Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites

The following is Part One of a book review. You might want wonder why I’d break up something as seemingly trivial as a book review into two parts. Well, wonder no more. The reason is that I haven’t finished the book, but I already have enough to say for now. I’ll post part two of the review when I’m done. If you’re one of those “must know everything before buying a book” types, you might want to wait until part two. But my recommendation as of now is “buy, buy, buy”. This is an overview plus an in-depth review of Chapters 1 through 7.

Some months ago I received a review copy of Author Kevin Potts’ new book called “Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites“. I first became familiar with his work when he collaborated on a book called TextPattern Solutions.

I thought Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites was about web design the way I know it - code examples: XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and other code fun.

I was very wrong. The 390-page book has maybe two pages worth of computer code in it. That’s it. I could be forgiven for thinking that the book was a technical web design book since the first two words of the book are “web design”. Kevin had Brian Warren technically review the book. But by “web design” the publisher means, not the technical use of web design, but the traditional use of web design - like what goes where and why. The structure of a website. The navigation of a website. The usability of a website. The purpose and reason behind every thing on a website.

Thus, the book’s three miniature subtitles are really what the book is about. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Lawrence, the book already has one of the longest titles we’ve ever seen. Now you’re telling it has not one, but three subtitles?”

Point taken. And passed on to author and publisher, Friends of Ed. But hear me out.

“Write Strong Web Content”
“Maximize Your Search Engine Marketing”
“Learn How Accessibility and Web Standards Apply to Corporate Sites”

If I had one wish, it would be for every client of mine, both present and future, to read this book. Despite that they might find a few flaws in my otherwise wonderful websites (gulp!), it would still be worth it.

That’s right. I said my clients should read it. And every business professional that has a website. Or coordinates for a big company web design. Or anyone who has an opinion worth even two cents about websites.

On top of that, every web design professional like me should read it. Absolutely. Although you won’t likely learn new code techniques, or color swatch tricks, (although you might - I found a few hidden gems already). Why? Because this is the most refreshing overhaul of proper web structure and usability that I’ve seen. And I read a ton of books. Probably more than you. Most likely definitely more than you. So hearken to my words, webmaster genius. Especially if you are still calling yourself a webmaster.

How often have you heard these questions and comments from clients?

• “I’ve heard that it’s a waste of time to have an ‘About’ page. What do you think?”
• “I want a really cool Flash intro, but my son says nobody does that anymore. What do you think?”
• “I want to put a contact form on my website that asks people for 97 questions so I can better sell my services to them.”
• “Is it necessary to have a copyright? What should I put there? It looks so unfriendly.”
• “I’m sick of navigation on the left edge of websites. I want to do something really crazy and different. What other options do I have? What are the pros and cons of each?”
• “Why should I put press releases on my website? No one will read them.”
• “What’s a landing page? Someone told me to put lots of landing pages on my website.”

If you are like me, you save your hastily-written email response to these types of questions in Google Notebook so that you can resend them next week when a different client asks the same thing. But I have a better idea.

I don’t normally promote e-books, but this is one book I’ve thought about buying as an electronic PDF from Friends of Ed. Why? So I can cut and paste a few paragraphs at a time in response to these questions via email. My clients will just think I’m so well-researched and balanced in my view when I answer their questions with such aplomb. No one has to know. I won’t tell if you won’t. Shhh….

I would emphatically recommend this book to any web designer who hasn’t picked up a technical book since 1998 and thinks that their big Sybex HTML 4 book is all they need. When they wonder into their local bookstore, they might wonder which technology should they learn first: “Hmmm… XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, What is XML?, Is that like XHTML?, PHP, More JavaScript, CSS & XHTML in one Giant book, Dreamweaver CS3, aaaaaccckk!”. Stop. Buy this book first if you’re that guy. Or gal. Afterward, you’ll know which books you need next and in what order to read them. And why.

But, most importantly, this book needs to be read by every website owner, even if you don’t manage your own website. You’ll learn why your web designer did certain things. You’ll get great ideas to expand your site to make it more functional, more helpful to visitors, and most importantly, what never to do.

