The new CA.com | One step forward, three steps back

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

The new CA.com has retained its powerful “snacking” architecture but missed the Web 2.0 & social media memos

In case you haven’t noticed, CA.com recently launched a new site. As is our custom, we’ve delayed our deep-drive about six weeks to let the CA.com team find snafus and work out the bugs. Now it’s time to put the site through its paces. Here’s our Cliff’s Notes analysis: (siteIQ clients can read the complete analysis here. (log in required)

Pros

CA.com has retained its product marketing “snacking architecture,” which is one of the most powerful in the business. If you haven’t seen this in action, pick any CA product and follow the bouncing ball.

CA.com is one of few sites that know how to craft marketing content as a set of questions that speak to visitor objectives. If you need inspiration, CA.com is the place to start.

CA.com’s new design is consistent across the site; not many page owners missed the memo. CA.com is yet another example of the iterative design strategy we discussed in a recent post.

CA.com makes great use of tab-top organization on its product level pages (shades of Sun.com, yikes!). Overall, a tab-top tour de force.

Neutral

CA.com’s play on mega-menus brings it into the fold, but these menus are much less impressive than those deployed by Cisco.com and Juniper.net. Close, but no cigar.

Cons

CA.com just couldn’t resist the “eye candy” factor on its home page. In this case, it’s those revolving boxes that use type fonts that are a Mr. Magoo moment at any screen size – and whirl at the drop of a hat. Here, CA.com gets a B+ for visual impact – and D- for usability and relevance. Read More→

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Categories : Design, POV (point of view), Social Media & Social Networks, Web 2.0, Website Launches
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The Envelope, Please! The best of the best

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Thursday, July 8th, 2010

In case you missed my last posts, this is the time when we announce our eBusiness Index rankings. Here’s a bird’s eye view of the Websites that set the standards in the IT industry.

Related research: The eBusiness Index Report.  If you are a siteIQ client or subscriber, click here.

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Categories : Website Rankings
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Website Rankings: Hits, misses & a little bit more

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

There are plenty of hits and misses on this year’s roster. My favorites are . . .

In my last post, I shared some info about the top five Websites on the siteIQ eBusiness Index. Here’s my interesting surprises and “oops” list:

Symantec.com’s usability ranks second, and the site misses a “Good Practice” rating by a hair.

Juniper.net and Oracle.com complete the usability top five. Of the two, Juniper.net is most likely to move up a slot and knock CA.com off its perch.

Intel.com aced the online recruiting category and is the only four star (the best) in this category. (OK, so most recruiting zones are a big snooze – but we have to give Intel.com chops for its four star performance).

Services marketing continues to be Nortel.com’s claim to fame; HP.com and IBM.com are still second tier contenders.

Juniper.net hits the high note in the communities category – but Cisco.com and Intel.com also operate four star (the best) communities. (This is another way of saying that the new guys are zipping past community pioneers).

If call to action is your bag, look no further than Cisco.com. It is the only call to action “Best Practice” site on the eBusiness Index.

Newegg.com’s e-commerce capabilities puts it with the big boys: Dell.com & HP.com. Newegg ranks third with four stars (the best) and a “Good Practice” nod.

A couple of new entrants on the 2010 eBusiness Index roster did better than expected.

  • Brocade.com and EMC.com rank 7th and 8th on the usability chart – and finish in the middle of the pack when all of the scores are tallied up (EMC.com ranks 12th; Brocade ranks 14th).
  • Among the sites that debuted on the Index in 2010, Deloitte.com and SAS.com turned out to be boat anchors. Deloitte finished dead last – and SAS.com debuted in 17th place (out of 23 Websites).

Related research: The eBusiness Index Report.  If you are a siteIQ client or subscriber, click here.

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Categories : Website Rankings
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Drum Roll, Please! IBM.com & Cisco.com head the eBusiness Index

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Monday, July 5th, 2010

In 2010 we changed the rules of the game . . and interesting things happened

We’ve been evaluating and tracking leading IT Websites for about 15 years. Along the way, our best practices benchmarks have been updated every year to identify and track emerging Website requirements.

Once upon a time our benchmarks weighed in at about 700 criteria. Then Web 2.0, Web 3.0, communities, and social media sparked a Website revolution.

Click on the graph to view full size

This revolution triggered a wholesale audit of the siteIQ Benchmarks in January 2010 – resulting in a new siteIQ Benchmark that weighs in at a whopping 1,232 criteria. In simple terms, that’s 1,232 types of content, features & capabilities that need to be on your “got it” checklist – or on your 2010 drawing board.

Needless to say, when you change the rules of the game, interesting things happen.

  • IBM.com is the biggest Website – but Cisco.com’s stellar usability scores puts it on par with this mega monster.
  • HP.com ranks third overall. Its content, features & capabilities are roughly on par with IBM.com – but this site is much harder to use (ranks 9th out of 23 Websites).
  • Dell.com plays in the second string, along with CA.com. Dell.com provides more types of content, features & capabilities – but CA.com is far more usable. Case in point, Dell.com’s usability ranks 11th while CA.com’s usability ranks 3rd.

Related research: The eBusiness Index Report.  If you are a siteIQ client or subscriber, click here.

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Categories : Website Rankings
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Consumer support — a horse of a different color

By Marty Gruhn · Comments (0)
Friday, July 2nd, 2010

You’d think that all support sites are created equal. If so, you’d be wrong.

Turns out that support sites that target home and home office customers are very different than those that target large enterprises. Different features, architectures, strengths, and challenges. In fact, they are horses of a completely different color.

One would think that this observation would be a no brainer. Turns out, it’s a challenge for a lot of companies — especially major enterprise players that are wading into the consumer markets, including Cisco.com and CA.com. But, well-known consumer stalwarts, such as Dell.com and HP.com, haven’t broken the technical support code either. Simple fact, “one-size-fits-all” support thinking will get you into plenty of trouble.

We’re putting the finishing touches on a new best practice case study report that identifies the best of the best in home and home office markets. Companies like Apple.com and Adobe.com, plus outstanding support zones at Dell Home & Home Office, HP Home & Home Office, Symantec Norton, McAfee Home & Home Office, and Cisco Home Networking.

Kenna will be filling you in on some of the key details from her drive across the IT Web and her deep dives into these great sites. She tells me that the devil’s in the tricky details. Stay tuned.

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Categories : Search, Support
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