Web spinners strut their stuff

E-travelers get personal touch on Internet sites

In a whirlwind of multimedia technology and cyberspace pizzazz, Internet trailblazers are now primed to make good on a slate of long-watched promises.

From XML to streaming video, the technological underpinning is in place for the Web’s next big leap, awaiting only the arrival of broader bandwidth and customer demand.

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But technology isn’t everything.

And despite the appeal of emerging interactive software, the sites that continue to fare well locally and internationally are reverting to traditional, personalized business practices to woo online customers. With a sort of electronic handshake, Web-savvy businesses are greeting visitors to their sites like they might in their offices or storefronts, providing a personalized experience in a secure and comfortable venue.

“Consumers are hungry for the one-on-one relationships they’ve come to expect in traditional business environments,´ said Laura Sandell, co-owner of Isis Public Relations & Marketing Inc. in Fort Collins. “They don’t want to feel like one in a million.”

Why won’t Internet browsers tolerate anonymity like they do in print and broadcast media? Simply because they don’t have to, Sandell said. Traditional business relationships have proven that. And evolving Internet interactivity is affirming it online. As businesses continue their efforts to turn cyberspace tourists into site residents, anonymity is becoming a turnoff.

“The Web doesn’t have to be treated as a mass media,´ said Kevin Crowston, a researcher at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies in New York. “Instead, it can be a conduit for a conversation between the firm and its customers.”

Budding interactivity on the Web is creating a realm where, on some sites, users can create their own experience, adapting the features to fit their needs, not the needs of many. Case in point: Greeley-based Paradigm Multimedia Group Inc. is working with a piece of adaptive, streaming-video software that will enable an online customer to push a virtual shopping cart down an aisle, stopping to chat with sales representatives along the way.

For now, that virtual conversation remains a pie in the sky for businesses because of bandwidth limitations and differing end-user technology. But trends toward personalization and adaptability are taking hold on several fronts, including user interface design and functionality features.

In all, experts seem to agree that the best sites provide the individual user with a “unique experience,´ said Chris Hill, vice president and a Web designer at Paradigm Multimedia Group. To do that, the leading sites tailor that interaction to create a personalized experience on both ends, accurately representing the existing image of the organization and addressing the specific needs of that organization’s customer base.

“A Web site is a company’s identity,´ said Melissa Katsimpalis, Sandell’s partner and Isis co-owner. “The company’s identity can be transferred, but not literally. It has to be a sharp-looking face that can bring the customer in, then take them a step further.”

Technology isn’t enough to take that step, though. In fact, the wrong technology may discourage some users, Hill said. To appease users on both the low- and high-tech ends of the spectrum, he said, the site must” provide the image and experience (the users) expect from the company and the market they are looking at.”

In theory the task is simple: “Every Web developer needs to be more concerned with providing secure, useful and beautiful environments for people to interact with,´ said Eugene Chen, of Aaron Marcus and Associates Inc. in Emeryville, Calif. “If we don’t, we fail the users.”

Failing the users, he said, is akin to turning away shoppers from a Main Street store – they tend not to come back. To bring customers into a site and keep them there, site administrators must know their customer base, striving to match the site’s features with the collective needs and technical capabilities of that base.

For some it is personalized news or stock recommendations. For others it’s a simple user interface, conducive to browsing. High tech here. Simple there. Interactive on one site. Almost print format at another. The success of a site lies not in the wizardry of its pieces, Sandell said. Where a cutting-edge site may benefit one company, it may burn another.

“The key to creating a great Web site is making sure you know exactly what the users’ needs are,´ said Rob Bean, interactive-media director at Fort Collins-based Burns Marketing and Communications. “Understanding that will go a long way.”

In general, Web customers want fast downloads, effective graphics, uncluttered design, logical navigation and short, effective bites of useful information, said Todd Shimoda, an information-technology specialist in Colorado State University’s technical-communications department. But in a new era of personalization, those criteria aren’t bright enough to shine.

“Some national companies with great technical Web sites can’t tell their sites apart from sites made in a garage,” Hill said. “And they wonder why the small sites can compete. A unique image is literally that critical.”

The art comes in balancing simplicity and fiery new technology to tap into interactive capabilities at the technical level of the user, Bean said. And that delicate positioning starts with the fundamentals. Even after an organization understands its potential users’ needs, the Web’s best continue to labor on the sites foundation, laying it side by side with the roots of the original company and its business plan.

“A Web site is nothing without support,” Bean said. “People say content is king, and that may be true, but it’s the support staff that keeps that content fresh.”

In the past decade’s Web rush, many pioneers have failed to heed Bean’s warning before diving in. And, consequently, many sites have hit the rocky bottom, failing to realize their creators’ expectations. Today, more than 20 percent of American businesses are on the Web, but many of those sites remain cost centers, a result of poor planning, Bean said.

“If an interactive site allows a user to click and chat when he has a question then there should be a support staff to chat with,” he said. “If that support isn’t in place, that technology is worthless.”