Jason Fried's Design Checklist Applied to my own Website

Here’s a checklist Jason Fried (from 37 Signals) wrote for reviewing a design.  It popped up on my Basecamp to-do’s that I needed to review the design for SmallBizTriage.com, so I figured I’d do it publicly.  I’ve removed some items from the list not relevant to me.

SITE:  www.SmallBizTriage.com 

What does it say?

• About – good mission statement, a team list, top testimonial … on the bottom
• Blog – i have recent blog about ice cream
• Clients – we have clients across many industries, none are big box or franchises
• Contact – contact us, nothing personal, no maps, no social media counts, no smaller accounts, no team link
• What we Do (HOME) – we help small biz owners get more customers & we can help

What does it mean?

• About  – we really give a shit and are real humans
• Blog – we have a blog, so what
• Clients – we’ve had a lot of clients this year
• Contact – not much
• What we Do (HOME) – If you are a Small Biz Owner and need help, you are in the right spot.

Why do we need to say that here?

• About – Team, Marketing Definition can easily go
• Blog – breadth of knowledge, allow self-guided exploration of small biz, free resources
• Clients – how we helped them?  maybe.
• Contact – give several methods for contacting us.
• What we Do (HOME) – It’s the home page … first impression.

If you stopped reading here, what’s the message?

• About  – this if for you if are in DIRE need … but not any other kind of need
• Blog – none, no calls to action
• Clients – that we help Mfg, Industrial, Health and Beauty businesses in Washington State
• Contact – we have three offices, are active on three platforms, and have an actual phone number
• What we Do (HOME) – This site is for Small Biz Owners

What’s the take away after 8 seconds?

• About – an arrow and “Marketing” definition – OUCH
• Blog – recent article, classic picture, catchy “non-MBA” headline
• Clients – that we help Mfg, Industrial, Health and Beauty businesses
• Contact – we have three offices, are active on three platforms, and have an actual phone number
• What we Do (HOME) – Small Biz Triage helps small business owners

How does this make you feel?

• About – bored
• Blog – slightly interested, if I like ice cream
• Clients – BORED
• Contact – confused … nothing is prominent on the page
• What we Do (HOME) – confused … *how* do you help

What’s down below?

• About – well laid out team listing with fun bios
• Blog – more blog, recent posts, no comments, footer call to action
• Clients – good call to action, and secondary call to action (no learn more though, hmmmmm)
• Contact – nothing (except recent articles)
• What we Do (HOME) – A definition of the word “triage” & Recent blog posts  

How else can we say this?

• About – shorter OR have someone else tell the story (Testimonials) with link to a seperate team page
• Blog – n/a
• Clients – Visuals, Graphics, Logos, Columns, Total Stats (# clients, across # of industries, X amt of $’s)
• Contact – simpler … or more options (we can test with A/B experiment) … or lose it and make it a same-page jump
• What we Do (HOME)  –  with an image

What’s memorable about this?

• About – the fun bios
• Blog – good photo, good headline … eyes not drawn anywhere though
• Clients – not a damn thing
• Contact – not much
• What we Do (HOME) – nothing

Who needs to know that?

• About – anyone interested in who they are working with OR why we do what we do
• Blog – all small biz owners that give a shit about their business
• Clients – anyone that needs help trusting us
• Contact – anyone who wants to interact with us
• What we Do (HOME) – Above the Fold: all small biz owners visiting the site, below the fold: only people that don’t know what triage is 

What’s the payoff?

• About – NONE
• Blog – knowledge baby
• Clients – not much
• Contact – a phone number (that’s rare these days)
• What we Do (HOME) – more information & a way to contact me to solve a problem … can i solve any problems

What does someone know now that they didn’t know before?

• About – team size, that we do marketing, philosophy / strategy
• Blog – a LOT
• Clients – that we are not a ecommerce company, and we work with “real” businesses
• Contact – we do social media – triple yikes!
• What we Do (HOME) – That Small Biz Triage helps small biz owners by prioritizing their needs.

Why is that worth a click?

• About – only one thing to click on, tough to see and no it’s not worth it
• Blog – nothing to click on … OUCH
• Clients – nothing to click on above the fold other than a menu … double-OUCH
• Contact – I dunno
• What we Do (HOME) – Drop us a Line … it’s not really worth a click … Let me Earn Your Business … satiating a little curiosity … maybe?

Is that worth scrolling?

• About – NO
• Blog – YES 
• Clients – maybe we should tell them to scroll … or use categorical page jumps
• Contact – n/a
• What we Do (HOME) – nope

What’s the simpler version of this?

• About – shorten the copy … make a learn more option, add a hire us call to action
• Blog – remove menu and/or logo … otherwise very minimal
• Clients – side-scroller (gallery style) … logos are clunky though … an info-graphic
• Contact – just a phone number and pop-up link for all of the other ways of getting in touch.  nothing else … or lose it entirely, and incorporate into header as well via javascript pop-up.
• What we Do (HOME) – Make it all on one page, remove the definition (but make a small pop-up with the definition if someone needs it) … include testimonials, a blog teaser for ‘not ready to buy’ visitors

Why that order?

