|
The e-world is on fire with folks who've turned their passions into a lucrative new livelihood. Meet, for example, Don Becklin, a former motorcycle racer from the Pacific Northwest. As his racing career was winding down in 1997, Becklin decided to launch a hobby page about motorcycle racing -- keeping track of races, new bike models, and other standard hobby fare. But within a year, he had retired from racing and started selling motorcycle accessories via his site. His Web presence accelerated on two parallel tracks: His hobby page became a 'zine with different kinds of stories and content, and he started a new, linked page called the Motorcycle Superstore to sell helmets, gloves, and other biker gear. In his first full year, Becklin raked in an impressive $700,000 in revenues. 
With 12.5 million riders in the U.S. and a $2.4 billion market in motorcycle accessories, Becklin saw huge potential to crank up his operation, aspiring to create the ultimate destination for U.S. motorcycle enthusiasts. He began adding people to this company, products to the superstore, and features like fantasy racing to build community. He brought in Scott Bertone to head up marketing and to help him expand the site's reach beyond the motorcycle racing community. However, Bertone immediately identified the site's design as a major hurdle in achieving Becklin's goals. "At first glance you enter www.motorcycleusa.com, and the picture catches your eye and piques your interest, then it all falls apart," Bertone wrote to us. "If you wade through the design, you will find useful and current information, but our users deserve a better interface. Can you help?" This month's e.biz makeover panelists -- Peter Morville, chief executive of Argus Associates, an Ann Arbor (Mich.) information architecture firm, and Peter Bowen, chief operating office of southern California Web-design consultants Sistonia -- loved sinking their teeth into the challenge of helping Bertone and company overhaul Motorcycle USA. As always, we caution that a thorough redesign project by either firm would require far more extensive evaluation and coding time. It's our intent to identify common mistakes, and this company's frustrations serve as illustrative examples for anyone trying to turbocharge their sites. Peter Bowen's take: "Optimally, the enthusiast community and the Superstore would be part of a seamless, mutually supporting whole. The Superstore would be a natural place for enthusiasts to purchase their equipment because they spend so much time on the community site getting news, looking at their standings in fantasy racing, and sharing stories in the discussion forums. Instead, the current site splits the community from the Superstore from the very beginning. Indeed, as a visitor arrives at the site, the MotorcycleUSA splash page forces a choice between the main site and the Superstore. Choosing the latter means bypassing the main site altogether." Moving on to its main page, the user is confronted with a very graphically busy look with lots of animated ads, but one that's not very well organized. 
Born out of Becklin's racing past, the current main page's graphics are primarily racing-oriented and so get in the way of widening the site's appeal -- rather like a "Baseball USA" site featuring only the western division of the National League. "We want to say this is not just a site about racing now," Bertone explains. "If Harley riders come here, they're not going to see what they want. If they see Yamahas and Hondas, they're gone. We want the whole motorcycle community to come here." At heart, this makeover addresses the idea of scaling. At some point in the life of every site that wants to jump to the next level, it needs to take a hard look not only at its looks but also at whether it is structurally set up to expand easily, logically, and gracefully -- or is some demolition needed? Peter Morville believes the latter is in order here. "On my first visit to Motorcycle USA, I found myself overwhelmed by the chaos of the main page," Morville writes. "The combination of a disorganized 19-link global navigation bar and half-a-dozen winking, blinking banner ads, left me feeling like a deer in the headlights of a 665-pound Harley-Davidson Fat Boy. This Web site has deep structural problems. It doesn't need a new paint job. We're talking major chassis and body work here." When a site requires such a thorough overhaul, Morville advises clients to take a step back from its look and think about its mission. "Motorcycleusa.com suffers from do-it-all-itis. This is a common malady suffered by Web sites that try to be all things to all people and ultimately end up pleasing no one." To remedy that, a developer must research what Morville calls the "information ecology" of this business space -- the business context, content, and users. SAMPLE RESEARCH QUESTIONS What is the business strategy for this Web site? From a revenue-generation perspective, is the focus on selling motorcycle accessories, selling banner advertising, forming partnerships with content providers, or selling subscriptions to users? What is the content policy for this Web site? What types of content and links will and will not be included? This ties into business strategy. For example, will motorcycleusa.com continue to point to competing Web sites that provide motorcycle news or sell motorcycle accessories? Who are the intended users of the Web site? Harley riders? Dirt bikers? Racing professionals? General motorcycle enthusiasts? Which audience is most important? How do the needs and preferences of each audience vary? The answers to these questions will provide the clarity of purpose MotorcycleUSA needs to develop what Morville calls an "information architecture" strategy -- or a conceptual framework for structuring and organizing. It provides the firm sense of direction and scope needed to proceed with confidence into the design and implementation phases. That architecture has both "top-down" and "bottom-up" considerations to consider. Morville: Ultimately, Motorcycle USA may want to explore a top-down organization scheme that's completely different from today's loose topical hierarchy. For example, it could make sense to organize the site by audience, providing Harley Davidson enthusiasts and dirt-bike racing fans with very different navigation options. For now, it would be a major improvement to add some structure on top of the existing topical organization scheme. The following conceptual blueprint maps the 19 links from the current navigation bar into five categories. 