Kevin doesn’t just spout off his personal views. He has designed many professional websites. But beyond that, he studied 200 corporate websites and broke down their websites into a dataset of what is not only wise on the web, but what is actual being done by the big guns. You want to be a big gun on the internet, don’t you? I thought so. Then buy his book. And then read it.

Chapter Breakdown

Chapter 1: Overview
Gives you a very brief overview of the rest of the book, but with its own custom information. It starts off by telling what your website should do, which nobody seems to think analytically about anymore. Everyone just “needs a website”. But what does it do? And why? The more you think you know the answer to this in your gut, the more likely you need to read this chapter. A brief overview of different website platforms end the chapter. What’s a platform? Read the book.

Chapter 2: Content
Ah, the great mecca of website winners and the bane of website designers everywhere who try to extract content out of their clients like dentists pulling a tooth. Or maybe more like rescuers using the Jaws of Life. It’s so important. And it’s probably why it’s the first real meaty chapter in the book. If I had a nickel for every client that could gain ten extra page views a day by implementing even one suggestion from this chapter, I’d be a very rich man. The only bad thing about this chapter is the amount of guilt it will heap upon your head for all the bad content decisions you’ve made - or perhaps avoided making - some of which might still be floating out there on the web. There’s parts about writing better copy, typography considerations, and more.

Chapter 3: Accessibility
Sigh… where to start, where to start. This is probably one of the least understood areas of web design. And one that can generate the most conflict between client and designer. It can be the hardest part for a client to “see”. They might wonder why a site is taking so long. They might just want a pretty website. The mockup you showed them looked great. How come you can’t magically turn it into a website overnight. But, I digress.

Kevin talks openly and plainly about the importance of accessibility and the different types of it. That 1998 guy should read this chapter first maybe. Most of the time I’ve read stuff on accessibility, my eyes start to glaze over as I read about bizarre British laws and thirty-page descriptions of codification goodness for making websites accessible to blind people - which poses an alarming number of discriminatory questions in my mind. Not exactly the thing I’d share with a client. But, no matter. Kevin sums it up nicely so that we can all at least understand how much is important, what is fluff, and can agree to include certain parts in a project (or not). No technical jargon. Just plain common sense. Well worth reading.

Chapter 4: Architecture and Navigation
Here’s where wars are fought and bodies laid to rest on bloody design battlefields, littered with injured clients, anguished web developers, and decapitated geeks. And here’s where not an ounce of showiness or pride comes through as Kevin patiently maps out the various navigation options every website owner faces. Some books, nay, many books just give a breakdown of all the various options, leaving most web clients faced with more confusing options than they started. So, they just pick one they think is “cool” and refuse to budge. But this book doesn’t do that. It only reviews a few of the more common options, but it details the pluses and minuses of each so that a design team can rightly pick the right navigation for the right job. Sitemaps (all kinds), breadcrumbs, and other best practices are also covered.

Chapter 5: The Homepage
There is probably more misunderstanding about the homepage than any other element of a website. Worse, the opinions are so strongly held, often falsely so, that progress toward a common goal can be crippling at times. I’ll plainly admit I learned more from this chapter (so far) than any other chapter. A few of my long-held opinions changed. I’m just not gonna say which ones. Don’t press it.

The purpose and goals of the homepage are first covered - as well they should be. Then, the scope of the site, goal conversions, and branding. Then, in a rather special section, a complete breakdown of each and every element that should or could be on a homepage. “Login” or “Log In”? I have to admit. I’ve never thought about it until now. Did you know that about 74.5% of big corporate websites allow their logo to link back to their homepage. I thought everyone did. Nope. Lots of goodies in this chapter to discuss with your design team.

Chapter 6: The About Section
I learned a lot from this chapter. Thirty pages just on the About section. Wow. It almost sounds like a grueling high school essay assignment: “Write 30 pages on the About section of websites”. Yet, Kevin does it swimmingly. And it is some of the most interesting material in the book (so far). Thought-provoking, challenging, and revealing. Like I said, it’s not a tech book. You don’t use words like “thought-provoking” to describe tech books.

