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Intelligence
The Big Picture

Intelligence

The Big Picture

Oct 01, 2007By Voltaire Santos Miran

With the help of our trusty research partner Slover-Linett, we just completed concept testing for one of our clients using a very cool new online survey protocol. In the testing, we showed four homepage concepts, three of which had a mix of homepage elements (banner image, events teasers, news items, etc.), and one of which had a single, large image that spanned with width of the screen and primary links for the main sections of the site. The whole idea behind the fourth comp was that perhaps prospective students may be used to-and prefer-a simpler, Google-like interface. For today, I’ll spare you all of the details of the regression analysis, margin of error, and yada yada. The upshot: in this particular instance, more was more. 

The stripped-down interface scored significantly lower than the rest of the designs (and Dark Kevin once again hit a homerun with his comps, go DK!) in terms of conveying the type of information that prospective students were hoping to find. While the very large image showed attractive (but not too attractive) students engaged in conversation with a professor in a state-of-the art lab, prospectives still chose as their favorite a homepage with multiple, smaller photos, profiles, news and events items, and navigation sets. 

The results dovetail with what we’ve seen in the majority of the concept and usability testing that we’ve done: visitor expectations change from site to site, and what’s appropriate for one site may not be for another, and “appropriate” is dictated by the purpose of the site and visitor needs. (I remember working on a fundraising site in which we were told by donors that, no matter how much information or interactivity or content we developed, they would only come to the site twice a year—in December, and just after tax time.)

Makes sense, right? People put up with the mess, clutter, and bad design of personal pages on mySpace and information overload on sites like ESPN, but replicate either on your banking site, corporate web presence, or university homepage … 

Some institutions (hello, MIT!) do very well with minimal homepage design by virtue of their reputation, but most simply cannot. Turns out that, at least in this case, a good picture says a lot … but not enough. 


  • Voltaire Santos Miran EVP, Web Strategy I've developed and implemented communication strategies in education for more than 20 years now. I think my team at mStoner is the smartest, funniest, and coolest group of colleagues ever, and I can't imagine being anywhere else. Except Barcelona. Or Paris. Or Istanbul. To quote Isak Dinesen, "the cure for everything is salt ... tears, sweat, and the sea."