Ask HN: Why is our new (IoT) website not translating into more conversions?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8667673

by danielflopes • 12 years ago

5 16 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

We've designed a whole new website, with a experience kind of different to what we believe most people are accustomed too (the interactions part).

But so far, this hasn't translated into more contacts from clients.

Is it because of the copy? Is it because people stop at the interactions page and don't check the rest of the website? It's our portfolio?

I'm interested in knowing the point of view from HN people.

URL: http://whitesmith.co

mhoad• 12 years ago

Honestly I find the whole experience super unintuitive and would have bounced in a heartbeat usually. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news because I have no doubt that a lot of time and effort went into it and I don't mean it in a disrespectful way at all.

Here are my recommendations:

1. You need to spend a lot of time in your Google Analytics to see where things are going wrong.

2. You should use something like Sessioncam to let you view real people coming to your website.

3. Take something like the service at usertesting.com and have people try and complete various tasks on your website.

Those three things alone will make it extremely clear as to where the problems are for you better than comments on here ever will I suspect.

danielflopes3• 12 years ago

Ok Mhoad. Thanks for your points. It's not disrespectful at all!

ryno2019• 12 years ago

I have to agree: as cool as I find the site to look at, I found it confusing and really didn't understand what you were trying to show.

jeffmould2• 12 years ago

Agree with mhoad and his assessment/tips. Very confusing as to what I am supposed to do. While it does look like you put a lot of time and effort into, if I were a potential client and found your site I would really have no idea what you do or what you can offer me without having to dig through unclear screens to find it. And even your about page, while giving a general overview doesn't lead me to why you better and why I should choose you over others. No disrespect either, but I would bounce at first look without even trying to figure it out.

danielflopes3• 12 years ago

Good. Thanks Jeff!

Do you have any suggestions on how to fix some of the problems? (If not, that's ok.)

tonyarkles• 12 years ago

As a simple heuristic, count how many clicks and how many times someone has to scroll to get to the information that you think is the most valuable. I clicked many times, and still don't really know what you do :D

jeffmould2• 12 years ago

Sometimes just a clear, simple webpage can go a whole lot further than trying to make pages that look "cool". Usually when they look cool to you as the developer they end up frustrating the crap out of the end user.

It's okay if you want to create an interactive part of the site, but make the user navigate to that part of the site. For example, if you are IoT company as you say, maybe have a page within the site that lets a user walk through a house or office clicking on various objects to interact with them. Show possibilities with IoT objects such as thermostats, lights, clocks, appliances, etc...

rubiquity• 12 years ago

A lot of web agencies fall into the trap of "Hey, we'll make a super flashy website and potential clients will be falling all over themselves to work with us!" It seems you've made that same mistake. Focus on customer testimonials, highlight a couple successful projects, show off conference talks/open source work and talk about the problems you solve. These things go way further towards winning customers than any parallax effect or web cam will.

mszyndel2• 12 years ago

Other people pointed to the design so let me mention one other thing - copy text. That page where I can see your team members made an awful impression on me. I understand you wanted to be cool and light-hearted but this should be at least a little work related and POSITIVE. Right now it's strange at best.

danielflopes3• 12 years ago

Hi Mszyndel,

Thanks for commenting. 1 - Can you please clarify that you were talking about the landing page (interactions), or about the team page (whitesmith.co/team). 2- What do you mean about being "at least a little work related and POSITIVE"?

That would help us see where to start solving the issues. :)

mszyndel2• 12 years ago

1. I mean page I get to when after loading page the first time (why is it different the second time, it's confusing?) and clicking "Explore interactions". Url you provided leads to 404...

2. "He uses his guitar to pick up girls", "He spends way too much time dealing with css animations and transitions", "Still has some trouble undestanding why everyone else doesn't think dashboards are so freakin' sexy." Those don't seem proper to me, but maybe it's cultural difference. They're irrelevant to your work and even negative (who want's to pay a guy who spends "too much time" on something?). I understand the aim was to show those people as interesting humans but I would rather learn about them being professional first.

Ironchefpython• 12 years ago

The centerpiece of your landing page seems to be mock-security cam footage of a room full of brogrammers ("he uses his guitar to pick up girls") and an LED light that changes color. I have no idea what you're selling me, other than hype.

It wasn't until I found your github repo that I realized you're a ruby/rails web development shop and that your definition of "full-stack" means both CSS and Javascript.

The worst thing is, if you're a web development shop, you're selling your ability to communicate, to engage users, and turn them into customers. My #1 take away from that page is, "how can you sell my product if you can't even sell yourselves?"

Kudos for not using Yet Another Bootstrap Landing Page. But there's a reason that so many people use that template; that standard landing page makes it easy to communicate an elevator pitch about your product and invites a clear call to action. That should be the minimum bar for you to replicate.

seekingcharlie• 12 years ago

I actually find it really annoying to look at this website. It seems like I have to wait for an animation effect every time I want to view information. Then, when I get the information, the copy is confusing.

You definitely need to spend some time in Mixpanel or Google Analytics & work out where people are bouncing (most likely the home page).

Something to reduce bounce that you can look at implementing: Add sections to the bottom of every page that drive navigation through to a next relevant page. For example, at the bottom of the About page, include a section such as 'View our Projects >'.

Which brings me to the next issue - where are your projects? Where is your work? Where are your clients logos, testimonials? Where's the copy of the challenges your client's had & the copy of your solutions? You need to do more than one 14px, 30% transparent heading (on a white bg btw) to show 'Happy Clients'.

aprdm• 12 years ago

Very cool site but I was also lost. This website is also beautiful but it's easy to go navigate: https://www.chaordic.com.br/es/

nb: I don't work there.

KaiserPro2• 12 years ago

First things first, what are you trying to sell?

Here you say that you are doing things for IoT, however there is literally no evidence of that in either the landing page or the homepage.

Your landing page give you a choice to look at "interaction" but it lags the living shit on my retina macbook. Still I have no clue as what you guys do. There was a temperature sensor on there somewhere. Thats a start.

So I try and press back, but can't because its disabled (ARGH!)

I then go to the website proper, and its lots of whitespace with a list of websites, with no explanation of what you guys did.

I finally noticed the menu system on the top right, clicked on it, and way presented with lots of mock static that once again lagged my browser.

The key take away here is that you need to show it to you mum/dad/sister/disinterested relative/partner. If they struggle, or ask, 'what does it do?' or 'whats it for?' start again completely from scratch.

If you are IoT people, why do you not have any examples of you work? I want to see hardware! (its not IoT unless there is hardware.) I want to see the problem you are solving. After all you might have thought about something in a new way that makes me want to do business with you.

I know its not fashionable, and in somecases orthogonal to what some angel investors are after, but be specific, down to the point, show your wares.

KaiserPro2• 12 years ago

The other thing to note is that people are suggesting here to use Google analytic to see where people are bouncing, I'd suggest that its much more fundamental than that.

read this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ogilvy-Advertising-David/dp/18537561...

then find what you are trying to sell, and sell it in plain terms. You are offering webdesign to businesses? they are coming to you because they don't understand web technologies. If your unable to communicate the essence of what you provide to the normal man, you are sunk at the landing page.

Ask HN: Why is our new (IoT) website not translating into more conversions?

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