Baen's website redesigned

[elcreative]

You don't say... of course it's marketing, when people find the free goodies from Baen then they'll follow up on the rest... if they like them...

Originally Posted by AdamV

anyway, the purpose of being available via google for Baen is purely marketing in my humble opinion...

[AdamV]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The reason would be that Google is only selling books to people in the US.

yet

Baen is not available via google...

yet

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

I am a professional. My comments above were only the tip of the iceberg.

What it comes down to is the purpose of a website should be to sell products -- but all too often, and I think it happened in this case, the website is built to sell websites. The designer's audience is the client, not the client's customers, because after all that's who's cutting his check. And the client, busy going "oooh" and "aaah" over his pretty new website, doesn't even realize that he's made things worse for the people who are cutting his check.

You have to look at it like a user: I just went to this website. What am I most likely to want to do? If you're a publisher, I probably went to your website to buy a book. Don't fill all the space with pretty pictures, don't tell me all about your authors, don't give me your company history -- sell me a book! All the rest of that stuff is secondary, for the people researching authors, considering buying stock, or whatever. The people who are going to give you money are, by and large, looking for a way to buy a book.

Replace "book" with the purpose of any other website, as necessary. People have their own agendas: they want to go to your website, find what they're looking for as quickly as possible, complete their task, and move on. They have plenty of things to do with their time, and trying to figure out your website isn't any part of it. Come. Get. Go. That's what they want, and a website that makes that easy will get a lot more of the "Get", which is the part that involves money.

I'm a professional as well and have to agree almost 100%. The site has to be designed from a users point of view and it has to be tested and evaluated not only from that perspective but from someone that fits that category - an actual user. Even better a focus group taken at random should have had access to the development site at some stage. The sites that get the most positive comments and the most traffic are the ones where the user base feels a sense of ownership in the site. And having a focus group of users feel like their opinion matters is a great way to achieve that.

I run into that problem where I work all the time, where people expect me to design the perfect site that just works right out of the box and they don't understand that it often takes several iterations of development, testing, re-development, then re-testing, and so on. Sure I can make it intuitive, but intuitive to me, the guy building the navigation is going to be light years different from the end user who has no idea what I was thinking at the time.

During the development and testing there should be specific tasks established, programmed for, and then tested. Even if it is something simple like navigation. For example, one of the best things about Baen is their Webscriptions program. How do you find out info on it from their site. Hmmm, well lets see if there is webscriptions link somewhere. Ok there is on the bottom... click .... hmm ok there are some books for sale here. To find out anything more on them you have to click the FAQ link at the top or the other webscriptions link on the left, under categories. A useful tool for designing the navigation is the site map.

Hopefully, the new home page is short stop on the road to a whole new site. However, if they are not paying much attention to their site in order to keep publishing some really great books at good prices with no DRM - well I really can't complain too much!!

[TallMomof2]

The Baen website needs a lot of work especially streamlining getting to the books! No matter, I buy most of the Websubscriptions as they become available because most of the books I will read and I want to support a publisher that sells a well priced product with no DRM. Plus, I enjoy their books!

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

The Baen website needs a lot of work especially streamlining getting to the books!

I singled out this sentence, but this appears to be the recurring motive in quite a few posts.

Not that I disagree with principles of building web pages and targeting potential customers... Truth to be told, the page that means business for me was before, and will most likely stay in the future, the Webscription Ebooks, where I know how to find stuff of interest and keep myself up to date on Baen's product line. If they added to webscription web links to printed editions this show-off page of theirs might not be that bad. I've seen worse.

[DMcCunney]

This strikes me as what happens when a coder tries to be a designer.

Baen's website is maintained by Arnold Bailey, who does business as Webwrights. He's a talented web developer who writes good code. As a designer, his work leaves me less than impressed.

I don't have a particular problem with Flash. Used well, it can be stunning. I have an assortment of sites bookmarked in the art, design, and fashion areas that use flash to good effect. But what I see there is either a talented designer working with a good coder, or a designer who learned to code.

There are plenty of fine coders who wouldn't know good design if it wore a neon sign and bit them on the butt. Arnold is better than that, but nowhere near as good at design as he is at code.

I've been wishing for a while that the entire site get a makeover, and not just the front page. The Free Library pages, for example, haven't been maintained in ages, and there are Free Library offerings available through the Webscriptions pages that aren't even listed.

The whole site needs to be properly integrated with a consistent look and feel. Maybe that's next. I certainly hope so.
______
Dennis

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

This strikes me as what happens when a coder tries to be a designer.

Baen's website is maintained by Arnold Bailey, who does business as Webwrights.
Dennis

I thought he retired due to illness?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=104198

And according to the press release

"The website redesign was accomplished by Principled Technologies, best known for its industry-leading independent technology assessment services."

Which actually might support your point, they don't appear to be web site designers...

[Iphinome]

meh, leave it to baen to find a way to make things less friendly.

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

There are plenty of fine coders who wouldn't know good design if it wore a neon sign and bit them on the butt.

Hey, I resemble that remark

[smithno]

I was going to order the December Websubscription. Going to the Websubscriptions page does not list the monthly bundle. It only has a few advance copy books listed. I have been to the site 3 times and have yet to stumble across the page to buy this a Websubscription bundle. The new site is pretty, but I can't figure out how to buy books!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

I thought he retired due to illness?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=104198

And according to the press release

Hmmm. I managed to miss that thread on MR. I'd heard Arnold had been hospitalized again, but thought he was back to work. He'd been in very bad shape the previous time, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when he improved.

Okay, an apology in absentia to Arnold: the new stuff isn't his doing.

But my unimpressed comments stand.

Which actually might support your point, they don't appear to be web site designers...

I'll cross fingers that it's a work in progress, and they'll listen to criticism.
______
Dennis

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by smithno

I was going to order the December Websubscription. Going to the Websubscriptions page does not list the monthly bundle. It only has a few advance copy books listed. I have been to the site 3 times and have yet to stumble across the page to buy this a Websubscription bundle. The new site is pretty, but I can't figure out how to buy books!

Goto webscriptions.net and on the left side the 4th link under Categories is Webscriptions. Then select the appropriate year and you will see a list of webscriptions for that month.

[Rhynedahll]

Lol, I guess I'm just a stick in the mud.

I liked the old one better. I used it for a long time and I was comfortable with it.

[smithno]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

Goto webscriptions.net and on the left side the 4th link under Categories is Webscriptions. Then select the appropriate year and you will see a list of webscriptions for that month.

That is definitely not obvious! Seems to me that the link to buy a Websubscriptions should be prominate and not burried two pages down in the web site. Oh well, at least now I can order...

Norm

[TMPoole]

I could care less about the visual aspects, what I truly appreciate is the speed boost. I stopped visiting the Bar because it was so slow.

That's apparently been fixed. Nice to click on a topic and actually have the threads and postings pop up right away.

This will be much easier to use now.