Forum Moderators: phranque
Here's the setting:
1. seo as you know it (ie: lots of TEXT is needed) is not really an issue.
2. everyone has broadband at 50x faster than currently available....from the beginning.
3. everyone is very computer savvy.
4. Its a true niche market (a very very very big one.)
5. ugly is bad.
If this was your enviroment:
How would that effect (or not effect) the way you site looks, the content, and how plan your site overall?
you say might be tempted to say "not much...I might throw in a couple more pictures but....architecture and content are still king."
>>>>> But you might be WRONG. <<<<<<
At least if the highly SUCCESSFUL and THRIVING korean market has anything to say about it.
This topic has vicariously come up a lot in the asia forums....because basically that is what the setting curently is in Korea. And its lead to some very interesting and fundamental differences in how the "internet world looks" out here and is progressing: in many cases, the exact opposite the fundamentals that we hold as golden on these forums. Some of these difference are admittedly NOT positive, imo, but many have been the lynchpin to rocketing the Korean internet well beyond what we see else where around the world.
So again, just wondering if
WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENT WHEN DESIGNING YOUR SITE? And more theorectically, how would the internet as a whole LOOK? if we started from scratch with this premise.
This is not as irrelevant as you may think. Broadband majority days WILL come and so will savvy users and new and different search and internet technologies. And the korean market has already has influences on things we see in the english speaking markets (so I say...but with LOTS of solid evidence).
-----------------------------------
here is the CURRENT internet scene in Korea (saying nothing about current trends etc...just stating as is). Maybe its a shadow of an internet to come? time will tell.
** Looks ARE important. Sites are busy and packed and media rich and slick. I hear some even have good text content too! (note sarcasm^^)
** google-who? Goog korea holds less than 2% of the search market via their site for search.(Hmmm...maybe if they adveritise!^^lol)
** Knowledge search is way more popular than web search (as of yet).
** local portals dominate market share over "foreign big guns" (eg: NHN 62%, yahoo korea 15%)
** there are at least 12 kinds of search long in the MAINSTREAM available via mega-portals, including but not limited to: knowledge, question, directory, web site, web image, image, special location, blog, cafe, shopping, document, dictionary, encyclopedia, blah blah blah.
** the most popular SERP on major portals are COMBINED result feeds from all multiple sources on one long results page (web page, image, media, documents, news...etc.... all on one page).
** mini-hompy system (see related links) is making portals sweat bullets as it continues to dominate the market now for new users and visitors....enough where even lycos and Msn are copying it with Circles and Spaces, respectively, in the US.
** SEO? what's that? PPfffft...I'll just do some knowledge search campaigns and build a cyworld mini-hompy
** Blogs and related technologies have long been very media rich and robust and way beyond what you see in the "west".
** etc etc etc etc.............I really could go on.
but as far as I know...Korea is unique in almost all these aspects. Is this an image of what we should be expecting in the broadband years to come? (or what WOULD have come if we started they way they did in Korea?). who knows.
but its certainly some food for thought about the effect broadband, other technologies and user behavior changes may have in the future.
1. As a Designer I like the sound of it I have always liked technologies such as flash, but have been put off purely for SEO reasons. Not to have to worry about that and to design a site that is properly interactive that engages the user would be great.
2. From a web user point of view I still think that content is king. The thing I like about the internet is being able to get information on any given topic. Mostly I use the internet for getting information, even when shopping online I am more likely to by from a site that allows users to post reviews about products. However I do like the idea of knowledge search and would be interested to see how this differs from the search engine i currently used. One of my major frustrations with search engines is the junk results you get that just take you to other directories.
Could you expand on that? I use what I think is a web search to look for 'knowledge' as in
information. Just what is the difference between knowledge search and web search?
Are they implimented differently? I'm at a loss here. - Larry
As a Designer I like the sound of it I have always liked technologies such as flash, but have been put off purely for SEO reasons. Not to have to worry about that and to design a site that is properly interactive that engages the user would be great.
I totally agree with that philosophy. The current state of technology in search limits the true capabilities of what the web could be.
I tend now to design in a content is king fashion, concentrating on text and having layouts built with CSS only.
The real fun starts once the brand is established, and you no longer need the SE's for traffic, or have so many inbound links that you no longer need to rely on so many on page factors.
TJ
I beleive internet users are not the same as the regular demographic, or at least they're behavior changes online. Lean caters to them better.
At least, I believe that to be true for my market. If I was selling Ipod's to teenagers I'd probably go with the 'fancy' stuff and bandwidth be danged.
I could be wrong (though all the sites in my biz that I consider to be successful do what I do). Since I'm in such an old stodgy business, maybe I should try a site that sells based on 'trust' based on site design. Hmmm.
It all depends upon how gloss is used, yes there are loads of examples where gloss does get in the way of information or is used to disguse the fact that there isn't any inforamtion. But eqaully if you also get a lot of sites where when used properly the gloss can enhance the infromation. It all comes down to the quality of the design and the amount of planning and thought that has gone into it.
Also I think that the internet is evolving. With the advent of broadband the internet is more and more being used for entertainment not just a bit encyclopedia. Just this week the BBC have annouced that they are now testing a "watch again" service for some programs.
I think that will always be king, but I don't think there is anything wrong with enhancing how it is presented.
