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Conferences and Seminars: by Kathy Bine In Jared Spool’s presentation, "Scent of a Web Site," to the Washington DC Chapter of UPA (September 18, 2002), Spool used scent as an analogy to attract customers to the goods or services they desire online. A predator locates prey by following a scent trail. If the predator loses the scent trail, it returns to the location where the trail was strong, and tries again. Spool reports seeing a similar behavior with people looking for content on very large Web sites. Spool introduced two new vocabulary words that I plan to use. Gallery pages are used on very large Web sites to aggregate content pages. Store pages are used to aggregate gallery pages. The home page connects to stores; effective home pages also connect to galleries and content as well. These concepts aren’t necessary for Web sites of one to twenty or so pages. They are essential for very large Web sites, such as Amazon or Microsoft Network, with pages numbering in the millions. Because there is so much content, providing customers with a strong scent is the only effective way to connect people with the information they desire. To do this, Spool recommends the following:
The best Web sites, with the best organization and pictures, got input from the people who sell the product. A Web designer probably doesn’t know that the fabric is key to selling sweaters, while the tread is key to selling hiking boots. People who have taken orders over the phone or worked at the store, though, know how people shop in real life and can help your team find ways to provide that information to your clients. |
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