About Us Usability

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48105 WARM SPRINGS BLVD., FREMONT CA 945397498 USA WWW.NNGROUP.COM

Copyright Nielsen Norman Group, All Rights Reserved.

To buy a copy, download from: http://www.nngroup.com/reports/about

About Us: Usability Guidelines forPresenting Company Information onCorporate Websites

Making it Easy for Visitors to Find Company Information onCorporate Websites

By Hoa Loranger and Jakob Nielsen


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2 [email protected] 48105 WARM SPRINGS BLVD., FREMONT CA 945397498 USA

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ..........................................................................................2 Executive Summary.......................................................................................3 Research Overview .......................................................................................6 Company Reputation Affects Web Search ing Behavio r ..................................9Success Rates and Satisfaction Ratings.......................................................11

Average Satisfaction Ratings ...................................................................................................... 12Prior it iz ing Corporate Information ..............................................................13Guidel ines Summary ...................................................................................14 Guidel ines Discussion ..................................................................................18

Homepage ........................................................................................................................... 18

Company Information............................................................................................................ 27History and Timelines ............................................................................................................ 40Executive Members ............................................................................................................... 57Social Responsibility.............................................................................................................. 63Accolades............................................................................................................................. 69Contact................................................................................................................................ 76E-commerce Customer Service ............................................................................................... 85Non-Profit and Charitable Organizations................................................................................... 87Content ............................................................................................................................... 89Navigation ........................................................................................................................... 98Graphics and Multimedia...................................................................................................... 109Presentation ....................................................................................................................... 114

Methodology .............................................................................................119 Overview ............................................................................................................................... 119Participants............................................................................................................................ 119Task procedure....................................................................................................................... 120Open-ended Tasks .................................................................................................................. 120Directed Tasks........................................................................................................................ 122

About the Authors .....................................................................................123 Acknow ledgements ...................................................................................124


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NIELSEN NORMAN GROUP WWW.NNGROUP.COM 3

Executive Summary

Representing a company or organization on the Internet is one of a websites mostimportant jobs. Explaining the companys purpose and what it stands for providesessential support for any of the sites other goals. Unfortunately, most websites do a

poor job on this explanation.It is fairly common for sites to have an About Us section, and in fact we recommendhaving a homepage link thats explicitly called either About orAbout Us. This link need not be the most prominent on the homepage, but it shouldbe present and easily visible. In our study, users had trouble locating companyinformation when the link had a nonstandard name, like Info Center, or when it wasplaced near graphical elements that looked like advertisements and thus wereignored.

USER RESEARCH

To find out how users find and interpret information about companies on websites,we conducted a usability study of fifteen sites: four large companies (Allstate,Lexmark, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Sempra Energy), three medium-sized companies(Constellation Brands, Titan, and Pier 1 Imports), three smaller companies (GiftTree,OneCall, and Team Industrial Services), three government agencies (the Departmentof Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the Interior, and the SmallBusiness Administration), and two non-profits (National Multiple Sclerosis Societyand the United Nations Childrens Fund).

On each site, we gave users one open-ended task: evaluate the organization. Wealso gave them several directed tasks, such as to find out who runs the organizationand when the organization was founded.

Most test participants were mainstream Web users with at least two years Internetexperience. We intentionally included a few teenagers in this studybecause the goals

of placing corporate information on the Web often include supporting high schoolprojects, building long-term loyalty, and attracting interns.

SUCCESS RATE: REASONABLE

On average across the directed tasks, users found the requested information 70% ofthe time. This is a fairly high success rate compared to most of our other Webusability studies, where the success rate usually ranges from 55 to 65%.

On the other hand, compared to most other things users attempt on the Web,investigating basic company facts is relatively easy. Our tasks didnt involvetransactions, filling out forms, complex searches, or complex navigation. Because thetasks were easy, getting a relatively high success rate indicates adequate usabilityrather than great usability.

Users had particular difficulty finding the most basic company facts, such as:

The organizations top executive or official: 59% success

Correct contact information: 62% success

The organizations philosophy: 59% success

Historical timeline and milestones: 58% success


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The poor score for contact information is deplorable for two reasons. First, itsinformation that people frequently request, and not having it readily availablefrustrates users. Second, its one of the leading markers that people use to judge acompanys trustworthiness: Is it a fly-by-night operation, or does it have an actualaddress and a phone number that its willing to disclose?

WHAT THE COMPANY DOESUsers were fairly successful at answering the most basic question of all: What doesthe company do? This task scored a success rate of 90%, but this favorable outcomedoes not vindicate the current Web design.

While users eventually discovered a companys purpose after scurrying around thewebsite, most sites failed to offer clear and visible explanations on their homepageand at the start of their About Us section.

In a separate project evaluating corporate homepage usability,1 the average sitescored only 36% on the usability guideline that recommends explicitly summarizingthe companys purpose on the homepage. Tag lines also proved to be content-freeblather. Sites scored only 27% on usability for these statements, which should

clearly describe the value proposition from a customer perspective and distinguishthe company from its primary competitors.

Having a short homepage description is essential for usability because it offers acontext that helps users interpret all of the site information. Similarly, a slightlylonger explanation at the top of the About Us page helps users understand thatsections information in more depth.

HELPING OUTSIDERS

People outside the organization are the ones who need help understanding what itdoes, yet descriptions of an organizations purpose are often written in ways thatmake sense mainly to insiders.

Government agencies are often the worst offenders, and in this study many userswere baffled at the profuse bureaucratese and impenetrable abbreviations on thegovernment sites we tested. When asked to find an agencys head, several userswere stumped by the job titles traditionally used in many federal agencies. Lookingthrough organization charts and lists of agency managers, users said that they werenot interested in the secretary, they wanted to find a person with an executive-sounding title like chief.

Nobody in Washington, D.C., would ever imagine that it might be difficult to identifya big cheese like the Secretary of the Interior as that departments leader. Thatsexactly why organizations need to run usability studies: to find out what peopleoutside their niche know. Often, its less than they think. Websites must be writtento help mainstream users, not people who already know everything; they wouldnt

go to the About Us section anyway.

1 For our full list of guidelines to improve homepages, please see our book Homepage Usability: 50Websites Deconstructed (more information at www.useit.com/homepageusability).


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TRANSACTION SITES AND ONLINE SERVICES

Rather than simply serving as a corporate mouthpiece, the main goal of many Websites is to provide independent services. This is particularly true for e-commercesites: selling is what theyre there for; that people might also want to use the site toresearch the company is typically a lesser consideration.

Still, such sites should have a strong About Us section, because users often wonderwhos behind a Web-based service, how its funded, and whether its credible. If youorder from an e-commerce site, can you trust the company to ship the package? Willthey take it back if it arrives in poor condition? If you register on a site, are theygoing to sell your personal information to anyone who can pay, and thus expose youto endless spam about everything from transaction-related products to offensiveporn?

Trust and credibility are major issues on the Web, where even the biggest companyexists only as a few words and pictures inside a browser window. The most deceitfuland unethical company can look as good as a company with a long history ofcommunity involvement and honest customer relationships. Explaining who you areand where you come from does matter, as do simple things like providing

management biographies and photos.

