Product Placement

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Product Placement; and the Big, Yellow Banana
Topic Started: Nov 18 2005, 10:00 PM (536 Views)
Zeerus	Nov 18 2005, 10:00 PM Post #1
Spank My Monkey! Posts: 1,596 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: July 31, 2004	When designing or maintaining any web page it’s important to get your product or main view across to all visitors in the shortest amount of time possible. In Seth Godin’s 2002 book The Big Red Fez, he outlines that users are like little lab monkey’s in a big red fez. These monkeys have been trained as a part of some scientific experiment to jump into a vat of lime Jell-O. The only reason they jump, however, is to get the big yellow banana sitting atop the vat. Let’s think of this banana as the content or product you are showing to your viewers. It is important that the banana is easily available, and is the first thing a visitor sees when they visit your web page. In Seth’s book he gives one great example of a website with an easy to follow lay out. Amazon.com has trained us to know exactly where everything is and how to use it. Statistically, if a user can’t find what they’re looking for within the first 3 seconds of visiting a page, they’ll leave your site with a lasting (bad) impression. There are a few key ways to make sure your product is the first thing viewers see, and no, they don’t include big flashing banners or annoying advertisements. As a designer, it is imperative you know how to use the grid system. If you don’t know the grid system is an easy way to lay out a page by dividing it into different grid cells. Focus your main content towards the top of your grid for easiest viewing. State your product name in your banner, a short description right below the banner, or even in the main content cell. Research shows that most web users are now on a 1024 by 768 screen resolution, so you have approximately 600 pixels of height to display your product. If you can have something useful inside these first 600 pixels than you’ve already attracted the user’s attention. When designing all websites I myself try to keep the main point as close to the top of the page as possible. Why do you think all new blog posts, on any blog, automatically go to the top of your home page? Designers want their newest content to be seen first, and then won’t happen if all new posts were to go, say, to the middle or even bottom of the page. Besides presenting your product link placement is also very important. Chances are a lot of your visitors won’t be extremely tech savvy, so place helpful links all around your page, and create a well documented FAQ section as well. If a user can’t find out how to purchase your product or find your content than he or she will leave. At this point there’s not much more you can do. Now don’t use the grid system to restrict your creativity. You can still experiment and see what looks best in collaboration with your site’s content. The same goes for physical media design. Automatically a person’s eyes will see the top of a page or poster first, so make sure your most important information is always at the top. Finally, make everything is as straight forward as possible. Most visitors aren’t going to want to register for a 100 different things just to gain access to one little section of content. It can be difficult, but proper product presentation may just give you the advantage when dealing with potential customers, Leave the banana, and they will come (cheesy, I know).



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