InformationWeek

February 14, 2000

Web-Site Design:
Simplicity Pays For Business-To-Business Sites

onventional wisdom says good design is less important to a business-to-business E-commerce site than to a consumer-oriented site. Many business-to-business sites face less competition than business-to-consumer sites; some, in fact, are the only sources for speciality products and services or are the only sites that can link businesses with their partners.

Nonetheless, industry experts say, good design is a crucial element of successful business-to-business E-commerce Web sites. And the key is keeping things simple: If it's not easy to use, it won't get used. "Sure, people will put up with things, but you still need to make it as easy as you can," Vincent Flanders says.

Business-to-business sites also need to build and maintain their brands--and that means more than just creating a positive image in the minds of customers, says Paul Sonderegger. "It's the entire experience the user has with the site--it's every click, every expectation, and whether or not every expectation is met," he says.

Even though business-to-business sites can handle more graphics because visitors will likely be coming in over high-bandwidth lines, such images usually aren't necessary. "Business-to-business sites can be simpler, because if you're selling lead pipe to business customers, they already know what a lead pipe looks like," Flanders says.

Forrester Research recently graded 30 business-to-business sites and failed every one for value, ease of use, and reliability. Each had problems, including missing content, weak functionality, and frequent errors. Says Sonderegger, "The heart of the matter is that companies designing business-to-business sites must first know who their users are, what the key goals of those users are, and then they have to know what steps the users are going to take to use that site."

Return to main story, "The Art Of E-Biz."

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