Its easy to resolve the tension between transactions and corporate information. Byall means, dedicate most of your homepage to sales, current offers, and navigationto products or services. Just remember to include a simple link to the About Ussection. The link doesnt have to be the first or most prominent. If youre using astandard left-hand navigation column, you can even place this link at the verybottom of the list. Just dont hide it.

CONNECTING TO USERS

Saying who you are and what you do is basic politeness in any conversation. Inbusiness, its also good to establish credibility and respect by explaining your

companys origins, how you view your business, and how you relate to thecommunity.

The Web is very depersonalized, but from our earliest usability studies, weve seenthat users like getting a sense of the company behind the website. Whos therebehind the screen?

Having a good About Us section facilitates this understanding. Clearly stating whatyou do helps customers understand the site as a whole. Of course, the overall site iswhat ultimately represents you to users. People look at product pages and read thesites content when theyre evaluating an organization as a possible vendor, businesspartner, employer, investment, or (in the case of charities) donation recipient.Communication isnt restricted to About Us. But dedicating an area to providing userswith facts about your organization and its history and values helps pull the sites

content together.


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Research Overview

The main purpose of our research was to learn how different people use corporatewebsites to find general company information. The result is this report, which offersguidelines that can help you better design your site to help users easily find and

more accurately interpret company information. The guidelines include ways toimprove the usability ofAbout Us sections and other corporate website areas tomaximize your companys image, and foster interest and trust. Our usabilityguidelines are based on methodical observation, interviews, and user feedback. Thisreport summarizes our research results, and explains and discusses each of ourrecommendations.

In this section, we offer a brief overview of the research study. For details about ourtesting procedure, please see the reports Methodology section.

Procedure

We gave users tasks to perform on various corporate websites. The main task was tofind company information. We used a combination of research methods. Our primary

approach was the thinking aloud methodology: we observed users as they workedand encouraged them to think out loud as they attempted their tasks. We also gaveparticipants questionnaires and interviewed them at the end of each test session.

A total of twenty people participated in the study. They ranged in age from 16 to 65years. All participants were Internet users with at least two years experience on theWeb, though some had significantly more.

Websites studied

We studied fifteen websites of various size and design from different industries. Ofthe fifteen, four companies were large, three were medium-sized, and three weresmall; three of the fifteen were government agencies and two were non-profit orcharitable organizations.

Company / Organization Name Description

The Allstate Corporationwww.allstate.com

The Allstate Corporation is the largestpublicly held personal lines insurer inthe US.

Lexmark International, Inc.www.lexmark.com

Lexmark International is a $4.4 billionprovider of printing solutions.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Companywww.bms.com

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a globalpharmaceutical and health careproducts company that also provides

therapies to treat illnesses includingcancer, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular andmetabolic diseases, and central nervoussystem disorders.

Sempra Energywww.sempra.com

Sempra Energy is a Fortune 500 energyservices corporation that has 12,000employees worldwide. Through its


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subsidiaries, Sempra Energy providesenergy-related products and services tocustomers in the US, Europe, Canada,Mexico, South America, and Asia.

Constellation Brands, Inc.www.cbrands.com

Constellation Brands, Inc. is aninternational producer and marketer ofbeverage alcohol in North America,Europe, and Australia, with a broadportfolio of wine, spirits, and importedbeer brands.

The Titan Corporationwww.titan.com

Titan provides information andcommunications products, solutions,and services related to national securityto the Department of Defense,intelligence agencies, and othergovernment customers.

Pier 1 Importswww.pier1.com

Pier 1 Imports is one of North America'slargest specialty retailers of casualhome furnishings and gifts.

GiftTreewww.gifttree.com

GiftTree offers gift services andsolutions. Their online catalog hasproducts such as gift baskets, floraldesigns, fruit baskets, and balloonbouquets.

OneCallwww.onecall.com

OneCall is the mail-order division ofHuppins Hi-Fi, Photo, & Video, a fourth-generation independent retailerestablished in 1908.

Team Industrial Services, Inc.www.teamindustrialservices.com

Team Industrial offers integratedindustrial services such on-stream leakrepairs, energy management, andconcrete repair services.

US Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment (HUD)www.hud.gov

HUD provides funding for a variety ofprograms that help Americans findaffordable rental housing.

US Department of the Interiorwww.doi.gov

The Department of the Interior is thenations principal conservation agency.They protect Americas natural andcultural heritage, offer recreationopportunities, foster sound land andwater resource use, and conserve andprotect fish and wildlife.

US Small Business Administrationwww.sba.gov/ca/sandiego

The US SBA provides financial,technical, and management assistanceto help people start, run, and grow their


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businesses.

National Multiple Sclerosis Societywww.nationalmssociety.org

Through a nationwide network ofchapters, the National MS Societysupports research efforts, educates, and

advocates on critical issues related toMS, and organizes a range of programs,including support for the newlydiagnosed and those living with MS overtime.

United Nations Childrens Fundwww.unicef.org

UNICEF helps children get the care andstimulation they need early in life andencourages families to educate girls aswell as boys. It strives to reducechildhood death and illness and toprotect children in the midst of war andnatural disaster.


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Company Reputation Affects Web SearchingBehavior

During our research, we noticed that people who were familiar with a company had

different searching behaviors than people who were not. People tend to spend verylittle time researching About Us information for well-known companies with goodreputations. They were confident that the company was solid, even without doingany extensive research on its website.

Most people in our study had already heard of Allstate, and didnt need to use thecompany website to ascertain that it was a good company to do business with.

I've heard of Allstate. I think they're pretty solid.

It is a reputable company because it is well known.

I know Allstate has been around for years, so it's ranked as one of the

top ten companies.

Similarly, a user was familiar with Bristol-Myers Squibb and already had a positiveimpression of the company, even before looking at the corporate site.

I think it's a good company because Bristol-Myers is well known. Theyhave a good reputation. They're a pharmaceutical.

A user quickly answered that that National MS Society was a good organization to beinvolved with based on his previous knowledge.

I know there are plenty of people that are affiliated with it. It's a

popular organization.

People who werent familiar with a company tended to spend more time in the AboutUs and product and services sections. They also had more questions about thecompany, including how long it had been in business and where it was located. Forthese potential customers, information like philanthropic efforts, values, mission, andhistory helped them better understand the companys philosophy. They were lessforgiving of sites that didnt address their questions.

I've never heard about Titan. They're a lot of companies I haven'theard of. To know that they've been in business since 91 makes me

feel better than having a start-up at 2001.

If your organization has had the misfortune of earning or inheriting a negativereputation or prejudice, you might want to make your corporate website especiallyusable in order to win over your audience. For example, one participant had a


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negative perception of governmental institutions that affected her impression of theUS Department of the Interior site.

It must have some crooked politicians if it has to do with thegovernment.

Another user on the Housing Urban and Development site had heard that it assistedrenters in finding low-income housing. Her impression of the agencys service in thisarea was negative, however, and she didnt know that it offered many moreprograms.

I've heard of them -- you have to get on the waiting list or

something.


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Success Rates and Satisfaction Ratings

We studied participants as they used selected websites, measuring the designssuccess based on participants task performance and their feedback about theinformation that was important to them.

We rated site designs based on how thoroughly participants completed their assignedtasks. We measured success on a scale ranging from 0% (no significant progress) to100% (fully completed tasks); we gave partial credit based how much informationusers found.

The graph below shows the average success rate across the target websites. Acrossall tasks, the average success score was 70%.

