Online Staging

Hey guys, I’m back again. Last time we talked mainly about the offline staging and now it’s time for another exciting subject: Online Staging. As explained before the purpose of the staging is to send a certain message in the best way possible. Nowadays, when internet became a consistent part of our lives, companies realized the increasing importance of the Online Staging. These days many customers prefer to buy online and save time, or find the information about events and products through the Internet. Therefore in order to have an attractive online tool, which would emphasize the certain characteristics of the company, each detail of the design and functionality of the website needs to be thought through.

Surveys have showed that when looking at a website the customer attention is distributed unequally. Thus the important question is: How and where do we position information on a website, blog, etc., in the most effective way? In order to answer this question, surveys have been done, and their results were presented in my last New Marketing class. One of the interesting findings was that 56% of people who are using the online searching tools actually focus their attention to the upper right corner of the page, while 44% to the upper left part. Similar results were showed when people are shopping online, 58% focus on the upper right side, and 42% on the upper left.

When researching this subject I have found a brilliant article about the web design and positioning of web elements on a website, which is a topic very strong related to the Online Staging. Enjoy some fragments of useful information:  

” Creating good web site navigation is the most important task a web designer has to accomplish in the web design process. Web site navigation is the pathway people take to navigate through sites. It must be well constructed, easy to use and intuitive. Poor navigation does not help users and often, your site can prove to be less accessible than others.

Think and act like the average user does. Then design.

The most frequent issue in web design is that designers do not act and do not try to experience web sites from the user perspective. They are often misled to think that their web site's navigation is the best when in fact it might not be. They might only have that impression for the simple fact that they're familiar with it.

It would be useful to open up a few sites and take a look at the web site navigation, how it's positioned, how easy it is to go through etc. Consider how many pages you can access from any page. Can you go to related pages? Are there hints to help users navigate? Is there a site map with all the pages in the website? Can you figure out where you are at any time?

Design good primary web site navigation

Although primary navigation is very important users should not be forced to rely heavily on primary navigation but rather be able to use smaller "doorways" to jump to related pages.

Left navigation. Left web site navigation is the most common type of navigation. However, the designer must make sure that at 800x600 resolutions or higher the most important navigation links are visible in full at first page load and that they do not fold below the screen. The navigation links width should be narrower than 300px in order to leave enough space for body text. Left navigation has become very popular because it is responds to user behaviour: start reading from the left - read navigation links - click on the desired link - keep reading fresh content to the left.

Top navigation. Top navigation is the second most common navigation. The advantage of a top navigation bar is that it leaves more room below for content and other relevant information. However, you must make sure that the navigation stands out. People tend to ignore everything that looks remotely like adds. If you intend to put graphics in the header of the page make sure the navigation bar is situated below the graphics and not above it. People might ignore the graphics and the navigation bar along with it. They might end up thinking that there's nothing more to that website. This is a classic example of the importance of secondary navigation.

Right navigation. For English language based web sites people read from left to right. Thus, a menu situated on the right hand side would be difficult to use. People tend to read the navigation first and then the body text.

Design good secondary navigation

Links which do not belong in the primary navigation are used to make up the secondary navigation. Such links are the usual Contact Us, About Us, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Site Map, Links and so on.

Position of the secondary navigation does not have a general rule

Secondary navigation can be placed just below primary navigation while making sure it does not stand out as much as the primary navigation does. Web designers can either make the link text smaller, use a separator or leave a reasonable amount of space for the eye to be able to make distinction between the two. When using top navigation secondary navigation can be placed on the left hand side of the page.”

You can find the full article here.  I hope you liked this topic! Have an amazing day!

Staging- “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players” W. Shakespeare

Hey, dear readers! I’m back again to tell you more about what I have learned lately. Today I’ll be talking about quite an exciting and interesting subject called Staging. To my understanding it is a matter of how you present your idea, the way you play a certain role in order to present a message indirectly and reflect its main points.

“You know all too well that the products you see in advertisements and brochures – from food and shoes to houses and database applications – don’t look much like they do in actual life. Teams of specialists spent long hours, and maybe even days, to make those products look absolutely perfect.

It’s called staging, and done professionally, it’s very effective. It sells homes, magazines, chandeliers, bedding, software, home stereos, specialty olive oil, and – well, you get the idea.” (Think ZigZag)

Staging is often used by attaching emotion to messages, advertising and spaces. In this way the message is emphasized and “acted” so that it touches the customer’s emotions. Once this is achieved it is easier for the customer to relate to the certain message, and he is more likely to remember and spread the ideas received. Also he is more likely to buy the product, because of the impact the advertisement for example had over his feelings.

Staging can be achieved through activating all the six senses of customers. “Sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing are the five most well know senses, but we also have a kinesthetic sense, which is also what some people mistake as a spiritual sense, because it is being aware of your surroundings. For example, if someone walks into a room without making a sound behind you, and you know that they are there, it’s because you sensed them unconsciously” (Answers).

Staging however doesn’t happen only in advertising. It also helps the companies internally. For example the way that the CEO stages his meetings, gives his employees certain impressions of how they are treated and what is required of them. For instance, if the CEO of the company wants the employees to feel valued, he would stand in the middle of the people during meetings, expressing in this way that he is one of them, and that they are all equal, because they work for the same goal. While if the CEO wants to implement a stricter and authoritarian style of management, he needs to stand on a stage above everyone, in order to send a clearer message saying “I’m the boss”. Therefore according to the message you want to send, you always need to think about how you can make it clear without saying it directly, how you can stage it properly.

Now if you think more thoroughly about staging, you will realize it happens to you every day. The way you talk and react to the people around you, the big posts you see on the streets or in the daily newspaper, the short spots you see on the TV, the music you hear when entering a store, the smell you feel in Abercrombie and Fitch, all this is staging my friends. And remember “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players” W. Shakespeare. Play your role accordingly.