BGT Partners on BtoB Magazine: Usability Problems Plague B-to-B Site
Miami, Fla. April 23, 2007 – Text legibility, functionality, task flow among Web sites' biggest failures
By: Mary Morrison, BtoB Magazine – Interactive Marketing Guide 2007
Excerpt from article
Web 2.0 may be the buzzword of late, but many b-to-b marketers haven't made it past Web 1.0, with basic Web site usability issues such as convoluted navigation and poor readability dogging efforts to communicate with customers and prospective customers.
A Forrester Research report released last month evaluated 259 b-to-c sites and 60 b-to-b sites on 25 criteria in four categories: value, navigation, presentation and trust. B-to-b sites lagged b-to-c sites in all categories except presentation.
"There just hasn't been the investment, the targeting, the real focus on usability and general site design in most b-to-b sites that there has been on the b-to-c side," said Alan Webber, senior analyst at Forrester Research and author of the report, "Usability Remains a Challenge for B2B sites".
Text legibility was the biggest issue, according to the report. Both b-to-b and b-to-c sites struggled in this area, with only 17% of b-to-b sites and 20% of b-to-c sites providing legible text. Having functionality where needed, items classified logically and contextual help available at key points were the areas where the gap was largest between b-to-b sites and b-to-c sites. B-to-b sites also struggle with providing an efficient task flow (only 22% passed) and presenting privacy and security policies in context (only 24% passed).
Andrea Fishman, director of global strategy at BGT Partners, a professional services company that focuses on interactive marketing technology, said information overload is the biggest problem b-to-b sites have. Fishman said advanced content management systems sometimes hurt rather than help the situation by allowing anyone in any part of a business to post content to the Web site. "If they don't have a strategy for it, you have so much information coming from so many parts of the business that it's not aligned at all," she said.
The remedy, Fishman said, is to implement a good governance strategy that identifies a clear process and ownership responsibilities so all departments work from the context of a consolidated approach.
Special issue of BtoB Magazine. Read full article.
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About BGT Partners
BGT Partners isa global interactive services firm that helps companies strengthen their brand and business relationships through digital marketing and technology solutions. We have created interactive marketing solutions for clients such as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Committee, Avaya, Sony, the Walt Disney World Company, and FedEx. Founded in 1996, BGT is headquartered in Miami, with offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Paris. BGT has earned the reputation as one of the Global 2000's foremost professional services firms. For more information on BGT Partners please visit www.bgtpartners.com.
