Do visitors get tangled in your web presence?

Several months ago I wrote a blog post about the Mint Software website (Where to find inspiration for a red-hot home page). The point was to present an outstanding website and to suggest that companies struggling with lackluster sites emulate the example set by Mint Software.

In this article I want to revisit that concept with another – albeit very different – approach to website design.

Open a new tab or browser window and go to CompassDesign.com. This is the home page of Compass Design, a product design firm based in Pleasanton, Calif.

The Compass Design website communicates what so many other company websites fail to communicate: What, exactly, do you do? And how, exactly, would you work with me?

This website demystifies a process that is very mysterious to most people. How do I actually turn an idea for a new invention into a tangible product?

Got an idea for the next great kitchen utensil or whiz-bang technology box? Compass Design runs you through the step-by-step process involved in taking the idea from concept and planning to prototype and production.

On the Compass Design home page click on the Services link at the top of the page and you are introduced to the six-step process used to bring a product from concept to production.

1. Planning & Research
2. Design
3. Engineering
4. Electronics
5. Prototype
6. Production

That’s the high-level view of the process. Click on any one of those steps and each contains four to six sub-steps in the process. Each is explained in a single, brief, clearly written paragraph. And each is accompanied by a large photograph to help deepen the reader’s understanding with the addition of visual information.

It doesn’t take long to read the process from start to finish. Notice how each step builds on the next. Feel the sense of intellectual enlightenment the site provides.

This is precisely the type of information architecture that would work for many business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies. A chronology of how a company delivers its services is often exactly what website visitors are looking for – whether they know it not.

Curt Anderson, president of Compass Design, says he redesigned his firm’s website with several objectives in mind. He wanted to create a site that:

• Utilized white space and large photographic images
• Had brief, clear copy that kept readers moving forward at a fast clip
• Gave his firm credibility with big companies that already understand the process and needed to know that Compass was capable of delivering. (See the website’s Client List and Projects sections)
• Demystified the process for less experienced inventors and engineers working on new innovations in their garages

Mission accomplished.

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