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 It sounds like a success story. But while Masland has sold several thousand books through traditional channels, not a single sale has come from the Web site. "The site was built long before anyone was talking about e-commerce," says Masland. "And our original intention was awareness, not sales. But in today's environment, I can't help but feel that we could be doing both, and yielding so much more."
That's the perfect starting point for a Web makeover. We've asked Harold Hambrose of Electronic Ink in Philadelphia and Steven Morris of San Diego's Morris Creative to critique the William Willya site and try to make it more e-commerce-oriented. Notes Hambrose: "Often a site's focus changes over time. It is important to address this change in the spirit of a site, to balance a preexisting tone with the new needs of e-commerce. This is the problem with http://www.willya.com." While designing sites for children offers some unique challenges (such as not wanting to alienate kids' parents with a hard sell), Morris and Hambrose say the core issues raised at the William Willya site are common for Web entrepreneurs today. There's a difficult trade-off between attracting and then holding users with "sticky" content, vs. providing the right blend of content and transactive design so that whatever good or service the site is trying to sell is effectively marketed. William Willya is a visually fun way to explore this, but we have received a number of makeover candidates from lawyers, consultants, professional associations, and others with similar problems. They provide health information, for example, but can't seem to get site users to take the next step and buy a book. Or they offer provocative tips for industry executives based on their consulting expertise, but they're disappointed those tips don't drive more inquiries for paid consulting jobs. In other words, plenty of Web-site creators say they feel frustrated that they've got happy, but only "tire-kicking," customers. Observes Morris: "Holding a viewer is something many sites struggle with once they have a set of eyeballs on/in their sites. But how and why? The challenge for most is the fence between us vs. them. We know that many people are using the Internet for information gathering. Their goal is to surf, coast, and gather. And the ultimate goal for many sites is to sell stuff. In other words to hunt for customers." To effectively satisfy the gatherers but also bring those customers in, Morris believes a site must be up front and honest about its true mission. "This leads to brand trust. When you get down to it, most sites are doing a pretty mediocre job of keeping the brand and the purpose in mind. The www.willya.com site is an interesting example of one that has a hard time focusing and delivering on what its purpose is. It took me a few clicks to figure out what willya.com was all about." 
"Being too submissive and beating around the brand bush can be a huge mistake and can ultimately dilute the brand of any site," Morris believes. By way of example, he points to the Disney.com site, which he feels is a good mix of content and transactive, sales-oriented design.
"Of the nine major content areas within disney.com, just over half (5 of 9) are devoted to 'sticky' interaction. And each 'sticky' section ultimately drives to transactive content, essentially acting as a backdoor to sales. I think this is a perfect mix. Just enough softness to make it soft sell, while still being aggressive in its intent to book vacations, sell videos and merchandise, and to continue to support their brand in every way. Viewers who accept Disney for who they are will not be taken aback by any surprises in this site," says Morris. "Imagine if all Disney did was to tell you stories about Disney and animation. Sure, it supports the brand, but without a commerce objective. Many companies don't realize that people come to their site with a purpose in mind. Sometimes that purpose is not to be entertained, but to act on some purchasing goal. To bury the transactive aspects is diluting the brand and the overall effectiveness of the Web site."  Hambrose took on the challenge of providing a new visual look for William Willya's homepage. "William's site uses humor and playfulness to attract its audience, but the underlying goal is the sale of books," Hambrose notes. "The purpose of the site should be clearly communicated by the content on the first page the user sees. If the purpose of the William Willya site is to create awareness of a children's author and sell books, then the author's name and the link to the online store should be apparent on the front page of the site."
Hambrose discusses his proposed redesign: "From the moment a user visits the site, the appearance of a book strongly ties itself to the product the author is showcasing. The book concept also drives the layout of its navigational structure and content. People scan a page from the left top and work their way down and across, hence the placement of the navigation on the left-hand side.  The screen is separated into two sections. The left targets the children that visit the site to learn about the characters and entertain themselves with the games. The right side targets adults, parents, and teachers visiting the site to find out about any merchandise for sale online.
"The navigational links remain on the left side to maintain consistency. A change in color and form signals the user that they have moved to a new section. The size of both the textual graphics and the hypertext are big enough for children to view. These points are carried out throughout the rest of the site. "The navigation has been simplified and rewritten in a vocabulary that children can comprehend. These links strictly target the young audience, and therefore the Online Store link lives outside of the primary navigation area. Although the Online store is the main driver of the Web presence, placing it outside that area allows the children to navigate with links they are familiar with. 
"The color palette of the site maintains the books' visual language. However, some additional colors were introduced to further enhance the look and feel. Iconic representations are used to visually represent most links. Their rendering is simple and easy for the younger audience to make out. The site is vibrant, yet easy to read, and the content lives within the book format. The white background allows for clean and easy readability.
"Our proposal also includes reference to a wide variety of games based on the characters and educational values taken from the books. These games can be enriched by using dynamic, interactive, and easily accessible technology in order to enhance the popularity and traffic of the site. "In conclusion, the overall look and feel speaks to both the younger and adult site visitors, is warm and playful (while highlighting its e-commerce aspect), and provides educational and entertainment value for younger audiences. One additional word on technology: "People often abuse technology on the Internet, especially when newer, fancier display technology comes on the scene. Usually this comes off more confusing than effective. A site should be supported by technology, not driven by it. In the case of a children's Web site, though, attention-grabbing technology can be very effective. For instance, the online games could include some animation or sound. The pun game could dynamically generate its content from a list in a database. "Also, to aid sales of the product, an online credit-card validation could be implemented. This would provide for quick turnaround on sales, one of the huge advantages of online purchasing." Our panelists:  Harold Hambrose is chief executive officer of Philadelphia-based Electronic Ink, a digital product design firm, which he founded in 1990. The firm focuses solely on the human experience with digital technology. It has 30 full-time employees and an office in Britain. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Hambrose has done work for Citibank and was one of IBM's first user-interface (UI) designers. He was the lead UI designer for the Health Systems Group of First Data Corp., shaping the world's first computerized patient record for a high-resolution Windows-based display. That same year, Hambrose served as alumni representative in the creation of the nation's first master's program in interaction design at Carnegie Mellon. Hambrose is a native of Haddon Heights, N.J. He received a bachelor's in Fine Arts with high honors in 1989 from Carnegie Mellon.  Steven Morris is Head Honcho of Morris Creative Inc. in downtown San Diego, Calif. Since its inception in 1994, his firm has provided an eclectic arsenal of creative services for a wide array of local, national, and international clients, including Hasbro, ebill.com, and the California Center for the Arts. Morris Creative has gained a local and national reputation for their effective creative and marketing collaboration efforts. Emphasizing and understanding the marketing audience and objectives of their clients is the crux of their work. Steven Morris holds a BFA from Salem State College (1986), an MFA in Graphic Design from Tyler School of Art at Temple University (1988), and has received numerous awards and honors from various national and international competitions and publications. |
