We recently helped out the home automation specialists, Savant Systems, build a brand new website! Check out this blurb from our case study below, or click here to read the full account!

In under four months, Savant Systems increased their website visits by 400%.  On average, Google linked 13,179 more visitors a week to the Savant pages, and pages viewed by visitors increased measurably.  These statistics seem as rapid and revolutionary as the introduction of the iPod to the music market.

Savant’s secret to Internet success is just as probable and accessible—they contracted Single Throw Internet Marketing, a talented and proficient group of Internet marketing consultants with a plethora of services the size of your mp3 library.

Savant Systems provides the height of technological chic by offering a luxury home automation system that works with Apple technology bringing your home into the future.  Savant provides services for individual homeowners and corporations.  Single Throw Internet Marketing unified this image of Savant with its web presence.

While the Internet is an indisputably powerful—some might even say marvelous—tool, it is also an unwieldy thing to manage.  Many businesses’ experience with the Internet is akin to the proverbial child laying a hand on the hot stove—they get burned, so they don’t try it again. As such, their websites are old fashioned and out of date; they do a poor job of reflecting their product or service.  They target the wrong clientele, and they don’t show up in a typical Google search.

If the Internet is a hot stove, the experts at Single Throw are wearing flame retardant suits.  They build websites from years of experience and research, and they’re quite eager to share their suits with you.  They did with Savant.

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Microsoft took a new approach to search - enter “bing”. Bing introduces a powerful set of intuitive tools on top of their search service and call it a “decision engine” which they claim will help consumers make smarter purchasing decisions. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak raves about Microsoft’s New Search Engine view here

Just yesterday I wrote a post about Skittles attempt at using social media layered under their minimal site navigation ala Modernista. Interesting thing happens when you click the link for Modernista’s site: it retains our site in the background. Go ahead…try it.

Is it because we are opening in a new window? Who knows. Design flaw? You decide. If it was my site or that of my clients’, I wouldn’t be happy.

Here it is, 7:00 on a Sunday morning and I am browsing for pre-holiday bargains in my comfy chair with a cup of coffee and the toasty warmth of the fireplace. (Here in the northeast, an early cold snap puts the morning temperature at 23 unbelievable degrees!) Like other shoppers, whether you intend to visit a brick and mortar or not, you can easily plan your shopping and grab up discounts and coupons with the ease of a click. Which lead me to click on a call to action from Target.com.

Sign up for the 2-day sale preview!

Sounds great! I sign-up, they send me sale information before anyone who didn’t click! It’s a compelling call to action for someone in the holiday buying mode.

Now, I’m totally sensitive to design. It’s my passion…that is, until it disrupts usability. Target is a great brand. No living, breathing American doesn’t recognize their red target logo or Bullseye the Bull Terrier mascot.

There’s a time when you want to maintain design conventions: colors, patterns, and style. Then there’s time to realize that maybe those conventions might not work as intended. They may actually impede the customer’s intent. That’s when you need to stop and re-evaluate and re-design.

That’s what I found when I clicked that call to action. A very pretty overlayed registration box. I entered my email address twice. I clicked the opt-in boxes. Then…

I clicked the Cancel button.

Why? How can that happen? I wanted to sign-up. I got this far. What was I thinking???

Here’s why. Take a look at the two action buttons. The more prominent button is the Cancel button. It has more visual contrast and is featured on the right: the path I am more likely to take if I am expecting to “move forward.”

Why would they position it that way? Why would they make the Cancel button the most prominent action and image on the screen?

Sometimes it’s the simple things that escape us. I am a big proponent of not making it easy for someone to say no, particularly if they have made it this far in the purchase funnel. If they are not interested, they can always click the close window option.

I did go back and tryit again after I realized what happened. I wonder how many other people quickly filled-in their email address and instinctively clicked the more prominent option and didn’t go back. Ah, consider their disappointment when they don’t get their 2-day sale reminder.

Don’t make simple mistakes in an already difficult economy and shopping climate, particularly at what is the biggest shopping time of the year. Even though something may be designed one way, keep an eye on results and analytics, and change what doesn’t work or can work better…and change it fast!

Hey Target…Consider this a little free advice.

Happy Black Friday!