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4 new reasons to redesign your website

Adam Kleinberg
Direct Marketing Posted on October 03, 2011
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The reinvented website

Over the last two years, the world has been reinvented yet again. The proliferation of devices and the advances in the interfaces that run on them have raced forward like an avalanche. Nielsen is predicting that 50 percent of the U.S. market will have smartphones by the end of 2011. Apple introduced the iPad and has since sold more than 15 million of them.

This changes things. Consumer expectations have been reset, and they are never going back. Average Joe does not pause to consider, "Hey, I'm on a WAP site now, which has significantly different technical capabilities from a website or an application running on iOS."

Joe just logs on to whatever device he's using to access the web and assumes he will have an amazing, seamless, and intuitive experience doing whatever it is he set out to do. So often, Joe is disappointed. Mediocrity is so common. When he does encounter an experience that is exceptional, he is absolutely delighted.

Your next "website" might not be visited at the site you thought it would be at all. The experience you provide online must be great wherever it is accessed. It must be crafted to appeal to what really matters to your customers wherever and however they come into contact with your brand.

Your next website should be crafted with all this in mind. Here are the foundational attributes that should define how your site is designed and constructed.

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Comments

Nick Stamoulis
Nick Stamoulis October 4, 2011 at 10:10 AM

"People expect awesome. If it isn't delivered to them, they are not going to get mad. They're not going to cry. They're just not going to interact with you."

I think you hit the nail on the head. If your site can't deliver than people are just going to leave and look for something better. It's not their problem if your site isn't up to par because they can just move on to the next site and the next until they find what they want.

Adam Kleinberg
Adam Kleinberg October 3, 2011 at 3:20 PM

Thanks for the clarification, Jo. According to Wikipedia 28.73 million have been sold as of June 25, 2011. Not sure where they got that number from, but needless to say, it's a lot. Another interesting statistic someone just emailed me is that 88% of mobile web users reported using the web on their mobile device at home. Just more reason for brands to rethink the status quo.

@adamkleinberg

Jo Oskoui
Jo Oskoui October 3, 2011 at 2:09 PM

Great article, Adam! You are absolutely right. Users don't care about the technical reasons why a site does not work on their favorite device or with their favorite browser. Sites simply have to work across all platforms. I think, however, that you iPads numbers are way off. Apple sold 14.8 million iPads worldwide in 2010 alone.