALT="Email Article to a Friend"> </form> <A HREF="http://subscribe.cio.com/archive.html" target=_top><IMG src="http://www.cio.com/archive/images/cio_serv_ctr_5.gif" WIDTH="150" HEIGHT="13" BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe to CIO"></A> <BR CLEAR=all> <BR> </td> <td width=30> <br></td> <TD valign=top width=410> <br><BR><BR><BR> <H4>On WebBusiness:</H4> <script language="JavaScript">  </script> <form name="selecter" target = "_top"> <select name="select1" size=1 onchange="go()"> <option value=none>Select Below <option value=none>------------------- <option value="http://webbusiness.cio.com">WebBusiness <option value="http://webbusiness.cio.com/metrics/">Metrics <option value="http://discuss.cio.com">Discussion Forum <option value="http://webbusiness.cio.com/insider.html">WebBusiness Insights Newsletter <option value=none>---- Research Centers ------- <option value="http://www.cio.com/research/behavior/">Cyberbehavior <option value="http://www.cio.com/research/ec/">E-Business <option value="http://www.cio.com/research/intranet/">Intranet/Extranet <option value="http://www.cio.com/research/career/">Web Professional ---Career--- <option value="http://www2.cio.com/forums/careers/wm_calendar.html">Events <option value="http://www2.cio.com/forums/careers/index.cfm">Jobs <option value="http://www.cio.com/xnet/">xNet </select> </form> <BR> <BR> <font size=-1> http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/022100_closer.html </font></i> </center> </td></tr> </table>   <LAYER SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adl/idg.us.cioarchives/;pos=right;sz=150x800;tile=4;ord=?" width=150 height=800 visibility="hidden" onLoad="moveToAbsolute(layer2.pageX,layer2.pageY);clip.height=800;clip.width=150; visibility='show';"></LAYER> </body>