Comments on: Software site review

Question: Software site review

kenaman — Mon, 23 May 2005 02:37:49 -0800

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.

By: drakepool

drakepool — Mon, 23 May 2005 04:42:24 -0800

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.

By: drakepool

drakepool — Mon, 23 May 2005 04:47:09 -0800

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.

By: Aknaton

Aknaton — Mon, 23 May 2005 06:34:36 -0800

Maybe I'm misreading, but isn't Google's front page the uber-example of this?

By: kenaman

kenaman — Mon, 23 May 2005 07:16:56 -0800

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.

By: NotMyselfRightNow

NotMyselfRightNow — Mon, 23 May 2005 07:41:01 -0800

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.

By: safetyfork

safetyfork — Mon, 23 May 2005 07:42:35 -0800

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!

By: drakepool

drakepool — Mon, 23 May 2005 08:20:19 -0800

shareware

Corel

hp

esri

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Mon, 23 May 2005 08:20:46 -0800

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.

By: geeky

geeky — Mon, 23 May 2005 08:40:23 -0800

How about something like the 37 Signals website?

By: amtho

amtho — Mon, 23 May 2005 11:35:17 -0800

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.

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Mon, 23 May 2005 12:11:55 -0800

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.

By: kenaman

kenaman — Mon, 23 May 2005 14:48:06 -0800

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.