Most people were able to find:

What the company did

Whether the company engaged in community or social efforts

People had the most difficulty finding:

The top executive

Correct contact information

The companys business philosophy

Historical timeline and milestones

Average Success Rates By Task

90

71

84

79

59

62

59

58

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

What does the organization do?

Do they contribute to environmental programs?

Do they contribute to community programs?

How long have they been established?

Who heads the organization?

How would you contact the organization?

What is the organizations philosophy?

Do they have any interesting historical milestones?

Successs Rate (%)


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AVERAGE SATISFACTION RATINGS

After the sessions, we asked participants to rate their satisfaction with the tested siteon a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 being very satisfied and 1 being very dissatisfied. Theaverage satisfaction rating across all websites was 5.2. Even though 4.0 is the rating

scales mathematical midpoint, users tend to be polite in their ratings. Acrossnumerous user satisfaction surveys we analyzed, the average rating for userinterfaces was one unit better than the mathematical midpoint. Thus, the trueneutral point is 5 on a 1 to 7 scale (where 7 is best). Bearing this in mind, thisstudys average user satisfaction rating is only slightly better than theaverage ratingof the average user interface.

The main things that negatively impacted user satisfaction were:

Complex and overwhelming navigational structures

Difficult-to-find critical information, including what the company does, howlong its been in business, and who to contact

Busy and cluttered interfaces

Poor choice of font size and color

The main things that positively impacted user satisfaction were:

Pleasant graphic designs that complimented the content and were consistentwith the companys image

Simple and consistent navigational structures Easy-to-find contact information with toll-free telephone numbers

Clearly outlined community and social efforts

Endorsements from reputable external agencies

Good products and services


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Pr ioritizing Corporate Information

We also asked users for the key information they look for when using corporatewebsites to research a companys background. People noted the followinginformation as most important:

What the company does

When it was established

Where the companys headquarters is located

Company size (number of employees, locations, and revenue)

Background and historical accomplishments

Mission statement (philosophy, goals, and values)

Executive bios and photos

Financial history

On e-commerce sites,2 people said they also look for:

Customer comments or feedback

Customer service policies (such as returns and substitutions)

Privacy/security policies

Endorsements by impartial organizations (such as the Better BusinessBureau)

2 Please see our separate report, which has more extensive usability guidelines for designing e-commerce sites. One chapter specifically concerns ways of establishing trust and credibility. Availablefrom www.nngroup.com/reports/ecommerce.


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Guidelines Summary

The following list summarizes our usability guidelines for designing your websitesAbout Us area, based on findings from our user research. These guidelines arerecommendations for improving your websites usability. Detailed discussions andexamples for each guideline are included in the next section of this report. The pagenumbers following each guideline indicate where the discussion about that guidelineappears.

HOMEPAGE

1. Provide a noticeable link on the homepage called either About or About Us. (p. 18)

2. When appropriate, include detailed corporate information about such things

as investor relations, press, and employment. (p. 24)

3. Show the company name and/or logo in a reasonable size and noticeablelocation, ideally in the upper left-hand corner of the homepage. (p.24)

4. Have a brief tag line that explicitly summarizes what the organization orcompany does. (p. 25 )

COMPANY INFORMATION

5. Explicitly state what your organization does on the homepage and in your

websites About Us,IR, and PR areas. (p. 27)

6. Briefly highlight a few significant and interesting facts about your company.(p. 33)

7. For Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), keep the information concise,including only questions that are actually asked frequently. (p. 35)

8. Offer more detailed company information for people who want it.(p. 38)

9. Dont hide company information behind a massive number of vaguely wordedlinks. (p. 38)

HISTORY AND TIMELINES

10.Consider offering a History section that outlines the organizations historicalmilestones and achievements. (p. 40)

11.Properly format timelines so users can easily and quickly scan the content andpick out important dates and events. (p. 42)


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12.Use caution when using interactive timelines. Before deciding to create afancy interface, carefully consider whether this approach will help users findthe information they need. (p.45)

BUSINESS PHI LOSOPHY

13.Provide information in the About Us section that conveys the corporate goalsand objectives, and how they can benefit customers. (p. 47)

14.Have pages that illustrate your companys core values such as ethics,diversity, and employee conduct. (p. 52)

15.Use caution when using the term corporate governance as most peopledont know what it means. (p. 55)

EXECUTIVE MEMBERS

16.Provide information about the companys high-level managers. Include thepersons name, job title, recent picture, and a link to the full biography. (p.57)

17.For governmental agencies where the top executive has an unfamiliar title,such as Secretary of , make sure to clearly indicate whothis person is. (p. 61)

SOCIAL RESPONSIBI LITY

18.If your company contributes to socially responsible and philanthropic efforts,provide this information, and make it easy to find. (p. 63)

19.Be wary of using the terms philanthropy or philanthropic withoutexplaining them, as some people dont know what they mean. (p. 67)

20.If your company is currently in crisis or has met with controversy in the past,address this in some way on your corporate website. (p. 67)

ACCOLADES

21.Consider designating an area on your websites homepage or About Us areato show customer-oriented awards and recognition. (p. 69)

22.If you have product or service endorsements from reputable independentagencies such as the Better Business Bureau, provide a link to thisinformation.(p. 71)


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23.If possible, provide customer stories and feedback about the quality of theorganizations products and services. (p. 74)

CONTACT

24.Provide contact information or a noticeable link to it on the homepage and theIR and About Us sections of your website. (p. 76)

25.Make it easy to choose the correct contact. (p. 78)

26.Provide complete contact information. (p. 81)

27.For email contacts, tell people when to expect a response (if you can predictit). (p. 82)

28.Dont require people to register or fill out forms to contact your company orrequest information. (p. 83)

29.

If registration forms cant be avoided, keep them short and simple. (p. 84)

30.Provide an area on the form for people to type in comments or questions. (p.85)

31.Consider providing a local telephone number for different locations, especiallyif you serve multiple countries. (p. 85)

E-COMMERCE CUSTOMER SERVICE

32.Give users a clear and easy way to find your privacy policy. (p. 85)

33.Offer policies that are acceptable to your customers.( p. 87)

34.For non-profits and charitable organizations that solicit donations, make sureto clearly report the donation percentage that goes to overhead and thepercentage that goes directly to the cause. (p. 87)

35.When asking for donations, let people enter their amount, rather than forcingthem to choose from a set of narrow choices. (p. 88)

CONTENT

36.Write and present content in a way that optimizes scanning. (p. 89)

37.Speak your users language by avoiding fancy or technical terms.Governmental agencies need to be particularly wary of overloading users withconfusing acronyms. (p. 95)

38.Present reports or information in HTML whenever possible. (p. 96)


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NAVIGATION

39.Have a clear and consistent navigational structure. (p. 98)

40.Keep a consistent graphical look across pages and site areas. Let users know

when links will take them to a completely different website. (p. 103)41.Have links change color to show visited and unvisited areas. (p. 104)

42.Name links clearly, avoiding names that are vague, generic, or haveoverlapping meaning. (p. 105)

43.Be wary of opening new browser windows. (p.108)

GRAPHICS AND MULTIMEDIA

44.Use a graphic design that reinforces the company image and helps convey

information about the products and services. (p. 109)

45.Use graphics judiciously and make sure they dont obscure important content.(p. 110)

46.Consider having demonstration videos if your organization has complexproducts or services that you want to explain. (p. 112)

47.Keep video clips short. (p. 113)

48.Consider your target users bandwidth. (p. 113)

PRESENTATION

49.Use font sizes and styles that optimize the readability of your site. (p. 114)

50.Ensure adequate contrast between the background and text. (p. 116)


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Guidelines Discussion

Homepage

1. Provide a noticeable link on the homepage called either A b o u t < y o u r co m p a n y n a m e > or A b o u t U s .

The homepage is your websites primary gateway and plays an important role indetermining whether users will succeed in obtaining the information they need.Homepages with a clear navigation scheme and clear links help users choose thecorrect path from the start and take them directly to their expected destination.Homepages with vague links and navigation often lead users down paths that aredifficult to retrace or frustrate users to the point that they give up before getting theinformation they need.

