Agentur für Usability und User Education
Dear Martin Varsavsky:
Yesterday I visited fon.com for about the fifth time and finally ordered my fon router.
I consider myself an innovator/early adopter who will quickly jump on anything he thinks is cool, easy to order and affordable (order varies). However, it took me three visits from reading about fon on Bruno Giussani’s blog to registering, and two more visits for finally ordering the router. Parallel to that, I forwarded the router link to a friend who needed (and still does) a wifi router for her home network. She never ordered it. When I asked her why, she said she didn’t understand what fon was really all about, and the fon website in general did not seem very “trustworthy” to her.
There’s a reason for that, and it’s the usability of your website. I believe now that you got the cash, the success of fon will depend heavily on fixing these issues.
So here’s some advice for you regarding your website(s). My company Zeix wouldn’t mind assisting with steps 7 and 8, of course, but I’d be happy as well if your website just got better, because I think that fon is a great idea and I would love to see it spread.
1
Get rid of that grungy look and feel. While it may look cool to some, it will drive away others. Your “fon” logo basically looks nice and clean and simple. Use it. While you’re in touch with the skype guys anyway, ask them for some corporate identity hints that don’t cost a fortune.
2
Make your whole website look a lot less busy. Decide what your no 1 priority is (from the current price drop I’d suppose it’s shipping routers) and tell people straight away in easy words and 1 - 2 - 3 how to get their own. The page “Become a fonero” is a good start, it’s the best page you have so far, but it still could be presented better by applying some basic “how to write for the web” rules.
However, I doubt that everybody will find this link on the confusing homepage. Also, don’t take people to the shop too soon, if they just want information about the router. This looks like hard selling.
3
Change the pricing policy. Yesterday’s price drop was nice, but still, if you charge $/€5 for the router and then €18 (to Germany, €22 to Switzerland; I didn’t check any other destinations) for shipping and handling, it looks like a rip-off during the shopping process, even if it may reflect the actual cost. Rather make the whole package €20 with shipping included. Be more outspoken on the website that this is a $60 value.
4
Be faster with the delivery. 3 weeks is by no means acceptable, if you want to build up momentum. Find partners in every country who ship your stuff overnight.
5
Get rid of those funny “Linus”, “Bill” and “Alien” user categories. An estimated 3/4 of the online population will have no clue what you’re talking about. Again, the very same thing that is funny for some nerds like Linus and Bill, may drive away many other people. Being called an “alien” could sound weird to many people anyway. Also, drop the “Milk you WiFi” cow stuff altogether. Don’t mix explaining and advertising. If somebody is driven to a website by advertiting, the website should just explain what to do.
6
Spend some money on decent translations. There are several mistakes on the homepage de.fon.com alone, like “DIE GROßTE” (correct: “DIE GRÖSSTE”). In “MWST und Franchtkosten nicht im preis inbegriffen” there are three mistakes (correct: “MwSt. und Frachtkosten nicht im Preis inbegriffen.”) (I’m not implying here that my English is flawless; this website usually is written in German.)
7
Conduct some qualitative market research, consisting of interviews and usability testing. Ask potential customers/members what they think about all of the above, as I may be wrong. Don’t do a study spread over 10 countries, but instead something worthwile in one country. If you feel you need more international input, fix what is most obvious first, then proceed another country for the next round. Do not interview nerds; instead go for people who use the Internet frequently (like eBay sellers or frequent Skype users), but who still consider themselves non-technical.
8
Build a better website by using means of user-centered development. A bullet-proof concept design will cost a lot less then what you spend on subsidizing modems. As you have all the technology for the process in place, it will really be only a facelift, so implementation shouldn’t be too hard.
Good luck!
Update on June 29:
Commenting on this post, Roger Fischer pointed me to Martin Varsavsky’s blog. In his post VPOD investment, Varsavsky articulates some thoughts that tell me that the FON design is no coincidence:
In America if you choose design and features that require some learning you are alienating 3/4 of the population, in Europe instead people are more appreciative of design and are more willing to learn about your site.
I strongly disagree about the “willingness to learn”.
