Jones Web Site Design. Proposed

¶ … Jones

Web site Design.

Proposed Business: ATV parts and accessories, specifically geared to the over 50 demographic, with an emphasis on heavy trail/utility vehicles. Web site should be simple to navigate and include a wide range of products.

Although it is tempting for any aspiring web-entrepreneur to jump right in to the design of their Web site, it is first essential to know something about what already exists "out there" in their chosen focus area. By doing this one can not only get a good feel for the level of competition one may encounter, but also observe how that that competition may be lacking -- both in product line and/or services offered as well as in overall Web site design.

The following is my examination of four Web sites related to my business focus, ATV parts and accessories.

Site Examinations

Dennis Kirk:

The Dennis Kirk Web site is what one might refer to as an "all the bells and whistles" type. Not only does it come on strong with graphic-intensive marketing, but it also has catchy logos and an impressive layout -- key among which is the varied search methods the customer can employ to find the desired product quickly (by brand, model/year, as well as by general key words). Additionally, the site also offers a "list" of categories from which one can choose should one wish to browse general merchandise arise (sorted into subjects like apparel, gear, ATV accessories, specific system parts, and tools to name just a few).

Another innovative aspect of the Dennis Kirk website is that it "does the work for the customer" in that it offers within each accessory category drop down menus from which the customer can enter the make, model and year of the ATV or bike that they own, thereby allowing the customer to skip long lists of similar parts for other ATVs.

One drawback of the site that may prove troublesome for a large part of the customer base is the very complexity of the site. The simple fact is that a large number of ATV customers are in the over 50 demographic, especially now that the overall focus of the ATV industry has moved away from the racing models to the heavier wooded trail/hunting type. After observing one customer in this demographic attempt to navigate the site (the customer was not comfortable with computers in general), I noticed that he avoided the "search" and the pull down menus altogether, instead focusing only on the list categories -- leading him to perhaps miss large amounts of available merchandise.

Montana Jacks:

The Montana Jack's Web site is far simpler than the Dennis Kirk site. Although this may seem like a drawback in some areas (especially in its lack of breadth of available merchandise), there are none of the flashy pull down menus or multi-component searches that may be daunting for some customers. Additionally, this site seems to be limited on the models of ATVs for which it sells compatible accessories.

One plus of the Montana Jack site are its "theme pages," from which one can find all of the accessories related to a certain ATV focus or activity -- for example, hunting, boating, winching, snow plowing, or even wood-cutting to name a few. Although the customer must still go through the list of product models that are incompatible with his or her ATV, (unlike the Dennis Kirk site), many might actually find this method less intimidating.

RideGear:

Of the three, RideGear.com is the least user friendly. Although it does have a greater breadth of merchandise and searching capability, it has the least effective menu system's possible -- particularly for the older demographic -- the sideways pop-up menu bar. In all of my personal experience this is not only the type of menu system I least like to navigate, it is also the kind that I hate to "show" to new computer users or children (in my opinion ease of use is a key component to any successful menu system -- after all, one wants the customer to be able to access the information they want, not find themselves unable to navigate the menu).

Another key drawback is the site's use of exhaustive product lists regardless of make/model. That is, if one is looking for a 2 stroke ATV exhaust pipe, one must navigate through all makes and models in order to (hopefully) find the right one. Although this is also true of Montana Jack's, the relative ease of use of the Web site as a whole more than makes up for this defect.