The link to corporate information on your homepage should be:

Visibly noticeable and easy to find, not hidden in dropdown menus orovershadowed by other page elements.

Described in clear terms. In our study, the terms About , and About Us worked well.

If giving people corporate information is a high priority for your company, werecommend placing the link at the top of the page. Doing so will minimize scrollingand thus capture a broader audience. However, if your homepage real estate islimited and providing company information is not your top priority, then its

acceptable to offer the link at the bottom of the page, next to the other corporate-related links.

A user on OneCall couldnt easily find information about the company because it washidden behind an obscure link called Info Center.

I'm trying to figure out what company this is. Obviously, they sell

electronic gadgets. Who are they? I can't seem to find any informationabout them. I don't know who they are. Is this an online mall? Nothing

on the homepage jumps out at me.

Furthermore, the link was in a banner-like area that was obscured by other graphicalelements on the top of the page, causing him to overlook it.

When you have a menu bar up here, I didn't even see that. It didn'tstick out right way. I didn't know who they were. I didn't find that InfoCenter easily. it mixes in with the rest of it.


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Similarly, people missed the About Allstate link because it was located in the bannerarea, which people often associate with advertisements. Its also in a tiny font sizeand overshadowed by the large navigational buttons below it.

On the Team Industrial Services site, a user complained that the Company Info linkwas buried underneath a large graphic and should have been placed at the top withthe other important links.

I think on the homepage, these links -- instead of this flashy thing in

the middle, these links need to be more prominent. It shouldn't besplit [referring to a large graphic that separates navigational links],which makes the person travel.

People on the Titan website appreciated that it was easy to find About Titan andProducts and Services. The links were clearly displayed at the top, under the bannerarea.

I think its a user friendly site. It has About Titan and Products andServices.

OneCall confused users by placing corporate information under an

undescriptive link called Info Center.


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People had difficulty finding About Allstate because it was in a tiny font sizeand hidden in the banner-like area, which people often associate with ads andignore. A better placement would be near the Media Newsroom in the leftcolumn, or next to one of the main buttons at the top.


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Team Industrial Services hid Company Info underneath a large graphic thatovershadowed the other corporate links. Company Info and Contact Us wouldbe better placed with other important links, such as Investor Relations andLocations.


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People on the HUD website didnt notice About HUD right away because it wasless prominent than other links, such as HUD News and Priorities. Also, thepages small font and numerous red links overwhelmed users. With

everything emphasized on the homepage, people had difficulty deciphering

what was really important.


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Titan National Security Solutions had a clean homepage with clear labels.People immediately found About Titan and Products & Services.


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Although having corporate links at the top of the page is more common, Pier1 Imports corporate links worked well at the bottom because they were

nicely grouped and free from other distracting elements. Also, the homepagedidnt require scrolling, making them easy to spot.

2. Wh en appropriate, include detailed corporate information

about such things as investor relations, press, and

employment.

When researching company information, most people immediately want a quickcompany overview. However, if people are serious about learning more about thecompany, they expect more detailed information about such things as IR, companynews, and employment opportunities. Offering this detailed information shows thatthe company cares about its customers and is not hiding information.

(For guidelines on optimizing usability for journalists, refer to our Designing Websitesto Maximize Press Relations report, http://www.nngroup.com/reports/pr.

For guidelines on optimizing IR, refer to our Usability of the Investor Relations Areaof Corporate Websites report, http://www.nngroup.com/reports/ir.)

3. Show the company name and/ or logo in a reasonable size and

noticeable location, ideally in the upper l eft-hand corner of

the homepage.


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One of the ways to communicate the sites purpose is to show the company nameand logo. Although neither need be enormous, the name and logo should beprominent enough to get peoples attention when they first come to a site. Forpeople familiar with the company, the logo can reinforce branding or corporateimage. Even for people who dont know the company, repeatedly seeing arecognizable logo can trigger a similar response. For languages that read from left to

right, its customary to find corporate logos in the pages upper left-hand corner.

Most of the sites we tested followed this guideline. However, HUD.gov didnt, andparticipants couldnt immediately determine what organization the websiterepresented.

The HUD website doesnt have its own logo. Borrowing a White House logo

doesnt help identify the organization.

4. Have a brief tag line that explicitly summarizes what the

organization or company does.

Tag lines should be brief, simple, and to the point. For example, Titans tag line,

National Security Solutions, is a good, straightforward summary of what the siteand company offer. Vague or jargonistic tag lines only confuse users. For example,HUDs tag line, Homes and Communities, is too broad and doesnt describe theirservices; Homes and Communities could have multiple interpretations, includingreal estate listings or home improvement services. A tag line such as Assistance inMaking Homes Affordable would be more descriptive.


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Is this a real estate housing company? It doesn't tell you what theydo right off the bat. I guess you can tell by reading some of this stuff.

Tag lines might not be necessary when the company name itself explains what thecompany does, such as Sempra Energy, or if the company is very well known, such

as Allstate Insurance.The Department of the Interiors site didnt have a tag line, and some participantswere unsure about the agencys purpose. A simple and descriptive tag line likeProtecting our Heritage and Environment would have helped.

Is it the interior or the United States or department of what? It

doesn't make sense to me. From this, I can figure out that it's our

natural resources type thing, but it doesn't say that.

Some people were unfamiliar with the US Department of the Interior andwould have better understood its role if the site had a simple tag line

describing what it does.


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The Constellation site had a mediocre tag line: tastes for life. When coupledwith the picture of wine glasses, however, people correctly assumed that the

company had something to do with wine. A more descriptive tag line, such asDistributor of Wine and Spirits would probably be better for users.

Company Information

5. Explicitly state what your organization does on the homepageand in your websites A b o u t U s , I R, and PR areas.

Always provide a straightforward summary of what your company does. Avoidjargonistic descriptions -- at best, they tend to confuse users; at worse, they makethem mistrust the site, especially if they perceive descriptions as marketing hype.

One of the first places people go to find corporate information is the About Us area.Offering a brief summary of what your company does helps people understand thesites purpose without having to wade through massive amounts of content ornumerous page levels. When possible, present the summary on the main area of theAbout Us page.

You should also offer short descriptions on the homepage and in any sectionsdedicated to IR and press relations (PR), especially if your organization is new or notwell known. Dont force customers, investors, and journalists to visit About Us if allthey want is a basic idea of the companys purpose. You can provide this in one totwo lines, supplemented by a link to a full About Us area for more details. In ourother studies, weve found that when companies establish this basic context, itsignificantly helps people interpret product information, as well as IR and PR content.Even a short description is enough to situate users and facilitate understanding.


