Most Important Site Functions?

It doesn't matter if you do all the error checking in the world, or if you have the most beautiful graphics, if your site or application design isn't usable, it's not going to do well. Get input and advice on usability and user interface issues here.

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What is the most important web site function

Data Capture/Analytics
1
13%
Branding
1
13%
eCommerce
2
25%
interactivity
4
50%
 
Total votes: 8

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$var
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Most Important Site Functions?

Post by $var »

Of the following core web site roles, what are the most important?
Am I missing anything glaring?

Data Capture/Analytics
- ROI (Company Spend returning
- User Activity (Pages, Paths)
- User information

Branding/Design
- Portraying Company Style
- Consistancy in design (web site and advertising)
- Ease of use

interactivity
- user input
- forums
- rss feeds
- applications/profiles
- cms

eCommerce
- Sale of products via credit
- Having all product specs available
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

It'd be nice to get an explanation of what this is for....
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$var
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Post by $var »

i was sort of asking in general.

i know each project is it's own objective, and each developer has their own criteria for what is import to collect.
perhaps it's too broad a topic to broach with this particular question.

in my opinion user activity and in-turn, their entered database information is the most important part of a database web site.
the argument could be posed that perhaps interactivity, or 2.0 is most important at the moment...

and perhaps it could be said that the ability to purchase product from a site is key to the survival of the company.
i'm not SO much for web purchasing, however, i guess some sites are established with that in mind.

it was just a random question, as i was compiling a list...
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Obadiah
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Post by Obadiah »

i think information and interactivity would be the main parts to a website....no site can have too much interactivity IMO
[edited]
depending of course on what the site is for....interactivity is a great way to get your site popular among people....the more you allow people to do(via features and such) the more they will come back, the more people you will attract to your site....unless of coarse you pull a facebook blunder
Last edited by Obadiah on Fri Sep 08, 2006 2:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

I don't really see how you came up with your choices... some sites don't even have ecommerce... ??
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RobertGonzalez
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Post by RobertGonzalez »

Viable content, intuitive interface, an appropriate level of interactivity, accessibility. The others are necessary, but in my opinion, the purpose of a web site is to provide information to a requester of that information. eCommerce is nice, but not every website uses their site as an income generating tool.
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MrPotatoes
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Post by MrPotatoes »

1. content
2. interactivity

#2 is a multi bladed sword. interactivity as in navigationand interactivity as in user adding to the site. mucho stuff
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$var
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Post by $var »

it's funny that i didn't put content! duh, that is the most important part!

Obadiah, you lend weight to the claim of interactivity.

But, do you ever feel like sometimes interactivity is overused on some sites?
Like, is AJAX going too far for allowing users to move all the divs around?
Is anyone sick of registering for everything?
How is it possible to remember all of your registrations?

On the other hand, how many sites do you remember to visit ... weekly? or daily?

I agree I feel most attached to a site that allows me to input and have response.
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

$var wrote:But, do you ever feel like sometimes interactivity is overused on some sites?
Like, is AJAX going too far for allowing users to move all the divs around?
Yes it's over-used on some sites... but AJAX certainly isn't going too far. If somebody does something like allowing all divs on their site to be moveable that is THEM taking DHTML too far... (by the way, how come everybody refers to DHTML as AJAX now? AJAX is Asyncronous Javascript and XML.. which has nothing to do with moving divs on a page). There are definately purpouses for moveable divs though... such as drag-drop type things.
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Obadiah
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Post by Obadiah »

what i meant to say in my edit was interactivity within reason sure theres toins of ways you can mock up your site by adding a little too much of anything....but all i was saying is interactivity and content is the only thing that seperates your site from any another....say if you were in the clothing business and you built a website with just the standard ecommerce setup.....and then you built another that had the ecomerce set up but at the beggining of the purchasing phase you alloed the user to match up shoes with their clothes via flash or whatever....which site is gonna get the most hits?
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

Obadiah wrote:which site is gonna get the most hits?
the one that's marketed better
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