In a print catalog, "production values" refers to the quality of
the paper and printing processes used, the number and quality of images, and the care
taken with graphic design. High production values are critically important in catalogs,
which have to convince consumers to buy based on a few sheets of paper.
Production values are even more important on the Web. Consumers will not buy from an
amateurish Web site.
Most of the people who visit your site will still find the idea of ordering online
unusual. I have been buying online for three years, and I still find it a little unusual.
So your site needs to inspire visitors with confidence. It should say that yours is the
kind of company that does things right, and that if I order something from you, it will be
a good experience.
Of course there is no direct connection between the quality of your site and the quality
of your company. A company could have a brilliant graphic designer and lousy products. But
usually there is a connection, and that is what visitors to your site will assume. If your
company is unable to put up a good Web site, then it seems natural to assume that your
company cannot deliver good products or services.
The most extreme case, of course, is when your company does not have a Web site at all.
Occasionally I go to look for information about some product, but find that the company
either doesn't have a Web site, or has a site
with nothing in it. Not impressive.
Almost as bad as the empty site is the site that looks amateurish: for example Dot Pets or Wolfco.
The same thing that makes a Ferrari look like it means business: good design. On the Web,
good design means good proportions, appropriate typefaces, clear layout, and color
combinations that work.
Overall the most important feature of a Web page is the organization. That is what
visitors will notice first. It should be possible to "read" the structure of a
page at a glance. A high quality Web site looks clear. A badly designed site looks haphazard.
Of the elements on the page, the most important are the images. A Web page consists of
text and images, and everyone's text looks the same, so the difference in production
values between good sites and mediocre ones depends almost entirely on images.
By images I do not necessarily mean product images. I mean gifs and jpegs, whether they
are product images, display text, logos, button bars, bullets, or what have you.
To start with, better Web sites usually have more images. For example, they tend to have
button bars at the top of each page, to brand the site and to aid in navigation. And
instead of displaying
Titles Like This
in screen text, they often display
as gifs. Text rendered as a gif can be antialiased, meaning you don't see jagged edges.
You can use any font, not just whatever the browser has, and you can also get 3D effects
like bevelled edges and drop shadows, which (used sparingly) make a site look richer.
When I say that better sites use more images, I do not mean that they use more k of
images. Big images take a long time to download, and that is the kiss of death in an
online store. In a top-quality site, images are the seasoning, not the foundation of the
site. Use small, punchy images that will carry a lot of the surrounding area.
In particular, avoid the common mistake of putting a huge
image on your front page. By all means put your logo on the front page, and in fact on
every page, but make it download fast. Your logo is not what your customers came to see.
They came to see your products. But don't throw full-size product images at your
visitors until they ask for them. Sophisticated sites begin with a page of smaller
thumbnail images, which visitors can click on when they want to see more.
If you don't use thumbnail images, your section pages will be too slow.
Make your product images as high quality as possible. Consumers won't buy from an image
that looks like a badly lit polaroid. So have a professional photographer take your
photos. Images shot with a top-quality digital camera look brightest, but you can also
scan transparencies or even scan images right out of your print catalog.
If possible, try to make the background color for the product images either the same color
as your pages, or transparent. Product shots look better when the object seems to sit
right on the page.
Finally, don't make spelling mistakes in your site. A few of those will undo all the other
work you've done to make your site look professional.
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