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Dont bury this summary information under vague or overwhelming links. Try tokeep the summary brief, and make sure to properly format it for ease of scanning.

On the Team Industrial Services website, participants had difficulty finding companyinformation because it was pushed below the fold on the Company Info areas mainscreen. Above the fold, unnecessarily large buttons, graphics, and white spacedominated. When people clicked on Company Info, they expected to get theinformation right away, not more links. They didnt know the main content wasbelow the fold.

They didn't do a good job on company information spend more time

organizing it so that people can find out more upfront, [rather] thanhaving these things up here.

When you go to company info, you kinda look at this and you don't

see the information down here presented upfront, so people might skip

it. [The information] should be presented up front.

A user on the Constellation Brands site appreciated the brief overview that appearedon top of the About Us page. He preferred this site to the Team Industrial Servicessite.

The other website didn't show this information upfront. This one talksabout exactly what they do when you go to About Us. Im trying tofind out about them. This is a good general thing to have it upfront.

People were impressed with the Sempra site, which had corporate information righton the homepage. The information told users what the company does, how big it is,and what the company values, without forcing them to trudge through a lot of

content. Also, the About Us link was noticeable and all users found it with little to nodifficulty.

It's interesting to me that they've been around for 100 years. It'sgood that they're trying to minimize risk. It's nice to know that they're

coming up with new technologies. Its good to know that they arespread out throughout the world right off the bat, it tells you who we

are. It tells you they've been around for 100 years, so they're

experienced in what they do. When you click on About Us, they giveyou a lot of information about the company.


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The Company Info page on the Team Industrial Services site confusedviewers because the main content wasnt apparent. Users didnt know that

they had to scroll past the large graphic to get to the main information.

A user was pleased that Constellation Brands site, www.CBrands.com, had a

summary of what the company does right on the About Us page.


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The Sempra site did a good job of telling readers who they are and what they

do on both the homepage and the About Us pages. Also, the designers brokethe content into small paragraphs, which helps facilitate scanning.


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Since the completion of our study, UNICEF.org updated their site with a

noticeable and descriptive What We Do link on the main navigational bar atthe top of the page. This design helps people quickly find out the

organizations purpose. However, the designs downside is that now the AboutUNICEF link is less prominent and some people could easily miss it.

The previous UNICEF homepage had a much more noticeable button to AboutUNICEF, which all study participants easily found. While this homepage designdoesnt have a direct What We Do link, participants expected to find thisinformation in the About UNICEF section.


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The square groupings, clean design, and judicious use of graphics on the newAbout UNICEF page helps give it a professional look. The bold headers andbrief descriptions will also help viewers quickly ascertain each sections

content. A potential disadvantage to this design is that the organizationsAbout Us information is scattered in many different places. Links such asWhat We Do and Why We Do It are in the top navigational bar, for example,while Who We Are is on the main page. Similar links should be groupedtogether so that people can get the information quickly, and not accidentally

miss it.


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The old About UNICEF page told what the company did, but in a long-windedway. People couldnt quickly scan and glean information about the

organizations purpose. Rather than having long blocks of text, its better tohave brief bulleted points. However, the old design was better at placing

related About Us topics together in the left-hand navigational menu.

6. Briefly highlight a few significant and interesting facts about

your company.

When users are initially researching your company, they want a quick overview.Some of the basic facts they look for are:

What the company does

When it was started

The number of employees

Company location/number of locations

The companys revenue

A user on the Team Industrial Services site viewed a company as more stable if ithad many locations.


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They have locations all over the world, so that's a good sign. Showsthat they are successful, that they have branches, that they are a

larger corporation. It says that it is safer to deal with them than if they

were one office.

Similarly, users on Lexmark.com were impressed that the company was global.

I think that it's cool that theyre in more than 150 countries.

Its good to be associated with the company because it has so many

national and international [locations] their services are pretty muchall around.

Another user on the Constellation Brands site viewed company size as an indicator ofcompany health.

They have positioned themselves as leaders in the world. They aresecond in the US, and second in the UK, talks about how big they are,

which is good. It shows the breadth of their company -- how large

they are, and how diversified they are on other companies. Large isnot is always good, but in terms of what they are doing, the more

market they have the better.

Another indicator of company size is the number of employees. A user on the Pier 1Imports site was impressed that it employed so many people.

Oh! It employs 18,000 people.

Users on the Department of the Interior and Team Industrial Services websites alsoliked knowing how long the organizations have been around and what they did.

It doesn't sound like a bad thing 70,000 employees. They've beenaround since 1849, so they're certainly an established group they

manage land. What I like about them is that they protect wildlife."

I like this company right now because it's trying to protect America,and they're spending a lot of money to do it.

They've been in business for over twenty years so that's pretty stableto me.

Some participants had never heard of GiftTree.com; one of the first facts they lookedfor was when it was started.


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I don't know anything about them, so the first thing I want to know ishow long they've been in business.

Since I don't know this company, the first thing I want to know is how

old it is.

A user on OneCall.com wanted to know the companys physical location, but couldntfind it.

Do they have a store -- locations? Because that way I know they are

legit and this is not a scam.

7. For Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), keep the information

concise, including only questions that are actually askedfrequently.

Address real user questions, not those you or your colleagues imagine that usersmight have. In countless user studies, weve seen too many websites with FAQs thatlist questions the company wished users would ask. The FAQ feature is helpful onlywhen its reserved for real frequently asked questions. Also, FAQs have a simplisticinformation design that does not scale well. FAQs that are too long and contain toomany infrequently asked questions undermine users trust in the website anddamage their understanding of its navigation. For example, the Pier 1 Imports sitepresented company information in an FAQ format, which didnt utilize the Websnavigational nature and didnt contain enough information.

There are several things you can do to determine users most frequent questions. Forexample, you can monitor support lines and email inquiries, check search logs to seewhat people are looking for, and conduct field studies or user tests. Also, check with

your customer service groups and find out the top fifteen to twenty inquiries thatpeople make.

Some of the sites we tested had a single facts page. Although this was helpful, thepages were often buried and difficult to find, and people missed them.

The National MS Society and Pier 1 Imports sites presented About Us information ina linear, question-and-answer format, which is good for answering commonquestions. The style is limited, however, because it doesnt let people easily jumparound and navigate to different topics. Although Pier 1s site offered a quick-jumpmenu at the top, people complained that scrolling up and down was inconvenient. Aplus for both sites was that their FAQs seemed to address real user questions.

A user on the SBA site was eager to find a link to an FAQ, but was quickly

disappointed when she realized that it didnt address any of her questions. Instead,the FAQ served more as a glossary and had a confusing search feature that requiredher to enter search queries by categories.


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People on the Pier 1 Imports site said they didnt like the FAQ format forAbout Us content because it required them to scroll up and down to movebetween topics.


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The National MS Society site also offered its About Us information in an FAQ-like format. A big plus here, however, was that the content seemed to

address actual questions that users frequently ask.

The FAQ on the US SBA site was a big disappointment because it served moreas a glossary than an FAQ.


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8. Offer more detailed company information for people w ho

want it.

