SculptNET focuses intently during the initial stages of development on designing overall site usability. Upon completion of the beta site, we conduct extensive site usability testing before launching the final product. We also perform site usability analyses for companies with existing sites.

SculptNET will analyze the usability of your website for a conservative fee. Companies who contract with us to have a site restructured will receive a fee waiver.

Top three reasons users go online
According to a recent Georgia Institute of Technology survey, web users go online primarily to:

1. Read News or Learn
2. Research businesses and products
3. Spend Money

"The web design implements the business model; sometimes it is the product itself. The site plays the combined role of the company's sales force, storefront, delivery system, customer support and service program. Company web site managers must consider the strategic importance of the web design and usability as it directly relates to the company's ability to interface with customers on the Internet." *

Common Web Management Mistakes
 1. Poor maintenance:

• dead links - use a free automated link checking resource, such as Netmechanic.com, regularly!
• broken graphics
• faulty e-mail addresses
• poor searchability (trouble finding products or service descriptions they are looking for)
• too slow
• links and information not updated regularly
• bad organization

2. Unclear purpose
3. Egotistical (business-centered) design as opposed to customer service design
4. Multiple outsourcing agencies - too many cooks in the kitchen...consistency is key!!!
5. Wasting linking opportunities
6. Poor maintenance planning
7. Confusing market research with usability engineering
8. Treating web as secondary medium - repetition of in-house advertising and customer service tasks
9. Underestimating strategic impact - treating the web as an online brochure rather than a true business medium
10. Hoping for short-term rather than long-term investment return

"The web should be considered one of the most important determinants for the way you will do business in the future.

The web enables completely new ways of doing business such as true globalization (for example, work-around-the-clock, where projects are passed on to teams as the globe turns and shopping 24/7). If you don't grasp these new business opportunities you will be toast in a few years.

The two classic errors in predicting the future of a technology shift are to over-estimate its short-term impact and under-estimate its long-term impact. The Web has been hyped to such an extent that people overestimate what it can do the next year or two: most web sites are not going to turn a profit any time soon. But please don't underestimate what will happen once we reach the goal of everyone, everywhere; connected. The impact of networks grows by at least the square of the number of connections, and the true value of the web will be only be seen after extensive business process reengineering." **

- Jakob Nielsen, PhD., a principal in the Nielsen Norman Group and a monthly columnist on web usability for DevHead is a renowned author and expert on web usability, methodology, and customer-centered Internet strategy.

Content Research Sources
*Should You Outsource Web Design? by Jakob Nielson, PhD.
**Top Ten Mistakes of Web Management by Jakob Nielson, PhD.