A Closer Look: Critical Reviews of Corporate Websites - - WebBusiness Magazine May 23, 2000

<body bgcolor="WHITE"> <table width="730"> <tr><td colspan=3> <p align=right> <font size="-1" FACE="Verdana,arial,helvetica,geneva"><a href="0500_toc.html" target="_top">May 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_0500_closer.gif " width="500" height="150" alt="Toys'R'Rushed: A Cautionary Tale" border="0"> <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 LOU ROSENFELD</B> </FONT> <BR><BR><BR> <table width="158" 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> </TD> <td width=40> <br></td> <TD valign=top width=370> <img src="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/images/letter_black_comicsans_w.gif" align="left" width="30" height="35" alt="W">hile I like to kick websites and dogs, I am generally nice to children. So I recently found myself at the Toys'R'Us site, looking for the baby registry. Before I had a chance to look, I was hit squarely between the eyes by one of the more visually disjointed main pages I've seen in a while: <br><br> <a href="http://www.toysrus.com"><img src="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/images/wb_0500_closer1.gif" width="350" height="214" alt="Toys'R'Us" border="1"></a> <br><BR><BR> Sure, there are a lot of images; a toy store should be fun, and we all know that more flashing images mean more fun, right? But what is the purpose of showing white visual elements on gray backgrounds? Take a close look at the tabs, the "help" and "my account" options, and the shopping cart icon: they are all surrounded by small white fields against a gray background. This seems to be an obvious HTML error; regardless, these are visually confusing, and are likely to throw off users who will get the idea that this website is not closely supervised by its corporate parent. Some users will assume that if Toys'R'Us can't get the basic cosmetics of its main page to work, it will not be able to fulfill and ship a product order successfully. Little things can lead to Big Problems, and for Toys'R'Us's sake, I hope they get their HTML fixed soon. <br><br> <b>This Month's Main Gripe</b> <BR><BR> But I digress: back to baby. Here is what you'll see when you go to the Baby Registry page: <br><br> <a href="http://ndnt1.tru.com/scripts/ndISAPI.dll/Registry_Inquiry/pgSearchI"><img src="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/images/wb_0500_closer2.gif" width="350" height="206" alt="Baby Registry" border="1"></a> <br><BR><BR> You'll note a lot of unnecessary explanatory information on this page, such as text that explains which fields are optional and which aren't. (There is already a well established convention for handling this distinction much more elegantly and economically). But what really stands out is the following statement:<br><br> "PLEASE NOTE: We do apologize, but our Baby Registries are currently "View Only." To purchase an item from the registry, please visit your local Babies"R"Us or Toys"R"Us store."<br><br> Danger, Will Robinson, danger: never, ever, ever lead with an apology. What's true for a speech is true for a website. While many might find this early admission to shortcomings refreshingly honest, we sharks who critique websites for a living smell blood. Toy'R'Us might as well have used blinking orange text to notify users that the site is broken, poorly designed, or prematurely launched. <BR><BR> Let's move forward into the baby registry and take a look for my friend Amy Smith from California; here are the results: <br><br> <img src="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/images/wb_0500_closer3.gif" width="350" height="281" alt="Baby Registry" border="1"> <br><br>    This search results display should help us out much more than it does. It should provide more information for each mother listed, such as the father's name (if known) and anticipated date of birth. That would help us figure out which Amy (or was it Amie?) we're supposed to be shopping for. Having a navigational option that leads us back to the search interface would be helpful if we wanted to refine or reenter the query after finding 400+results. Now let's take a look at Amy Smith's entry in the registry (here's where things get really bad): <br><br> <img src="http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/images/wb_0500_closer4.gif" width="350" height="279" alt="Baby Registry" border="1"> <br><br>    What's missing from this picture? Oh, a few basics, like:<br> <li>date of last update: I want to buy Amy a "Carter's Joy Lamp," which is still open according to this list. But if the list hasn't been updated in a while (perhaps since January 3, 2000), how can I be sure she hasn't already received it? <li>price per item: This is perhaps the most egregious omission. E-commerce sites, like any other marketplace, should make such information available. Instead, the site forces us to jump back and forth between the baby registry and the product catalog to learn prices. This is hopelessly clunky, and besides, isn't this the sort of task that computers were invented to do for us? <li>link to the item: I might not actually know what a "Carter's Joy Lamp" is; it would be great to incorporate a link to the product page as well. <br><br>    It would also be nice to allow the parent to enter some personalized information, like where and when the shower takes place. Or whether or not they already know the baby's gender. Or if the nursery will be decorated in baroque or art deco stylings. Or if they'll only accept clothing woven from virgin hemp grown by Guatemalan altar boys. <br><br> <b>This Month's Moral: Don't Launch Before You're Ready</b> <BR><BR> You can't always launch what you want. Or, more accurately, when you want. In may cases, including this one, it's better to wait until you're ready. <BR><BR> Certainly a simple registry list is useful. And perhaps this one is intended to be an intermediate step along the way to providing fuller functionality, such as the ability to add products from the registry directly to a shopping cart. While such functionality isn't uncommon, it is by no means trivial, and I'll bet that many users wouldn't be crestfallen to find it unavailable for the time being. <BR><BR> But this version of the registry seems so unfinished that it is easy to wonder why it was launched in the first place. A rush to keep up with a competitor? A "launch it or lose it" deadline imposed by a CIO on the web team? It's a mystery, but everything from the initial apology to the lack of any integration with the rest of the site screams "WE'RE NOT READY TO LAUNCH YET!". I hate to say it, but the Toys'R'Us baby registry is a preemie, and I hope it survives the harsh elements of e-commerce. <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> <script language='javascript'>idgAd150x56('idg.us.cio.cio/webbusiness');</script> <BR CLEAR=ALL> <a href="http://www2.cio.com/archive/webbusiness/052300_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="052300_closer.txt"> <input type=hidden name="date" value="May 23, 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="LOUIS 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> <center> <br clear=all><P> <a target=_top href="http://www.cio.com/"> <img border=0 vspace=16 src="http://www.cio.com/images/cio_url_logo.gif" alt="http://www.cio.com/CIO"></a> <P> <FONT SIZE=-1><P>WebBusiness - May 2000<br> <a target=_top href="http://www.cio.com/copyright.html"> &copy 2000 CXO Media Inc.</a><BR></FONT> <BR> <BR> <font size=-1> http://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/052300_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>