Comments on: A Challenge: Find O2’s Pay Monthly Rates in 5 Clicks or Less http://www.altogetherdigital.com/20061018/a-challenge-find-o2s-pay-monthly-rates-in-5-clicks-or-less/ Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:07:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: mjs http://www.altogetherdigital.com/20061018/a-challenge-find-o2s-pay-monthly-rates-in-5-clicks-or-less/#comment-24 mjs Wed, 25 Oct 2006 09:59:46 +0000 http://www.altogetherdigital.com/20061018/a-challenge-find-o2s-pay-monthly-rates-in-5-clicks-or-less/#comment-24 How did we get on to Skype?! I actually admire the Skype site a lot (particularly the copy and IA; I also just noticed today that they're one of the few international sites that bothered to make a version of their site with UK spelling), and I think they do a decent job of conveying their rates, especially considering that calling regular telephones is not their main business. (Unlike the mobile phone companies.) How did we get on to Skype?! I actually admire the Skype site a lot (particularly the copy and IA; I also just noticed today that they’re one of the few international sites that bothered to make a version of their site with UK spelling), and I think they do a decent job of conveying their rates, especially considering that calling regular telephones is not their main business. (Unlike the mobile phone companies.)

]]> By: Toby http://www.altogetherdigital.com/20061018/a-challenge-find-o2s-pay-monthly-rates-in-5-clicks-or-less/#comment-17 Toby Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:03:06 +0000 http://www.altogetherdigital.com/20061018/a-challenge-find-o2s-pay-monthly-rates-in-5-clicks-or-less/#comment-17 The whole Skype Out thing confused me. I like the site generally, from a brand perspective. but it just goes to show, briefing somebody to ensure there are 'less than x clicks to purchase' doesn't gaurantee decent conversion. The whole Skype Out thing confused me. I like the site generally, from a brand perspective. but it just goes to show, briefing somebody to ensure there are ‘less than x clicks to purchase’ doesn’t gaurantee decent conversion.

]]> By: justin. http://www.altogetherdigital.com/20061018/a-challenge-find-o2s-pay-monthly-rates-in-5-clicks-or-less/#comment-16 justin. Thu, 19 Oct 2006 09:53:15 +0000 http://www.altogetherdigital.com/20061018/a-challenge-find-o2s-pay-monthly-rates-in-5-clicks-or-less/#comment-16 Finding Skype's (http://www.skype.com) international call rates was also a bit of a frustrating experience, even though it turns out there's three 2-click paths to find rates! A search of the homepage does not contain the text 'international', 'rates', or 'cost' (excluding one in body copy), so to find one path you have to remember their 'SkypeOut' phrase for calling other phones via Skype. The other two paths involve 1) the "Learn about cheap calls" link and 2) the green speech bubble "...and really cheap calls to ordinary phones". I disregarded that whole section because in my quick scan it seemed to offer advice about Skype to new users, and more importantly I didn't think the speech bubble was a link! Instead I ended up zooming down to the footer digging through the list of links where I thought it should be. Actually thinking about this, I've often scanned pages looking for 'vanilla' links on sites, all along unaware of the large image screaming out exactly what I wanted. Maybe for every large painfully-obvious image link there should be a vanilla link that uses plain english (e.g. 'international call rates', not 'Learn about cheap calls' or 'SkypeOut'). Finding Skype’s (http://www.skype.com) international call rates was also a bit of a frustrating experience, even though it turns out there’s three 2-click paths to find rates! A search of the homepage does not contain the text ‘international’, ‘rates’, or ‘cost’ (excluding one in body copy), so to find one path you have to remember their ‘SkypeOut’ phrase for calling other phones via Skype.

The other two paths involve 1) the “Learn about cheap calls” link and 2) the green speech bubble “…and really cheap calls to ordinary phones”. I disregarded that whole section because in my quick scan it seemed to offer advice about Skype to new users, and more importantly I didn’t think the speech bubble was a link! Instead I ended up zooming down to the footer digging through the list of links where I thought it should be.

Actually thinking about this, I’ve often scanned pages looking for ‘vanilla’ links on sites, all along unaware of the large image screaming out exactly what I wanted. Maybe for every large painfully-obvious image link there should be a vanilla link that uses plain english (e.g. ‘international call rates’, not ‘Learn about cheap calls’ or ‘SkypeOut’).

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