Cream of the click
J.P.
Cullen shows how to do things online
By
Pat McKenna
Director of Internet Services
Excellence
in Web design isn't too far away from construction industry work.
Great attention
is paid to every detail, the right technologies are used to get
the job done and, in the end, the finished product leaves its
mark not only on the skyline but also in the minds of everyone
who strolls by and utters, "Wow."
The J. P.
Cullen and Sons Inc. Web site
offers a breathtaking design that successfully conveys the quality
and reputation one would expect to see from a firm that has been
in business since 1892. Much more than an online brochure,
Cullen's vivid
corner of the Web offers each visitor an experiential tour of
nearly every aspect of its operation, from a PBS-like firm history
to an extensive, photo-driven portfolio of completed projects.
High quality
graphics and illustrations are well sized, fast loading and flattered
by a clean, neutral color scheme that encourages reading and deeper
exploration into the site from an intuitive set of navigation
points.
Critically,
the site could stand to lose its animated opening screen, which
was designed using Macromedia Flash. While impressive, Flash-driven
designs require end-users to download and install a special plug-in
on their computer. That's a lot to ask to view a simple, animated
sequence of construction images, which, in the end, might drive
away a potential customer looking for the rich information behind
the opening screen.
Web site selection
criteria
Making
a good site great
Web sites
were selected from a list of all known sites for Wisconsin contractors
and were evaluated on a scale of one (poor) to five (excellent)
in several categories.
Overall
Design
- Load
Time: Good Web design principles suggest that the
front page of any Web site load quickly for the end-user on
a 56K dial-in modem. To that end, we used a top-end benchmark
of 80K for the total size (HTML and graphics) of a site's front
page, which translates to approximately 40 seconds. Winning
sites came in well under our benchmark, averaging 50K and below.
Sites using Macromedia Flash technology, while extremely impressive,
were given a zero rating because viewing Flash designs requires
the end-user to download and install a special plug-in.
Finally, in
the event of a tie, we used total download time in seconds to
decide rank in our list.
- Practical
Use of Graphics: The visual appearance of a site
is crucial to conveying the reputation, prestige and authority
of a company to a Web site visitor. Sloppy graphical presentation,
poor photo placement and large images took points away from
each site.
- Intuitive
Navigation: Winning sites put their visitors in the
driver's seat, providing smart navigation choices that linked
key content within one to two clicks.
-
Contact Information:
Clearly labeled contact information in the site navigation or
on each page won any site an instant five rating. But points
were taken away if the presentation of that information wasn't
consistent throughout the entire site.
Content
- Company
History:
We were looking for a rich informational presentation of a company's
history including, but not limited to, years in business, biographies
of company principals, size of staff, range of service, safety
policies and commitment to customer service.
-
Project Examples:
We used a two-fold approach in this area: brief project summaries
with key information such as location, square footage and architect
as well as photos of the completed project.
- Expertise:
Top ranked sites were not shy in listing their expertise and
backed it up with detailed explanations of service levels, equipment
choices and accompanying portfolios of completed projects.
