Why your site should be like Legoland!
| Category: Website Design and Development | Date: 2003-10-08 |
Having a website seems to be more common than not. Right now I am on holiday in Denmark (beautiful country btw - you feel the history of the place when you see ordinary houses with "1868" displayed in wrought iron). I started this article in Legoland, and since I dont have access to the Internet (this mobile connection-thingy is overrated!) I decided to write it on what I think is important when building a site, no matter its size or purpose, using Legoland as a framework. These are not "rules" - the fascinating thing about the net is that breaking rules often create great sites.
Legoland is an amusement park based on the popular Lego-toys - building bricks made of plastic. It is situated near Billund, an airport in Denmark. Lego is probably as old as I am, and to me they are a great, simple concept embodied in excellent design with some real fancy technology thrown in (like their Movie-studio with a webcam, movie-editing software and Steven Spielberg-affiliation).
Ask any Dane how to get to Legoland, and s/he will tell you. This is the first lesson: make your site a household name. Amazon did it by allowing anybody with a website to sell their books by putting up a simple link. Hotmail sends out billions of emails with their tagline. You could start by using the search engines, looking for sites similar to your own, and exchanging links with them. You could also give away something for free. Screensavers, animated gifs, online greetingcards, funny email-jokes - just use your imagination. Naturally, you should also aim to have your site in as many search engines and directories as possible.
There are several different products, some which can be found here: http://www.smartsoftware.org/html/recommendation.html, but if these arent enough for you, I highly recommend the brand new Search Engine and Directory Promotion CD-ROM Tutorial. It takes you through every step from making a site to promoting it by using screenshots with voiceovers - an excellent resource both for beginners and pros! Read more about it at http://www.smartsoftware.org/promote.html. It costs $100, and if you are serious about making your site known, this piece of SmartWare is a must-have! Just consider this: I have read probably 4-5 times more books, websites and e-books on this subject than has appeared in this column - I still learnt a lot of essential lessons that have made a big change in my promotion-success...
Once you enter Legoland, you see a bank. Theyve got an ATM (automated teller machine), as well as full scale banking services which offers money-exchange and so on.
Consider this: if somebody enters your site and finds that they must have a creditcard to buy - having no creditcard, will they then a) leave or b) get a creditcard? Put simply - if you are selling something, give your visitors as many options as possible: cards, checks, telephone charging, e-gold and so on.
Legoland is built for kids. Kids of all ages. Still, there are many features that catch the interest of adults as well. Every place you go there is a restaurant or bench where tired parents can rest for a moment.
Remember to give your visitors variety. If your site is built up of long text documents, break up the text in shorter paragraphs, use headlines and bullets to make it an easier read. Give your visitors benches. But dont take away their interest from your subjects by running off in wild tangents.
You are never lost in Legoland. There is a high tower you can see from the entire park, making it a great landmark. There are also signs showing you the way from one attraction to another. And - the signs are in Danish, German and English.
Dont count on your visitors knowing how to use the "back"-button. A button with "home" placed on every page of your site is a good idea, as is a navigational system that stays static on your pages. Frustration usually leads to your visitor leaving. Dont make them leave.
Legoland doesnt tell you that your kid is secure. It shows it. There are courteous, knowledgeable people all over who will assist you if necessary. All the different amusement rides and games are obviously well maintained.
Show people that security is important to you. A Verisign (www.verisign.com - most well-known) or Thawte (www.thawte.com - least expensive) security-certificate is great if you are doing business. Sloppy writing and grammatical mistakes should be weeded out. As many contact details as possible should be shown - would you buy something from a person insisting on being anonymous?
Finally, Legoland is well stocked with stores, each of them catering to the theme of the specific part of the park (a Cowboy-store in Cowboy-land and so on). Still, the marketing is not in any way obnoxious or in your face - it seems that the creators of Legoland quite well knows the power of kids wanting something - RIGHT NOW!
Dont yell at people to buy your product. Courteously inform them of your products benefits. Then, once they have bought your entry-product, try to upsell. Offer them a similar product with more bang-for-the-buck at a higher price. If they enjoyed your first product, chances are they will buy the second - and the third.
