An entrepreneurial evening
I had an opportunity to catch up with a friend of mine this evening over drinks/dinner before he and his fiance move off to Colorado to continue building their online startup: foodzie.com. Foodzie is one of 10 very fortunate and well-deserving startups that will receive seed money and mentoring from some of the industry's finest all thanks to TechStars.
The premise behind foodzie is to provide artisan food producers with the means for selling their products online with minimal investment. On top of that, foodzie will build a community of "foodies" who will have an opportunity for "one stop shopping" online. Their site will be launching soon (presumably in beta after they settle into their new digs in Colorado) and I'm very excited to see how it will take off.
Not being a die-hard "foodie" myself, my wife and I are certainly more of a "mass consumer" at heart as we purchase based on ease and convenience due to our busy schedules. That being said, foodzie presents an opportunity for even non-foodies like us to indulge in the latest in greatest without having to be die-hard foodies. Whenever business models like these come to fruition and take a complex process, make it simple, and bring it to the masses, it is a recipe for success.
It was a great change of pace to talk entrepreneurial strategy -- which is a completely different type of discussion than the day-to-day enterprise strategy discussion.
Good luck to Rob and Emily on their venture!
Please, please, please understand your end users
In an attempt to solicit feedback, Scion commits an end-user faux pas which drives me nuts. In a previous post, I showcased a similar end-user violation by Men's Health.
Website accessibility is no different than in-store accessibility within a retail environment. Would you design your store aisles and product shelving so only people that were 5'10" or shorter could fit into the aisles? Of course not. Even if the majority of your customers may be 5'10" or shorter and only a small percentage must duck and maneuver their way through crammed aisles, this small percentage are being turned away for really no reason other than poor planning. There is no excuse for this type of website accessibility limitation because it's not a bug -- it was literally a decision made to specifically not develop a survey (of all things) to be accessible to everybody.
When working on the bleeding edge of technology with ajax and dealing with the browser-specific intricacies of javascript (among many other challenges of a web 2.0 implementation with an older end-user demographic), we spend a large percentage of our time in the QA stage testing features of Levolor.com across operating systems and web browsers. From Windows 2000 running "vintage" versions of IE6 to Mac OS X running Safari 3, Levolor.com is very accessible.
We're human and do admit to making mistakes -- and sometimes the capabilities of an older browser simply cannot support web 2.0 functionality -- but at the same time go out of our way to ensure an optimal experience for all of our visitors from accessibility to usability. Popular brands like Scion need to embrace similar strategies for all online touch-points.
Kudos to packaging engineers for improving Hershey’s chocolate syrup
The kid in me still loves chocolate milk. However, chocolate syrup has been missing from our fridge for a while now so I picked up a new container of Hershey's chocolate syrup today while running a few errands. I was pleasantly surprised to see they had redesigned the cap on the bottle. Here's a picture of the old style (remember how it would always not get fully closed and would get all crusty?):
Here's the new and improved design which, so far, stays much cleaner, easier to open, and easier to use:
Sometimes it's the little things in life that make me happy. 
Oh, and by the way, Chip's Ahoy has improved the labeling on their product so you don't accidentally open it on the sides of the packaging (see my original post where I accidentally mauled the package):
Men’sHealth distributes online survey…instructs me NOT to use Firefox
Being very heavily involved in consumer insights, online surveys, and consumer opinions, I take interest in seeing how other companies are performing their data collection to improve their websites. We've recently launched the OpinionLab service. Mens'Health is partnering with Keynote to facilitate their online evaluation of the menshealth.com website.
What I found disappointing with the opening e-mail is the following message: "Study will work best if you...use IE Web browser (Firefox has unpredictable results)." See the image below for reference:
Naturally, I have several opinions about this e-mail:
- Consumers don't associate IE with Internet Explorer. This is web developer or web marketing speak. The average consumer will have no idea what #1 means in the above e-mail.
- "Firefox has unpredictable results" is not what I would lead with in any e-mail. If the application in which you want consumers to evaluate your site does not even work in their browser, then partner with another vendor who can provide a tool that is compatible with your audience's preferred web browsers.
- The assumption that visitors ALL use Windows and can readily access Internet Explorer (oh I'm sorry, "IE") is another bad assumption. I am a Mac user and always hated these types of assumptions because it directly affects my ability to participate in a site/survey. I want my opinion heard, but if you don't provide me with an alternate means to submit my feedback, then you're not doing your customers any favors.
I clicked on the "click here to start" link and instead of being presented with "unpredictable results," they flat-out deny access to the survey if Firefox is detected:
So basically, Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher and Windows 98 through Windows XP are compatible. IE 5 and Win98? No Firefox or Safari support? "Windows Vista support is on the way?"
Use Web Analytics to Justify Limiting the Compatibility of Your Web Applications
Use your web analytics packages to determine what the share of your visitors is in terms of the operating systems and web browsers they use. Make sure your online survey application works with your demographic. Firefox and Safari users account for 23% of visitors to SuperMotors.net. On Levolor.com they account for 16%. Those are very large percentages to be simply disregarding because you've partnered with the wrong vendor.
Moral of the Story
Browser and operating system specific websites are a product of the 1990's. It's 2007. Time to build web applications or partner with vendors who understand today's web user by accommodating multiple browser types and not alienating them for choices they make. Additionally, with the way the user is instructed to use IE instead of Firefox makes it sound like it's the user's fault for choosing an unpredictable browsing platform. You should never speak to your customers like this -- don't imply fault or incompatibility in decisions your customer has made. You must adapt to them, they should not have to adapt to you!
Don’t do website maintenance during the day
The North Carolina Department of Transportation feels it necessary to perform website maintenance on a Sunday morning. What I've always disliked about government web services is the lack of understanding of when citizens perform online tasks via government sites. This is what I was presented with today when I tried to renew my license plate tabs via the NC DOT website:
This would be completely unacceptable for a consumer website. I guess since the state requires registration and you have no other choice but to visit their site around their maintenance schedule or (gasp) go into a local DOT office, they really don't have to cater to the schedules of citizens.
Website maintenance, regardless of industry, should be done during off-peak hours. Granted, Sunday mornings are probably not peak hours, they are still more prone to visits than they would be between the hours of 2AM and 7AM.
Blog by Eric Long
I'm an experienced digital product & marketing strategist and am passionate about providing outstanding cross-channel, mass customization (product configurators), and considered-purchase experiences.
About Eric Long
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