A CONCEPTUAL BLUEPRINT FOR MOTORCYCLE USA Once the company adopts this or some other form of general top-down organization, then it has to look specifically at how individual users are interacting with its data, what Morville calls the Bottom-Up Perspective. For example, consider the Motorcycle Model Specifications area (currently labeled 2000 Bikes).
At present, you must select a manufacturer and then a model. Unfortunately, there are no alternate ways to navigate this content, and there are no connections made between this content and the rest of the Web site. Morville below provides an example of ways to create 'contextual links for the same data currently presented but not sorted as such. The links allow users more flexible ways to interact with data and empower their choices. By multiple kinds of links in all the table categories, users can zero in quickly on the options they want to consider. Maybe price is no object, for example, but engine size is critical. The user could instantly generate a new table sorting the offerings by the variables of his or her choosing. 
Bowen of Sistonia has more point-by-point recommendations that Motorcycle USA should use to evaluate its design decisions once some of its more basic strategic directions are determined. They include:
Make it a database site. It appears that all of the text in the main site -- like racing results, motorcycle reviews and more -- are hand-coded on each page in HTML. Every time a change needs to be made, the page must be downloaded, modified by hand, then uploaded. By converting to a database design, time spent on site maintenance could be drastically reduced, saving significant money. Site content can be easily updated by staff members typing information into database forms or, even better, by integrating areas of the site with other information sources for automated updating. For instance, the news section could be updated automatically by tying it into news service providers. Conversion to a database design could cut site maintenance and employee time. In addition, a database design enables visitors to conduct keyword searches for desired information instead of having them spend time clicking-and-hunting. Add dynamic content that changes throughout the day -- news, racing results, fantasy racing standings, and perhaps an ongoing "special" from the Superstore. Consolidate the global navigation bar to half its size and group the buttons into broader categories -- like News, About Us, Buy & Sell, Games, etc. A mouse rollover effect could give visitors more detailed information about what is in each section. Allow visitors to personalize the homepage to automatically display the information of interest to them -- the latest post to the discussion forums, stock tracking, any responses to their own posts, the latest fantasy racing standings and their racer's latest results. This would encourage members to visit the site more frequently -- perhaps daily or multiple times per day -- and possibly set the page as their default homepage. Perhaps visitors could register for an e-mail notification when certain products are for sale. Emphasize the community aspect of Motorcycle USA to supercharge the Superstore. Combine features like chat rooms, discussion forums, and fantasy racing to develop relationships among visitors and between visitors and the Web site. What problems do motorcycle enthusiasts share? Make Motorcycle USA a place where those problems can be discussed and solved, not just by the staff, but also -- especially -- by other site members. There should be an e-mail contact link and phone number at the bottom of every page. A visitor can only contact Motorcycle USA by e-mail and only from one page. Loyal, committed communities are built on trust, and trust is built on communication. Consider putting a phone number and e-mail at the bottom of every page. The Contact Us page might also provide address and fax number. Free Web pages and e-mail for motorcycle clubs. There are hundreds of motorcycle clubs around the country. Offering them free club Web pages where they can post club news and contact information is a powerful tool for cementing their loyalty. Operating a community calendar where clubs and individual enthusiasts can post event information strengthens the feeling of community and site loyalty.
Above is Sistonia's suggestion for a new homepage based on simplifying and reorganizing existing material into more logical categories and adding more dynamic content. However, as Morville points out, a more fundamental reevaluation of what this site wants to be and accomplish could suggest radical new directions. Our panelists:
|
Peter S. Bowen is chief operating officer of 
Peter Morville is chief executive officer of 
