(last edited on April 29, 2014 at 1:28 am)
Yesterday I read Shawn Grime’s post Contact Me, on how difficult it was to find the contact button on some websites. It’s a pet peeve of his. I instantly thought of my own site; my contact information was adrift in a sea of hyperlink blue. Shameful!
So I made a “Contact Dave” graphic. It’s sticking out like a sore thumb, but in a few days I might think of a better way to integrate it into the overall site design. At least you can see it now.
The graphic looked lonely all by itself, so I made a “Services” graphics to go with it and reworked the About page. It’s a funny thing, writing about yourself in context of business. I’m never sure exactly what I should say, but I have a good pile of material to work from. It just needs streamlining. Again, better than nothing…?
I hate the colors, but better than having nothing. And interestingly, I can already feel the burning desire to make real category graphic links to somehow save this floundering visual statement. Making one mark begets another mark, and thus productivity blooms like a thousand ulcers! This shame-driven approach is really working great for me. Ow.
I am curious whether having a very obvious “contact” and “services” button leads to increased activity along that vector. Does ugly beat out aesthetics? The Great Website Experiment continues!
5 Comments
“I am curious whether having a very obvious “contact” and “services” button leads to increased activity along that vector”…
Can’t you write a click through script to track the number of clicks each link gets? It would be quite interesting to see whether a text or graphic works best.
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Thank you for another great post on things I’m thinking about. In addition to “not hiding the contact button” I’m also trying to balance how much information is displayed publically both for myself and my clients. It could be nice if phone numbers could be as cheap and expendible as email addresses. I guess theoretically that is true with pay-n-go systems, but I’d never thought to explore that. Hmm. Thanks for sparking my thought gears before I’ve finished my morning caffiene intake! :)
I like it. The area around the text could be a litle more faded or less dark, but the little stamp-esq buttons are awesome. I think it works.
FH: That’s a good idea…I was thinking of this in qualitative terms, not actual metrics. I don’t get deluged with mail, so if I feel more deluged then it might work.
I’ve already screwed up any test because I’ve also started to make my business services a little more out in the open, so that will skew results if I’m lucky. If I’m not they won’t :-)
Pen: Hey, glad you found the post thought tickling! It’s funny how the spur-of-the-moment sharing can cascade into someone else’s life.
Dan: Thanks for the feedback! I’ll try lightening them up. I’m still not really sold on the taglines there. Just wanted to fill space, but maybe they come across as creepy and unprofessional.