E-Business Case Study

We were asked to develop a simple case study of one of our existing customers for a potential customer. The new customer was intersted in doing something similar, and needed something semi-technical to mull over. It is posted here simply as a reference.

The Business is a family owned business that provides skin care products and services to both individuals and other professionals. The Business started in Roseburg, OR, and now also has an office in Eugene, OR. To further expand the business, the decision was made to provide skin care advice and products online.
There were several important factors that had to be considered when starting the site. The site would need to be easy to navigate and uncluttered so that visitors could find what they were looking for. Most of the visitors would not be technology experts, so the decision was made to keep the site as simple as possible, and limit the “bell and whistle” aspects of the site to technologies supported by the default install of Netscape or Internet Explorer 4.0. Visitors would need to feel secure in doing business online, so security was also a focus.
Navigation of the site is simple. The site branches out from the Home Page into four basic sections: Company Information, Site Map/Search, Personal Products, and Professional Products. The section lead pages are all a single click from the Home Page. In addition, the most popular sub-pages of those sections are also listed on the Home Page. Each section lead page provides links to every sub page in its section, with the exception of brands that have multiple sub-pages for their products. Those brands have their own sub-pages. Worst case scenario for a customer to find a sub-page should be a three clicks: First the section link, then the product’s main page, then the product’s sub-page. A high level view of the site is available in Table 1.1, below.

The site is composed entirely of straight html web pages. There are no java scripting, streaming video, or other elaborate components. And yet the site looks very professional and modern. By minimizing the “bells and whistles” on the site, visitor’s time is not wasted being prompted by confusing plug-ins or waiting for large components to download.
While no system is perfectly secure, visitors need to feel like appropriate steps have been taken before they are comfortable supplying their credit card information online. The order entry portion of the site uses a secure https connection, and all confidential business is conducted using this technology.
By ensuring that the site is easy to navigate, simple to use, and secure, the Business has created a web site that reaches the broadest audience possible and provides them with a visit that is as efficient as it is safe.

June 2000, Brian Culp