Eintrag:
12 Kommentare zu “Free usability consulting for fon.com”
Sam | Dienstag, 27.06.2006 11:46 |
And sentences like “FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Join FON, share excess bandwidth at home and roam the world for free. FON, WiFi Everywhere!” can only be understood by geeks. “Normal” people don’t know geek words like “WiFi”. If you don’t understand “WiFi”, you don’t understand that whole text. Yes, and that grunge style is good for young people (teens).
Colin | Dienstag, 27.06.2006 19:00 |
If this was sent to them, I’d be extremely interested in how they respond/what steps they take…
Peter Hogenkamp | Dienstag, 27.06.2006 20:49 |
Thanks to both of you for your comments. Sam: You’re absolutely right. The way many explanations of technology are written, the only people who will understand them are those who already knew. Colin: I will not actively notify them, but I’d be very surprised if they (whoever that is) don’t already know. Yesterday I posted the predecessor story at neuerdings.com, and it took somebody who according to the reaction may be close to the company 6 hours to post a comment. If they react (i.e. contact me other than by commenting), I’ll let you know.
Roger | Dienstag, 27.06.2006 21:37 |
Looks like Martin is already working on it:) But then - who was the first target group of Fon? Probably it was young nerdy people. It would also be interesting to look other startup’s and how they changed over time. So take a snapshot of Fon One, as long as it is there;) Uups, they already changed from an orange background to white. Is this recent?
Peter Hogenkamp | Donnerstag, 29.06.2006 11:59 |
Roger, thanks for pointing me to Martin’s blog. Some passages in the “VPOD Investment” post are very enlightening. I’ve commented on it, and I will update my own post as soon as the comment is reviewed.
Peter Hogenkamp | Freitag, 30.06.2006 05:12 |
Founder of FON “The bills land on the WiFi Planet.” Right. Check Thesaurus.com for the 63 entries for bill. I rest my case.
olga | Samstag, 01.07.2006 10:06 |
- now: 65.000+ -Martin answered in his blog today, that he will never follow your suggestions. indeed it seems to me that you only want to attract yourself to fon for making money. this is obvious. fon will not change its marketing approach
Peter Hogenkamp | Sonntag, 02.07.2006 07:08 |
st way to make new business leads. I just made that comment in the post, so that people knew we’re in that usability consulting business and have some knowledge, but not because I was remotely expecting any of you FON people to give us a job overhauling your website. I wouldn’t turn it down, of course, but I never expected it. The post title “free usability consulting” is simply what it was. I believe in some of the same ideas as Martin (although I wouldn’t start with US politics to explain my business, but that’s fine too) , and I would like to see you succeed. So I listed some of the obstacles that I see from six years of usability consulting and user testing. If you think - or know - you’re smarter than that, fair enough. Good luck anyway. Peter
Spot | Mittwoch, 12.07.2006 08:55 |
For me the real problem is that you get no idea about the legal status of the company. Without any research you don’t get information about whether they want to make money or whether they are just a group of idealist people who share their connection. Additionally you haven’t got any meaningful Terms of Trade. I personally don’t like to make contracts that I do not fully understand or where the terms of the contract are “underdefined”.
Peter Hogenkamp | Mittwoch, 12.07.2006 11:45 |
Valid point, Spot. I think they act like idealists (calling themselves “revolutionaries”), but if they didn’t have a business plan that included making money, I doubt that the VCs would have invested.
mds | Sonntag, 23.07.2006 11:09 |
Meine Erfahrung mit Fon: Router online bestellt und per Paypal bezahlt, rund zwei Wochen später erfolgt die Zustellung per Kurier… im Wesentlichen wird ein Linux-Router von Linksys geliefert, die Informationen von Fon auf einem beigelegten “Fresszettel” sind marginal. Nun ja, Router ans Internet gehängt, WLAN-Verbindung damit hergestellt, Konfiguration eingerichtet, und es funktioniert… bloss nutzte bislang noch niemand den Fon-Router, schade! Das könnte auch daran liegen, dass die Benutzeroberfläche, die erscheint, wenn man sich mit dem Fon-Router zum ersten Mal verbindet, doch eher verwirrend ist… ebenso frage ich mich, wer WLAN noch ohne Verschlüsselung nutzen möchte…?
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