Although we highly encourage you to offer a brief company overview, its also goodto link to more detailed information for people who want it. People are leery of

companies that are skimpy on accomplishments or historical background. Havingwell-documented successes and accomplishments on corporate websites is anindication that a company is thorough and methodical in its work and has the historyand specifics to back up its claims.

Users on the Pier 1 Imports site complained that there wasnt enough detailedinformation in About Us. The FAQ-style format, with small blurbs for each topic, wasgenerally viewed as inadequate.

It has information here, but not as much as some other websites

would have. I don't particularly care for that this is all lined up.There's not too much information on each one. There's only one little

paragraph for the mission statement and there's not a lot to read. Idon't particularly like click on this, and go down and read it. It tends

to have less information.

They could give more information on some of this stuff, these littlebullet points that you have to click and go down.

Participants experiences with the Team Industrial Services site gave them a positiveimpression of the company. Even though viewers didnt fully understand the subjectmatter, the case studies illustrated how the company worked to resolve issues andtook the time to methodically document it. Such measures did not go unnoticed.

I like this. They talk about different problems and how they weresolved. It showed that they really document their work. Lets say youneed a solution that they solved before, it shows you their history.

All of the case histories were nice to have the ability to see, becauseit breaks down what their problems were and how they resolved the

problem. It gives you a better feeling that they know what they aredoing and could probably get the job done for you.

9. Dont hide company information behind a massive number ofvaguely worded links.

Once on the About Us page, people expect to find pertinent company informationright away. Bombarding them with numerous links without offering content on thispage is jarring, and makes people work too hard to get what they need. Its fine tohave links that lead to more specific information, but first provide an overview. Also,ensure that links on the About Us page are pertinent to peoples needs and removeany unnecessary or redundant information.


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The Department of the Interior website didnt immediately offer a description of theorganization. When people clicked on About DOI, they were barraged with vastnumbers of unfamiliar links, such as Annual Performance Plans and Strategic Plan.For a typical viewer, it was not clear how these topics related to About DOI.

The organization doesn't really show what the organization is. It justhas a bunch of links to other things. That's kind of weird they give

you buttons to places you don't know. You have to click on it to read

through it to see what you want. The first half is okay, the second halfis what are you talking about? It doesn't fill up the whole page -- it's

a mini page.

I cant find this because it's not listed on the About Us page. I guessI can't find one particular thing that says what they do without going

to their history.

The About HUD page also failed to provide company information right away, and

instead dumped people into a list of links that had no apparent priority. Because thepage lacked content, some people simply clicked on the first several links withoutknowing what to expect.

One user clicked on several links randomly, but said that he didnt learn much aboutthe organization.

I really don't know anything about what their company [does].They're not telling us really about their company.

The numerous non-descriptive blue links on the Department of the Interiorsite overwhelmed users.


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People expected to get company information on About HUD. Instead, theywere forced to wade through a list of ambiguous choices that appeared in noapparent order.

History and Timelines

10.Consider offering a H i s t o r y section that outlines the

organizations historical milestones and achievements.

Highlighting major historical milestones can increase peoples trust in your company.Timelines help people gain a fuller understanding of where the company has beenand how its evolved over the years. Anything particularly noteworthy helps improveconsumer confidence. People are particularly interested in milestones such as:

How and when the organization was formed

When important products and services were invented, and why they aresignificant

Any prestigious awards or recognitions

A user on GiftTree.com was frustrated when she couldnt figure out how long thecompany had been in operation.


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I don't see how long they've been business. I don't like that -- notknowing how long they've been around.

Allstate.com made the mistake of hiding their timeline in Newsroom>Press Kit, and

none of the users found it.

I want to know how long they have been around. For whateverreason, I don't see it listed in here.

A user on Titan.com liked the site, but felt it needed more information about thecompanys past accomplishments.

What have they accomplished? It should say what they've done,what we've accomplished.

A user on the HUD site found the organizations timeline and was delighted to seewhat the agency had accomplished over the years.

Good. Its helpful to people and showed history in the past to behelpful for others. And they have a great reputation.


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Allstate.com buried their History & Timeline under Newsroom > Press Kit, andnone of the users found it.

11.Properly format timelines so users can easily and quickly

scan the content and pick out important dates and events.

Optimize scanning by using Web formatting strategies on all histories and timelines.Improperly formatted content is overwhelming and difficult to scan.

In our study, people preferred histories that were broken into small paragraphsseparated by the date (usually the month and year is sufficient). In general, peoplequickly lost interest when content was long and wordy. Its better to chunk theinformation with appropriate headers than to clump it together into massive blobs oftext.

While its good to show some history, make sure to highlight only major milestones.Your company may have had many important historical moments, but users are notinterested in reading a long list of detailed dates and events. Keep the users interestby trimming down the timeline, and showing only the most critical events.

People on the Bristol-Myers Squibb site complained that its History contained toomany uninteresting details and that the format was too difficult to read. The contentwas both too detailed and too dense, making it difficult to scan.


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There is a bunch of history. Personally, for me, there is a lot ofreading. I wish they could just put the month, the year, and what they

invented. Too much breakdown of people that owned the business.

This has a lot of information. This goes on forever. That would take

up a lot of printing paper.

People on the Department of the Interiors website found its History pagepresentation to be uninteresting as well. The page was visually uninviting with bigblocks of text and lacked headers to facilitate scanning.

Im bored of the History page.

This is a list of times. If they had it in a timeline, that would be cool.This is just there -- it's not cool.

This is even less intriguing -- plain font and small.

Pier1.com did an impressive job of presenting their history in a clear and invitingformat. People quickly and easily found information on Pier1.coms History pagebecause the years were bold and blue for ease of scanning and the descriptions wereshort and concise.

I like the page on the history. It gives the years and what they'vedone since they started the business. You can learn a lot by just

reading this little page here. Milestones that they've accomplishedsince they've been in existence. It's bulleted here and you can find it.

OK, it started in 1962. This is good. You can read how it started. Itstarted as a single store then opened stores all over the place. It lookslike it has done well.


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Better formatting, such as aligning the dates and using boldface type, wouldimprove the Bristol-Myers Squibb sites History page.

DOI.gov didnt make adequate use of Web formatting techniques to present

its history, causing people to lose interest and leave.


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People on Pier1.com appreciated the History pages clear and simple format.The blue dates and short paragraphs facilitated scanning. (Note: It would be

better to use a color other than blue for the years, since blue boldface text

indicates links on this site and on the Web in general.)

12.Use caution w hen using interactive timelines. Before decidingto create a fancy interface, carefully consider wh ether this

approach w ill help users find the information they need.

While fancy and slick timelines might seem initially appealing, theyre oftencumbersome and get in the way of people accomplishing their tasks. One of the maindrawbacks of an interactive timeline is that people can often get the informationquicker from a simple HTML page. Letting people scan for information on a singlepage is easier than forcing them to hover their mouse over icons or dates one at atime.

Also, our previous study with Flash revealed usability issues that should beconsidered. People are resistant to downloading special plug-ins, for example, anddislike slow loading times.

(For guidelines on designing with Flash, refer to our Usability of Flash Applicationsand Tools report -- http://www.nngroup.com/reports/flash.)


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The Constellation Brands site offered an attractive interactive timeline. However,users had to place the cursor over each year to read the event description -- whichmight be fine if the user is just browsing around. However, if you have seriousresearchers on your site, theyll want to get the information as quickly and efficientlyas possible, and this type of design doesnt meet that goal.

