Cross Train Your Site And Other Design Lessons From The Sports Pages …

Heisman Trophy winner. Poetry lover. Ballet dancer. NFL star. Olympic bobsledder. And now, at the age of 47, a mixed martial arts fighter.

The e-commerce world could learn a lot from Herschel Walker, one of the top running backs in NFL history. Namely, we could learn that sometimes the best way to become better at what you do is to do something completely different.

 For starters, maybe we should approach our redesign process a bit differently. Most companies embark upon a redesign by looking inward – and then not too far outward. They examine their own data. They look at what their competitors are doing. They read the same industry news and analyst reports that all the other companies are reading. These are all worthwhile, important endeavors – but at the end of the day, they don’t lead to anything truly different.

Walker did not break records by simply going to practice, running, and lifting weights like all of the other players. He added something new to the mix. He did calisthenics, body conditioning and he danced. The result? A lower body fat and a better game than his rivals at the time.

The lesson for e-commerce executives? If you want to perform like others, do the same things they are doing. If you want to perform differently, look beyond your competitors, outside of your vertical markets, and even outside of your medium for inspiration.

When working with apparel retailers, I encourage them to look at a range of sites – not just other apparel sites – and not just other e-commerce sites for that matter. For example, we can learn from You Tube’s design and feature set. We can see how the site creates a sense of “here and now” and provides serendipitous navigation opportunities with the “videos being watched right now” feature. Yet, no e-commerce site has a “products being viewed/purchased right now” feature. Very few have an extra navigation element that introduces a sense of surprise.

Of course, it’s an easy, natural first step outside of e-commerce to follow the popular kids like You Tube, Facebook and Flickr. After all, that is where your customers are spending a lot of time too. So the next step is taking a look at some unusual suspects. Science and non-profit sites can provide a unique perspective. Although a sobering topic, Amgen’s site about angiogenesis is one of the most visually striking sites I have seen in a long time. Its bold use of horizontally scrolling photography and embedded video creates a sense of being on a journey through the human body – one almost forgets they are on a Web site. How can your site go beyond “appealing” and actually draw people in? How can it make people forget they are sitting in front of a monitor?

Speaking of monitors, it’s a good idea to step away from them every now and then. Not just for the sake of your eyes, but for the sake of your creative vision. On a recent visit to the California Academy of Sciences, I was very impressed by the fact that some exhibits had a “call or text for more information” feature – a true multi-channel experience. The museum also enables visitors to view scientists at work in the lab through a large window. This window appeals to our natural human tendency to want know what’s going on behind the scenes – AKA, spy. Yet very few sites share much information about product fabrication or new products in development.  This type of “open window” into your company could forge a deeper relationship with customers.

If the thought of doing all of this legwork is giving you a headache, I suggest you try taking a pill from Help Remedies. Their simple approach (“Help I Have A Headache” and “Help I Have A Stomach Ache” pills etc.) is a reminder that our sites should have a voice that speaks to customers in a fresh, engaging way. And their completely biodegradable packaging (you can view pictures of it slowly decomposing in a compost pile on their site) is a reminder that we should also be doing good things as well as good design.

While competitive benchmarking and standards are important, they need to be balanced with fresh, original approaches if you are looking to your distinguish your site. After all, if we simply try to keep up with the Jones’s, the best we can do is become the Jones’s. But if we look around our whole neighborhood, our whole city, our whole world, we can become more complex – more evolved – under diverse influences. Kind of like a poet-ballet-dancer-football-player who is about to go into a sport that’s a whole mix of things in and of itself …