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)

 

Short answer ... I need more visuals, need to make the calls to action VERY clear, and I need more real estate to minimize scrolling.

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