CBrands.coms interactive timeline had a clean design. However, it might be

more cumbersome to use than a standard Web page because it requires

people to cursor over each date to view the event.


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Business Philosophy

13.Provide information in the A b o u t U s section that conveys the

corporate goals and objectives, and how they can benefitcustomers.

Providing a statement about your companys goals and objectives helps peoplebetter understand your organizations priorities toward its shareholders, customers,and employees. Clearly outlining goals and objectives shows that the company isserious about what it does and has a solid commitment to being a reputable andtrustworthy organization.

What is their philosophy? I've seen that on other websites. It makes astatement about a company. It speaks of integrity and commitment, of

what they do. If its in writing, you see it.

People on DOI.gov found the information on the Quick Facts page interestingbecause it highlights the main things that people want to see: the organizationsmission, its size, and its breadth of services.

Oh! I didn't know that -- wow! 200,000 volunteers. They collect all ofthis revenue and put it back into the parks and land. I think this is

great.

A user on the Unicef.org site found the Mission page helpful, and after only a fewminutes on the site formed a positive impression of the organization.

This is very informative.

On the Sempra.com site, people easily found information about the companysvalues. The About Us page immediate described the companys purpose. Also, forpeople who wanted to know more about the companys values, there was a clearlydisplayed link on the left navigational panel, which was free from any distractingdesign elements.

Right off the bat again, it gives you a paragraph about it. It tells you

what their goal is. They are interested in a lot of good stuff.Let's see what their values are. I think it's good if they really do what

they say they do. I expected to see something like this. This is reallypositive. I think this is a really good page.


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This expanded thing -- that's funny that they're actually recognizingthat you could analyze things to death and sometimes you just need to

get things done and I assume that employees have a commitment to

the company.

HUD.gov had a mission statement, but some people couldnt find it right awaybecause it was hidden among a sea of links.

They don't have anything right away that has their mission statement

as a company, what they want as a company, what their goal is. Itdoesn't let me have the personal insight into what the company is like

and what it does doesn't give you information on what the companywants to do for you.

OneCall.com was perceived as being greedy because they didnt provide a philosophyor mission statement.

I don't see any philosophy. It looks like they want to make money.They don't say anything to the customer.

A user on the Team Industrial Services site criticized the site for not presentinginformation in the right order. Rather than seeing the huge graphics and links thatdominated the companys About Us page, this user wanted to immediately see howlong the company had been in business and what they did, and then get theirbusiness philosophy. He was disappointed that the site didnt offer the latter.

They should say how long it is in business, what they do, then givetheir philosophy right below it. I want to find out what their motivation

is for their business and what they want to achieve. You want that tostand out, to present yourself and make a strong impression in the

first couple of paragraphs.


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UNICEF.orgs Missionpage explains the organizations goals and helps viewersgain a better understanding of its purpose. The simple design and short

paragraphs make this page appealing to read.


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The Values page on Sempra.com does a good job of showing the companysvalues from a human angle. Having part of the companys mission be fun andmaintain a sense of humor gave it a personal touch that people appreciated.


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The Bristol-Myers Squibb sites extensive Mission page addressed a largeaudience. However, the formatting could be improved by left-justifying the

paragraphs into simple bullet points. Also, the graphics at the top pushed the

content toward the bottom, causing people to think that there was nothingelse on the page.

People didnt realize there was more content on the Mission page becauseunnecessary graphics pushed the content to the bottom of the screen.


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14.Have pages that il lustrate your companys core values suchas ethics, diversity, and employee conduct.

Users were impressed when companies had information about their core businessvalues and ethics. With the recent news regarding corporate scandals, people areespecially leery of corporate practices and greed. Addressing your companys valuesupfront can help ease some of this mistrust and enhance peoples confidence in yourorganization.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb site had sections on their Pledge and Standards of BusinessConduct and Ethics, which implied that they considered ethics important.

This is nice. It makes them sound honorable.

People on Sempra.com were impressed by the companys diversity and employeeconduct policy.

Drug testing, conflict of interest all of that stuff is in there. These

are all good standards for an ethical work place. You have to judge acompany bythe face of the employees.

They are letting us know that they don't have discrimination against

people. That's a nice thing to know about the company, that they treattheir employees equally if [people] were looking to invest in the

company it would help them know what it would be like inside of the

company. They know how the employees will be acting to do theirpart they are going to know it's going to be in good hands when

they're investing in them.

The vision and values list on Lexmark.com was easy to read, and people got theimpression that the company had dedicated employees.

Looks like the employees are dedicated to the product.

It looks like they outline the bullet points of their values: employee

satisfaction, integrity, and being honest. That's kind of neat.


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Sempra.com showcased their award for diversity right on the homepage.


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The diversity policy on Sempra.com helped people gain an understanding of

the companys business practices and the quality of employees that they hire.


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People appreciated Lexmarks vision and values, and said that the formattedlist with bold headers was easy to scan.

15.Use caution when using the term corporate governance asmost people dont know what it means.

Corporate governance has recently started attracting a good deal of public interest,

especially from the IR perspective. However, the concept of corporate governance isstill poorly defined, and there is no general agreement as to its meaning. Wheneverpossible, its better to use a more descriptive term such as corporate responsibilityor corporate conduct. If you must use corporate governance, offer a briefexplanation of what it means.

People on the Bristol-Myers Squibb site were confused by the term corporategovernance.

I dont know what that means not again!

Im not used to that kind of stuff.

Governance, that's a weird word. I'll click it to see what it was.

A user on Allstates site thought corporate governance meant a governing board anddidnt click on the link because she thought all companies were governed by thesame state board.


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Corporate governance -- I would assume that they are governed bythe same board, so that doesnt interest me.

Even though Allstate.com used the term corporate governance, they had a helpfulexplanation right below the link.

That's cool that they tell you what's in there, so you don't have toclick on it to find out what it means.

Its not advisable to use the term corporate governance because most

people are unfamiliar with it. Allstate.com used the term, but also provided abrief explanation underneath the link.


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Executive Members

16.Provide information about the companys high-levelmanagers. Include the persons name, job title, recent

picture, and a link to the full biography.

Potential customers and investors typically want to scan through information about acompanys key players, including their age, position, and background; they also liketo see a photograph. Scanning management information is part of the researchprocess, and people form impressions of the company based on the executivesbackground, age, and gender.

Many of our users appreciated seeing photographs of the executive members andexpressed that websites containing photographs and information about managementappeared more personal. Also, in our press relations and IR studies, journalists notedthat they often go to company websites to get photographs of high-level managersfor their articles.

I like to see who's CEO -- the head man showing himself isimpressive. It shows strong leadership and he's not hiding.

(For guidelines on optimizing usability for journalists, refer to our Designing Websitesto Maximize Press Relations report -- http://www.nngroup.com/reports/pr.

For guidelines on optimizing IR, refer to our Usability of the Investor Relations Areaof Corporate Websites report -- http://www.nngroup.com/reports/ir.)

Bristol-Myers Squibb, the SBA, and Pier 1 Imports listed corporate executives, butdidnt provide any detailed information about them. Users tried clicking on the

names, but that didnt take them anywhere. People said that having just a namedoesnt provide enough information about whos running the organization.

