Software site review

May 23, 2005 2:37 AM

I have been asked to reivew my companys site. We provide software solutions and services. I am trying to make the case for stripping away much of the graphics content and blurb in favour of clearly presented text tailored to suit specific target audiences. I would appreciate articles or examples of sites which support and illustrate this approach.
posted by kenaman to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Yale C/AIM WWW Style Manual-- A guide to creating WWW information resources, emphasizing user interface, graphic design, and site design issues.

I looked at the
E-Commerce section in chapter 3. It had some interesting words about what Amazon is doing.

I have a similar project I need to get rolling.
posted by drakepool at 4:42 AM on May 23, 2005

Forgot to mention...
College of Education at the University of Missouri--Columbia

I like what they have done...right this minute they seem to be tinkering with the server.
posted by drakepool at 4:47 AM on May 23, 2005

Maybe I'm misreading, but isn't Google's front page the uber-example of this?
posted by Aknaton at 6:34 AM on May 23, 2005

Sorry Aknaton - Not quiet what I am looking for, we still have a lot of content to present and at least four target markets.
I am seeking examples of cleanly designed sites, which while not minimalist have salient rather than blathery content, presented in a way which is easy to read easy on the eye.

Imaginary bonus point if they are software sites.
posted by kenaman at 7:16 AM on May 23, 2005

How about: http://www.tapestrynetworks.com/

For graphics: A picture is worth a thousand words, but not with Google. It might be wise to remind them that content in graphics isn't searchable, only text is. When you're looking for new business (or more correctly, when new business is looking for you), they won't find your fantastic offerings if those are laid out in images.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 7:41 AM on May 23, 2005

This is just a lead (and you may already be familiar with it), but your question made me think of one of the things that 37signals excels at in their design and consultancy work. Here's a list of their work/clients, perhaps some sites off of that list will be examples worth using. Come to think of it, their own site may even be a good example now that they are expanding their software offerings themselves. Good Luck!
posted by safetyfork at 7:42 AM on May 23, 2005

shareware

Corel

hp

esri
posted by drakepool at 8:20 AM on May 23, 2005

My firm redesigned the FIX Protocol site to minimize "branding" and use text and CSS layout with a lot of personalization for registered users. The underlying infrastructure is all open-source: Apache/mod_perl, Apache::Session, HTML::Mason, and Postgres.
posted by nicwolff at 8:20 AM on May 23, 2005

How about something like the 37 Signals website?
posted by geeky at 8:40 AM on May 23, 2005

This may be more information than you want, but I've gotten much good information from articles by User Interface Engineering. They have a pretty good e-mail list, too.
posted by amtho at 11:35 AM on May 23, 2005

Read Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think. While it's not specifically about stripping graphics in favor of text, it is about good design.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 12:11 PM on May 23, 2005

I have been using a Steve Krug book and have found some excellent simple pointers. Much and all as I hate picking out best answers - Drakepools set of links are exactly what I was looking for. Thank you to everyone.
posted by kenaman at 2:48 PM on May 23, 2005