Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
I agree that for many large corporations with independent marketing ventures, a microsite is often a necessary tool. And even within a unified content management strategy, an area dedicated to a branded product launch, for instance, can be sufficiently distinct in its experience to become a de facto microsite. (Add to that the marketing department's request for a dedicated, parked URL, like NewProductName.com, and you've got a microsite in spite of your best UX efforts.) A microsite should be like stimulus legislation: targeted, timely, and temporary. And ideally accompanied by a plan for how to incorporate the content back into the mother-site once the moment has passed. One surefire way to let a microsite develop an imbalanced center of gravity is to forget the sunset clause. My company has a longstanding client with international sales and a consistent problem syncing up its product launches across countries. There's no question for them about the utility -- necessity, even -- of microsites. But they need to go away after they've fulfilled their role. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38670 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
@Chris: You're right, my statement was a little too black-and-white. There doesn't need to be a grand unified content management strategy in order to get a handle on microsites. In my experience, though, the "sandboxes" in which marketing folks play become, in some cases, alternate versions of the corporate mothership site, except that the content is slightly different, out of date, inconsistent, etc. Microsites transform themselves into unwieldy maxi-sites, and they often involve other vendors and spawn massive budgets, while replicating content that already exists (albeit in a different form) elsewhere. So, if there is a sandbox, it needs to enforce limits ... and once you get to the level of enforcing limits, you're getting closer to a unified content management framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38670 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
Doug, ### The only way to address this problem is to institute, by corporate dictat, a flexbile content management framework that gives outlet to the entrepreneurial energy that gives rise to them. ### That sounds super-scary! It seems like with a microsite, you can create a "sandbox" for the marketing folks to play in without diluting the brand or really mucking things up on a primary site. I agree with you that microsites are evidence of brand dilution but I have found they are used as a stopgap when a company cannot (budget constraints) go through a full re-brand or cannot take the time to fully integrate some new product or marketing initiative. That is the most common scenario that I have seen. Some big ships are just too hard to turn. -Chris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38670 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
Microsites are almost always a symptom of a particular organizational ethic. I've seen many companies encourage entrepreneurship in their sales/marketing divisions, and the end result is dozens of rogue elements, many of which compete with each other. It also results in dozens/hundreds of separate marketing initiatives -- and as many microsites -- many of which have different versions of the same information, none of which is tied to a central CMS, and almost all of which are outdated soon after they go up. That's why I'd say that, more often than not, a zillion microsites is a leading indicator of big-time UX problems. @Will: You asked, "Have they ever destroyed a brand?" and I'd guess that (by themselves) they haven't. But they're often an indication that brand-erosion is happening. Still, you can never just turn off the microsites; the reason for their existence is almost always in the company's DNA. The only way to address this problem is to institute, by corporate dictat, a flexbile content management framework that gives outlet to the entrepreneurial energy that gives rise to them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38670 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
- Brand - I think the brand question is important, and straightforward: sometimes content (e.g. the films - great example) needs a distinct brand. If that isn't the case then the content should reinforce the mother brand. A different brand probably requires a microsite, but if the branding is the same, then it's down to other factors (some thoughts below). - Time - microsites logically would be slower to produce, but where main site governance isn't very agile, it can be the other way round. - Structure - if the content has a deep hierarchical structure, a microsite allows it to utilise traditional primary/secondary nav spaces (e.g. tabs, left hand nav), rather than have to sit on levels below the main site's structure (it's a bit like a supermarket putting their online groceries on the main site under the "Services" tab and "Online groceries" 2nd level). - Structure - On the other hand, navigational structures (e.g. tabs) guide users on the breadth of content available. By its autonomy, a microsite misses the opportunity to show the user the main site's content. - Cross-linking - similar to the previous point, if there's related content between microsite & main site (presumably helpfully linked), then the user will get very confused. - Duplication - (I'm not expert, but I think) microsites don't benefit from the SEO power of the main site if they use a different domain. Equally, even if the domain is the same, but if content is duplicated across main and microsite, the URLs become canonical and again are weaker with respect to SEO. Duplicate content also produces maintenance issues. Hopefully this helps. I'd love to see a definitive list of factors relating to the microsite decision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38670 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
