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Chapter VI: Getability and Your Brand

This article is an excerpt from "Save the Pixel" (1st edition), available as a PDF ebook.

When you arrive at a new web page, there is usually one big hairy question at the top of your mind:

“Am I in the right place?”

If we accept that goals drive our behaviour, then when we use a web site we're trying to find the information or function that will let us achieve some kind of goal.

Whenever you arrive on a page, the only real question to answer is whether you're on the path to that goal. If you believe that you are, you'll proceed. If you don't believe that you are, you may retrace your steps, look further, or give up.

Answering the question “Am I in the right place?” normally means understanding the following:

• Where am I?
• Where can I go from here?
• What can I do here?

Getability

A page's “getability” simply means how easy it is for everyone to “get” what's going on (i.e. by answering the important questions easily).

When you visit a “getable” web page, you don't have to think consciously “What's all this?”. You just get it. You may find the answers to the questions explicitly – through words or pictures that directly confirm what you're looking for – or implicitly through an overall effect created by more subtle clues.

You have to provide means to answer the big questions on every page, because someone could come in at any point, by following deep links from search engines or other sites.

Getability needs to work at every level. Every page, every interface, arrangement of content, and form should be instantly getable).

Primarily, though, your whole site needs to say:

• What it is
• What it's for
• Who it's for

The sum total of these things can be called the brand.

Brand

Let's be clear – your brand isn't your logo, name and colour scheme, although these things are all important. It's all those things, and much more. It's the whole experience. A well-branded web site embodies its identity and its message in everything it does.

Brand is...

The sum of everything people perceive when they experience the product, company, web site etc. in any way – directly or indirectly. It's a symphony of their prior opinions, prejudices, and what they've been told about something, which may be reinforced by their own direct personal experience.

A brand is both a statement and a promise. “This is who we are, and what we'll do for you”. It needs to be consistently manifested throughout the whole experience, from the first impression to the last confirmation email.

What should the brand be?

Before you can make a web site really getable, you have to know your brand.

Good branding isn't an afterthought or something added on. It's essential to the experience. There's no avoiding it.

Everything has a brand, it's just that some are unconscious, some are consciously crafted, some are weak and some are strong.

A new web site design or redesign is either an opportunity to create, re-create or develop a brand. Of course, the way your brand manifests online isn't necessarily the same as with offline channels. A brand needs to adapt to each medium. Online mode may be different to TV or face-to-face contact, and telephone support, but they all need to work together to support a consistent total experience.

Everything on your site should embody and reinforce the brand. Getability is how well all the elements of your design work together in symphony, to create the first impression, the instant encompassing assumption:

“Right this is a   .................   site”

Following “Save the Pixel”, branding should only be as complex as it needs to be. It should provide a few core messages and remove any unnecessary messages or connotations.

Developing a brand

If you're defining a new brand, or if you're not clear on what your brand is, here are some points to consider.

• What's the value proposition or unique selling point (USP)? Why should I come here rather than the competitor? What will I get with Brand X?

• What words could you use to describe the brand's characteristics?. Quirky, traditional, challenging, safe, dark, light, fun, serious, professional, amateur, interesting, academic, popular, easy, childlike etc.

• What's the price point? Is it cheap, expensive, exclusive, good-value, competitive..?

It's good to relate the brand to your target audience's motivating goals.

Even if your brand is manifest through every cell of a web site's being, to make the site truly getable, the first few primary messages must be on target.

Exactly which elements are the highest-priority on a page is for the designer to decide, but the most significant features should be some of the following:

• Logo & name
• Strap line
• Primary navigation
• Main page heading
• Colour
• Imagery

The initial impression or message you get from the first few things you notice on a page should help resolve the big question, “Am I in the right place?” This is why, when I'm analysing a web design, I always start by asking, “What do I notice first?”

Case study: Moraware

Moraware is a software company that serves a niche market, making software to help people who fabricate worktops / countertops.

What do you notice first on the home page?

The logo is very big and bold, and comes with a very descriptive strapline “Job Management Software for Fabricators”. That's great – it says exactly what's on offer and helps you know if you're in the right place.

The next thing you'll notice is the flat screen showing software. It's not easy to tell what's happening on the screen, but it's comforting to see, and reinforces the getability.

The next item is the main header “Save Time. Get Organized”. This is the only weak link so far, as these aren't differentiating factors. What customer would be looking for software to help him waste time and get more disorganised!?

The rest of the content, from the intro text on the grey panel, the bulleted list of applications of JobTracker to the first main content paragraph, are all really concise and meaningful. There isn't a lot of work to be done on the getability of this home page.

On our conceptual redesign, we focused on a few areas to increase the level of getability on Moraware's home page.

• We introduced an image of a man in a workshop, showing the context in which the software will typically be used - small-scale hands-on businesses. (The client did have to inform us that this particular image doesn't look like someone who makes countertops – apparently he has the wrong tools.)
• In a similar move to Buildium, we invested effort (and pixels) into giving the product itself a visual identity of its own. In this case, again, “JobTracker2.0” is more prominent than the actual company logo.
• We used a standard trick of the trade when portraying software, which is to render a software-type box. Now, Moraware's product may not be delivered in a box, but the image is useful as a visual clue that this is a real credible product.
• We built on the key application words used on the original site, and associated them with a series of short “checkbox” phrases – even reinforcing each benefit with a tick mark.
• Notice how we emboldened key words in the body copy to highlight to help them stand out to someone scanning the page for reassurance that they may find what they're looking for in JobTracker2.
• Finally, we created a strong and appealing flash to communicate the “90-day money-back guarantee”, which is a strong selling point, showing that the company has faith in its product's ability to show its benefits.

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