There's not much information there, just name and title.

A user on HUD.gov had difficulty finding the secretarys information, but once shefound it, she thought the information was thorough.

It gives you biography on the secretary, which is nice. It gives you

the accomplishments. It gives you a bit of personalness by giving

you the biography of the secretary. It gives you a look at what thisperson is. The picture helps because you get to see the face of the

person.

Sempra.com linked people to a full biography with pictures, making the companyappear more personal.


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If you click on the picture you get a biography rather than just anidentification. If I was trying to reach the company, I would find it

useful.

It gives info on the president of company. That's helpful. It gives a

personal thing to let you know about the president and what thecompany is about. It helps to make it more personal.

Management team -- it gives you information on each one of them,

which is very nice.

Seems like they are very nice to work with. The way that they giveyou information about their top people -- letting you know about their

people, what they want, and their values, which is very nice.

A user on Titan.com commented that having the CEOs picture on the website madethe company seem more welcoming and personal.

I think it's good. It makes it kind of personal -- Come on by we'll

have lunch. You have the people here that run the company. You havepictures of them. It makes it personal.

People on the Bristol-Myers Squibb site tried clicking on the names thinkingtheyd get more information about the person, but were disappointed to

discover that the names werent links.


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People on Sempra.com liked that they could click on the picture or name toget a full biography.


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People expected to see a photo with a biography of top executive members,

such as those on this page.


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Titan.com made it easy for people to find background information on itsofficers.

17.For governmental agencies where the top executive has an

unfamiliar title, such as Secretary of , makesure to clearly indicate who this person is.

When searching for information about an organizations top executive member,people typically look for titles like CEO or chief executive officer. Titles such assecretary of confused users because they equated secretary

with a person carrying out clerical tasks, not a high-level executive. Even whenconfronted with an organizational chart, people wondered why the secretarys namewas on top.

Also, if your organization has many similar or vague titles, such as chief of staffand chief executive officer, make sure to group and label the list in a meaningfulway so people can quickly differentiate between the different management levels.

On the Department of the Interior website, people had difficulty figuring out theorganizations top person. They expected to find a title such as CEO, and werentconfident that Secretary of the Interior was right, even when that title topped theorganization chart.

Normally, you would think the person in charge would be the

president of the interior, not the secretary.

I went to Secretary (deputy secretary), but I don't believe she is theleader, but she's at the top. I guess she is it.


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People on HUD.gov had similar problems. The contact page listed many people, butthe titles sounded too similar and people couldnt figure out who the main personwas.

The secretary doesn't seem to be the top person though. I'm trying to

figure out -- I guess the secretary, chief executive officer, or the WhiteHouse person. I would think it would be chief something more than

secretary, right?

Looks like this could be the president right here -- Chief ProcurementOfficer. It doesn't say what this guy in the picture has to do in thecompany. I assume it's someone important that works in the companybecause of his name and job title.

Even with the title at the top of the organization chart, people questioned how

the secretary could be considered the main executive member.


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People noticed the featured articles on Allstate.com and were impressed bythe community programs that individual employees participated in. While this

information was helpful, Allstate.com didnt have an apparent area that

showed all of the social programs that the company was involved with and

the case histories offered viewers only a small sampling.


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Even though Pier1.com didnt provide many details, people were pleased tolearn about the companys philanthropic efforts.


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Sempra.com acknowledged peoples concerns about energy production andaddressed them in its Environment section.

19.Be wary of using the terms philanthropy or philanthropicw ithout explaining them, as some people dont know w hat

they mean.

Philanthropy is an uncommon term, and some people dont know what it means. Inour study, several people got stuck on the meaning and pronunciation of the word.Better to use a simpler, more descriptive term such as social responsibility.

I didnt know what that [philanthropy] meant.

Phil-lan-thro-py -- hmm.

20.If your company is currently in crisis or has met with

controversy in the past, address this in some w ay on yourcorporate website.


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Its common for companies to run into problems, but how they deal with themshapes both their character and reputation. When people hear a newsworthy eventabout a company, they often go to the corporate website to get more information. Ifthe information is not there or is misleading, it seems as if the company is trying tocover it up or that its leaders think nothing is wrong. Investors and journalists inparticular are keen researchers and expect to find this information on corporate

websites. In our press relations study, journalists did not empathize with companiesthat tried to cover up a situation or completely ignored it on their website.

Address problematic issues on your website and indicate how the company is makingamends or moving forward to mitigate the issue -- within whats legally feasible, ofcourse. Explain the situation and communicate to shareholders, vendors, andcustomers about how your company is going to make the situation better.

A user on Sempra.com remembered reading a controversial newspaper article aboutproblems with burning fossil fuels and expected Sempra to address this issue on itswebsite. The user expected the site to address it upfront, and was frustrated whenshe couldnt find this information right away.

I read that San Diego gets most of its energy by burning fossil fuelssomeplace else. So I would expect them to have some kind ofcomment about the pollution caused by burning fossil fuel, efficient

power plants. I wish they would say something more about it than

this blurb. They say advanced technology, but I wish they would saywhat it is.


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Sempra.com did address issues related to ongoing investigations, but theinformation was buried, which frustrated users.

Accolades

21.Consider designating an area on your websites homepage orA b o u t U s area to show customer-oriented awards and

recognition.

Acknowledging awards and recognition for the quality of products and services is oneway to enhance your organizations credibility and build peoples trust. You might, forexample, mention awards for customer-oriented topics on your websites homepageor About Us area. Showing awards that employees have won is a way to show thequality of people behind the products and services that your company provides.

On the other hand, you should exercise restraint when displaying awards having todo with your website design -- most people dont really care (unless youre a designcompany). Each item you add to your site adds to its overall complexity and stealsfocus from the actual content. If you must show website awards, keep the displaysimple and away from the main content area. Also, dont feature old awards. That


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might undermine your credibility and communicate that you havent done anythingrecently noteworthy.

Bristol-Myers Squibb listed some of its most prestigious awards from well-knownagencies, thereby helping viewers feel more at ease with the quality of products andofferings. Bristol-Myers Squibb did a good job of updating its site with currentawards and listing them in a format that was easy to scan. The selective use ofbolding helped people quickly scan for the most important pieces of information: Thedate, name, and agency giving the award.

They have some good awards by some real popular magazines. It

would make me feel safe to do business with them. It sounds like areliable company.

They've gotten a lot of awards. That's impressive.

People on Lexmark.com missed the Awards section all together because it was buriedbehind an inconspicuous Corporate Backgrounder link that was embedded in a dense

body of text. Once in Awards, people still didnt get any information; instead theywere forced to do extra work by choosing between corporate and product awards.Even once they were in the right area, people had to read a list of awards in tinyfont, without adequate formatting to optimize scanning.

People formed a more positive impression of Bristol-Myers Squibb because it

had received impressive awards. The judicious use of bolding made scanning

for important information such as the name of the award easy.


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Lexmark.coms Award page was not compelling because the presentation wassterile and uninteresting. The significance of the award numbers was unclear

and the tiny font made it difficult to read. Also, having a brief description ofthe award would have been more helpful.

22.If you have product or service endorsements from reputableindependent agencies such as the Better Business Bureau,

provide a link to this information.

When possible, connect people to third-party sites that can vouch for your companysreputation. Having your company well rated or

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