• About – because I’m an idiot
• Blog – n/a
• Clients – made sense … masculine and feminine from the get go
• Contact – order of preference … colors on the icons make me look down before I look up.  a problem.
• What we Do (HOME) -getting to the point … the brand personality

Why would this make them choose that?

• About – it wouldn’t
• Blog – no choice available
• Clients  – no choice available
• Contact – preference
• What we Do (HOME) – there is not real choice … should there be more choices? 

Why would someone leave at this point? 

• About – no clear call to action, no clear non-sales call to action
• Blog – no call to action, no alternative topics, no options other than a menu and scrolling
• Clients – no call to action, or anything clickable until the bottom
• Contact – no clear preferred choice. no payoff communicated
• What we Do (HOME) 
  • They aren’t a small biz owner
  • They don’t need help of any kind
  • They are confused by what we do
  • They don’t see what they need done listed
  • They don’t see any social proof above the fold.

What’s missing?

• About – where we are & where are customers are
• Blog – no call to action, no alternative topics, no options other than a menu and scrolling
• Clients – call to action
• Contact – other social media icons.  form for those that like that, link to pro-bono page.
• What we Do (HOME) – how we do it, social proof above the fold.

What’s the obvious next step?

• About – there isn’t one
• Blog – NONE
• Clients – NONE without some serious scrolling (no benefit to scroll)
• Contact – lots of next steps … too many.
• What we Do (HOME) – Drop us a line & no clear secondary call to action

Would it matter if someone missed that?

• About – not really … the team bit is important for injecting humanity into it.
• Blog – nothing to miss except the menu
• Clients – maybe
• Contact – nope
• What we Do (HOME)
  • Triage – NO
  • Blog – Maybe
  • Menu – NO

Does that make it easier or harder?

• About – harder … page is a mess
• Blog – easier if they are just wanting to read without distraction
• Clients – forces them to scroll if they want any pay-off
• Contact – no clutter
• What we Do (HOME) 
  • lack of buttons makes it harder … forces them to read
  • lack of clutter makes it easier for small biz owners to self-identify

Would this be better as a sentence or a picture?

• About – both
• Blog – n/a
• Clients – combo
• Contact – picture or photo (black and white)
• What we Do (HOME) 
  • calls to action should be graphical
  • a picture of who they are
  • a picture of who we are
  • a graphic of what we do

Where’s the verb?

• About: making, draw, are, is, help, make
• Blog – none
• Clients – trusted
• Contact – contact, meet
• What we Do (HOME): Drop, Ear, help, Call

What matters here?

• About – not a one man shop … rest isn’t clearly communicated
• Blog – compelling content … no next step ID’d
• Clients – breadth and depth
• Contact – lots of options.
• What we Do (HOME) – everything above the fold … below the fold is expendable in its current form

What would happen if we got rid of that?

• About – don’t know
• Blog – in-direct effect (SEO), and makes it difficult to see copywriting for the web when we don’t have a blog
• Clients – one of the top traffic pages … we’d lose some trust points
• Contact – not much.
• What we Do (HOME) – Below the fold … don’t know … not much probably.  Above the fold … confusion.

Why is this better?

• About – there’s no discussion of alternatives or internal / external competition
• Blog – no selling or distraction, just education
• Clients – very simple, no distractions
• Contact – n/a
• What we Do (HOME) – no comparisons are made

How can we make this more obvious?

• About – say it bluntly … use photos … “we help these people solve this problem”
• Blog – tell them why they should read the blog, and what else is “behind the curtain”
• Clients – put it all above the fold and tell them why the breadth and depth makes us more competitive / a better choice
• Contact – highlight the easiest way, then make the options all same-sized.
• What we Do (HOME) 
  • buttons for calls to action
  • before / after pics
  • client categories
  • service categories

Is it obvious what happens next?

• About – nope
• Blog – nope
• Clients – nope
• Contact – nope
• What we Do (HOME) – nope … maybe it’s obvious that it takes a phone call (or email)

Whew … it took awhile, but now I have a clear idea what needs doing.  Coming next week … the Landing Page Checklist

CONCLUSIONS:

• Snippets of every page should be incorporated on the home page, so we don’t lose anyone if they read but don’t click
• a call to action and “explore more” call to action should be on EVERY page
• testimonials page should be integrated with the clients page
• at least one relevant testimonial should appear on EVERY page
• Facebook “Recommend” Count in the header strip, far right
• Follower / Subscriber / etc… counts on relevant pages (sidebar maybe)
• Recent articles only belong on “certain” sidebars … rest should be customized based on content (cross-linking)
• the next step should be customized and made clear and consistent in each frame (no scrolling required)

FYI, Here’s the original version of the checklist.   What do you think?