About the Author
Haakon Rian Ueland
Mensa International Journals SmartWare
:To contact see details below.
haakon@smartsoftware.org
http://www.smartsoftware.org
Legoland is an amusement park based on the popular Lego-toys - building bricks made of plastic. It is situated near Billund, an airport in Denmark. Lego is probably as old as I am, and to me they are a great, simple concept embodied in excellent design with some real fancy technology thrown in (like their Movie-studio with a webcam, movie-editing software and Steven Spielberg-affiliation).
Ask any Dane how to get to Legoland, and s/he will tell you. This is the first lesson: make your site a household name. Amazon did it by allowing anybody with a website to sell their books by putting up a simple link. Hotmail sends out billions of emails with their tagline. You could start by using the search engines, looking for sites similar to your own, and exchanging links with them. You could also give away something for free. Screensavers, animated gifs, online greetingcards, funny email-jokes - just use your imagination. Naturally, you should also aim to have your site in as many search engines and directories as possible.
There are several different products, some which can be found here: http://www.smartsoftware.org/html/recommendation.html, but if these arent enough for you, I highly recommend the brand new Search Engine and Directory Promotion CD-ROM Tutorial. It takes you through every step from making a site to promoting it by using screenshots with voiceovers - an excellent resource both for beginners and pros! Read more about it at http://www.smartsoftware.org/promote.html. It costs $100, and if you are serious about making your site known, this piece of SmartWare is a must-have! Just consider this: I have read probably 4-5 times more books, websites and e-books on this subject than has appeared in this column - I still learnt a lot of essential lessons that have made a big change in my promotion-success...
Once you enter Legoland, you see a bank. Theyve got an ATM (automated teller machine), as well as full scale banking services which offers money-exchange and so on.
Consider this: if somebody enters your site and finds that they must have a creditcard to buy - having no creditcard, will they then a) leave or b) get a creditcard? Put simply - if you are selling something, give your visitors as many options as possible: cards, checks, telephone charging, e-gold and so on.
Legoland is built for kids. Kids of all ages. Still, there are many features that catch the interest of adults as well. Every place you go there is a restaurant or bench where tired parents can rest for a moment.
Remember to give your visitors variety. If your site is built up of long text documents, break up the text in shorter paragraphs, use headlines and bullets to make it an easier read. Give your visitors benches. But dont take away their interest from your subjects by running off in wild tangents.
You are never lost in Legoland. There is a high tower you can see from the entire park, making it a great landmark. There are also signs showing you the way from one attraction to another. And - the signs are in Danish, German and English.
Dont count on your visitors knowing how to use the "back"-button. A button with "home" placed on every page of your site is a good idea, as is a navigational system that stays static on your pages. Frustration usually leads to your visitor leaving. Dont make them leave.
Legoland doesnt tell you that your kid is secure. It shows it. There are courteous, knowledgeable people all over who will assist you if necessary. All the different amusement rides and games are obviously well maintained.
Show people that security is important to you. A Verisign (www.verisign.com - most well-known) or Thawte (www.thawte.com - least expensive) security-certificate is great if you are doing business. Sloppy writing and grammatical mistakes should be weeded out. As many contact details as possible should be shown - would you buy something from a person insisting on being anonymous?
Finally, Legoland is well stocked with stores, each of them catering to the theme of the specific part of the park (a Cowboy-store in Cowboy-land and so on). Still, the marketing is not in any way obnoxious or in your face - it seems that the creators of Legoland quite well knows the power of kids wanting something - RIGHT NOW!
Dont yell at people to buy your product. Courteously inform them of your products benefits. Then, once they have bought your entry-product, try to upsell. Offer them a similar product with more bang-for-the-buck at a higher price. If they enjoyed your first product, chances are they will buy the second - and the third.
About the Author
Haakon Rian Ueland
Mensa International Journals SmartWare
:To contact see details below.
haakon@smartsoftware.org
http://www.smartsoftware.org
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