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'Cool' Doesn't Count
Robert Metcalfe, Ph.D. the inventor of Ethernet (which runs your connection to the internet) is credited with having established "Metcalfe's Law" in the early days of the internet, when many people had multiple email accounts because major networks were not interconnected. He said that the value of a system is not based on its sophistication, but on the number of people that use it. That's true of your website. I'm old enough to remember the introduction of the fax machine. The first fax machine wasn't very useful. There was no one else to send you a fax. But the second fax machine became quite useful, and as they proliferated, their value increased. (You may decide whether your fax machine is an indispensable business tool or a collector of advertising spam. That's not the point.) Specifically, Metcalfe's law says that the value of a system is equal to the square of the number of users. It's not a precise mathematical formula, but it means that each additional user adds vastly more value to the system. Websites are systems that are examples of Metcalfe's Law. The only true measure of your website's value is the number of people who use it, who sign up for your e-mail newsletter, who participate in your advocacy program, who donate online. The flash technology and animation don't count if they don't increase the usage of the site. In fact, they can often get in the way, since the latest, fanciest, 'coolest' techniques often only work on a PC (about 65% of users to a site we manage) using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher (about 50% of all web visitors). Your limited web resources are better spent on good content, usable navigation and design, and marketing. After all, if usage is the most important measure of success, then making the site more usable is key. After the site is made usable, then inviting more users (i.e. marketing) is the next logical step. September 2003 | ||