Hm. I can't say I've had much experience with microsites outside of the movie biz and social networking, but I have seen examples of poor UI that can hurt a brand (Quark, evite, MS Bloat) and poor brand extensions that hurt the top brand (Google's Print Ads, Hooters Airline, Apple Pippin...). And then there's MySpace, a brand-destructive site that prospers with a crowd that is looking to avoid brand, versus the highly branded look of Facebook. Facebook doesn't even allow banner ads that could mess with their brand! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38670 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
Bonnie, Do people who use the microsites currently have to move between them or carry information from one to another? Can you do research to show that these sites are creating disjointed and unsuccessful experiences and/or that these suboptimal experiences detract from the desired brand perception? If the answer to the first question is yes, I suggest creating a map of paths people take and walk the business owners through what is happening. Phillip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38670 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
Microsites that I've worked on have always set out to reinforce the brand, but have originated as some parallel marketing effort - seasonal, new product launch, etc. I'm not a big fan of them - but they can be done successfully and they allow for some creative freedom away from the main site architecture and navigation. Take a look at: https://www.smartwool.com Microsites: http://www.smartwool.com/woolology/ http://www.smartwool.com/phd/ I don't think they detract from the "brand experience" and there is always a way to get back to the mothership. -Chris aim: clearwired twitter: clearwired www.chrisrivard.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38670 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
I don't think Brand=reputation, I think reputation is an attribute of Brand, of of many. Brand=[E]xperience - where we are talking about the totality of all experiences attributable to the brand makes more sense - as well as all internalized emotions. I have never been a big fan of the old microsites, but someone needs to point to some real research about the long term efficacy of microsites - and how bad they really are. Do they test terribly? Have they ever destroyed a brand - name that brand... I have said some pretty nasty things about microsites in my day, but the more I think about it, it seems like a completely unfounded prejudice that should be challenge. So challenge me! ~ will "Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems" Will Evans | User Experience Architect tel: +1.617.281.1281 | w...@semanticfoundry.com http://blog.semanticfoundry.com aim: semanticwill gtalk: semanticwill twitter: semanticwill On Feb 13, 2009, at 12:27 PM, Robert Hoekman Jr wrote: Brand = reputation. No matter how good the interface is, if you destroy the brand, you end up with no one using the product. Why are the two mutually exclusive? Doesn't product quality reinforce brand impression? -r- Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
> > Brand = reputation. No matter how good the interface is, if you > destroy the brand, you end up with no one using the product. Why are the two mutually exclusive? Doesn't product quality reinforce brand impression? -r- Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
I can't say from a user-focused design standpoint, but that's a serious problem from a branding pov. This is my one beef with the UI community - I think that branding and identity, which is critical to a company's success, can get left behind with all the focus on interface and testing. I came to UI from the design world, where the idea of creating a bunch of differing microsites is brand destructive except when you have a lot of individual products with their own brands. A great example is movies. Each movie needs to support its own brand, not that of Warner Bros. Other than proper use of the WB logo there's no need to make them look (or work) the same. Brand = reputation. No matter how good the interface is, if you destroy the brand, you end up with no one using the product. Look at Microsoft. They make some good products from a UI POV, but for a long time they got lost in the anti-MS mentality, especially in the creative community. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38670 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Microsites...good or bad?
Hey All, Working on a project to try to help a client create some sense out of a tangled mess of microsites..no consistant integration with the mother site, nav and structure all over the place, experiences are disjointed. They are looking to establish standards but I'm of the mind to do away with them all together and build great experiences within the mother site. Does anyone have any research, case studies or other to prove out that this is the better method? I realize there is a place for micros..special events, short term promotion and build search rankings but in this case they are being used for products/benefits/rewards. Thanks, Bonnie Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
