Detail, Detail, Detail

If you are selling a product or service the details of that product or service is probably what make or break your business. For example one of my favorite fast food restaurants is Chipotle and if the burritos didn't taste exactly the same every time I wouldn't be such a loyal customer. Specific qualities about Chipotle's burritos are that 1) they have a distinctive delicious taste, 2) they are huge, and 3) they are sold at fast food prices. Any detail page about Chipotle's burritos would have to capture those points. In my opinion a detail page should paint a picture about experiencing or using that product or service. After writing this paragraph I visited Chipotle's website, went to the detail pages about the menu and found that their detail page on the burrito illustrate my previously mentioned views! A huge delicious burrito was pictured with an animated banner wrapped around it stating something about how delicious the food is along with a caption that gave a more detailed description of all the ingredients. They didn't mention price in terms of a monetary value, but elsewhere on the site they emphasize how it is not your "typical fast food."

Web Design for ROI by Loveday and Neihaus gives lots of tips on how to make detail pages sticky so that customers do not navigate away from the page. It is important to let customers make a connection while on the page, so descriptive images or text can really make the detail page more memorable. I really like to see multiple angles of shoe or clothing items because without being able to try something more detail about how it looks can make a reluctant online shopper like me more confident about his or her choice. This day and age we are accustomed to seeing customer rating and feedback. I know people who only stay at hotels and book vacation packages if there is good customer feedback. If a details page about a hotel does not have built in tools that allow for customer satisfaction then some of my friends won't stay there at all. Having an icon that someone can glance at to reflect that data is a huge plus in today's market where sales are driven by customer input.

For my midterm I created a website for a home-based catering business. I see now that images of food are great, but cannot overshadow the importance of rich media that can show the service in action. Video and images of the catering service being performed can be just as important if not more important that close-up shots of food on a pretty plate. This would be showing the image in context, another point emphasized in the book. For example when a prospective customer gets to the form and decides they want to be contacted in order find out more information, they should want the service just as much as the mouth-watering food. That indeed might be the point that makes a customer buy-in. The concepts taught in the book appear to be quite logical when you really think about them. I am sure that I will be more aware them as I continue in my studies of internet technology.

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