Admittedly, the reason for the length has to do more with larger corporate sites (several pages deal with publishing SEC stock market reporting requirements), but even small businesses will find a great deal here of value. It’s made me rethink several small business websites I’ve done lately and how I might go back and redesign a bit of that section.

Chapter 7: Products and Services
For a relatively short chapter, on what you would think would be such a simple topic, it’s indicative of the kind of experience that Kevin has in dealing with clients. There’s no battles here. Just simple concepts parlayed into screenshots and brief descriptions. I particularly liked his call-to-action summary which has already found its way into a new client’s website design.

Summary of Minor Criticisms

Aside from my previous remarks that the book title is ridiculously long and somewhat misleading, although not by intention, the book’s cover is a picture of rolled up technical drawings - the kind you might find at an architect’s office - with a compass. A circle-making compass drawing tool. Yeah, it reeks of tech geek-speak. And may be partially responsible for the book’s less-than-stellar sales. Although, it is getting ready to go into it’s second printing, I’d highly recommend that the cover be changed to something that emphasizes winning, victory, or success. Don’t ask me. Somebody call Seth Godin.

If I could add one thing, it would be some kind of site-check list in the Appendix based on everything the reader has learned. Kind of a long-form with check boxes for design teams to utilize in reviewing specs and ideas. With page number references for the part in the book that discusses that element. It would be a nice add-on and could help to promote the book, especially if it started making rounds on the net in and of itself.

Final Summary

One thing struck me about every three or four pages while reading this book. And that was this: The last time I read a lot of this material, it was forever ago. When the web was in its infancy, when I was busy designing a political candidate’s website in 1996, these types of topics seemed more openly discussed. We all talked about the purpose of a homepage, for instance.

Then, the geeks took over. And hey, I’m one of them, so fault me too, if you like. We started playing with MySQL tables, JavaScript tricks, then CSS tricks, then back to JavaScript tricks (AJAX), then frameworks, then content management systems, then more frameworks, then our heads exploded. And in the midst of all that we all ran out and got a blog, posted endlessly to forums, started watching YouTube videos, or at the least, Steve Job product announcements. We joined a dozen different social networks. In other words, we, the pioneer leaders of the internet, became the followers, battered down by a bullet-spray of technical information flying at us faster and faster.

Look at the tech books at your local bookstore. Full of code. Full of hacks. You can’t possibly know them all - and yet the job descriptions for jobs have gotten loonier and loonier, demanding that we not only know how to do every server-side language, but that we also know how to scuba dive, run marathons, have a winning tan, a super-white smile, and be able to be on-call 24/365.

And somehow, in the midst of all that, Kevin seemed to realize that everything we thought we knew from 1996, 2000, and 2004 - the basics, the rudimentary crucial decisions that, in the end, mean so much more than a CSS trick, and have been lost. Not only to us, the web designers of English-speaking peoples. But, moreover in our ability to communicate these simple and powerful truths to our clients.

I have no idea how Kevin did this. I personally believe he has knowledge of Osama Bin-Ladin. That’s the only way he could have written such a substantial overhaul of business website design, such a manifesto of web truth - by holing up with Osama in the foothills of Pakistan and just getting away from it all.

I spend more time these days in meetings and explaining ABC’s (so to speak) to clients than I do on the actual coding of the website. Go ahead. Ask me to code a page with proper semantic CSS/XHTML. I’ll be done in an hour. Ask me to explain to a client why I don’t recommend a 38-part form on their website. Two hours at least. And the client will be angry at the end. And I’ll be exhausted and just want to go home and play World of Warcraft. If I played such a silly game. Of course, I don’t. I’m responsible. Don’t look at me like that.

I’m really hoping this book can help provide me better and simpler ways to communicate with clients, more effectively, and in a way that they can understand. I even thought about just giving a copy of the book to each new client. Just not sure who would read it. For now, I’ll be promoting it to them on my business web site.

Stay tuned for a review of the Chapters 8-15.

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