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Web Site Designs for the Law & Order Market by ET Productions
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Our Answers to the Makeover Challenge
Screen capture of NonLethalDefense's Yahoo Store after makeover
After Makeover
First came branding the site. We wanted a clear law-and-order look and feel. To achieve that, we opted for a color palette of blues suggestive of police uniforms. We added a flash animation of a stun gun firing in the upper right and the a picture of a woman poised to fire a taser. We revamped the logo, making the site's rather definitive name big enough anyone who reads English will take it in immediately upon arrival. The result. Now the site passes the 1-second branding test.
      To simplify navigation, we helped the site owner reorganize the store so that there were distinct departments for each type of self defense gear offered. We set up a tiered left-navigation column to make this organization obvious, this helping shoppers easily drill down to the exact page/s of their interest.
      To add to the clarity of navigation, we used CSS effects to render the top and left navigation using plain HTML text but styling it with rollover effects as if it used JavaScript and images. Thus we achieved the eye candy effects we wanted while preserving the SEO only available with text navigation links. Visit the site and see how you think it compares with the old version (opens in new window).
 
The Makeover Challenge
The original site's navigation lacked focus. The organization of the front page wasn't effective. It lacked sales pizzazz. But most importantly, the site's look gave no visual clues as to what it was all about. You can see the problems clearly in this full-sized screen capture of the site before the makeover (opens in new window).
NonLethalDefense Yahoo Store before makeover
Before Makeover

Only by spending time reading the text would a visitor realize what the store sold. And usage research indicates that Internet users rarely spend time reading pages to find what they are looking for. A landing page must convince them that their quest is over. It must do so in 1 to 2 seconds. If it does not, they hit the back button and go back to the search engine that sent them.
      This site begged for a top-to-bottom makeover to boost its conversion rate (orders/visitor ratio).
 
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  Page URL: www.etproductions.com/portfolio/nolede-yahoo-store-makeover.html
Copyright © ET! Productions & J. K. Hollomon, Jr., 2001.
Excerpts from original site, © 1998/99. All rights reserved.
Last revision: Saturday, 08-Jan-2005 14:07:42 PST		  
 

ET Productions
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