Mint Digital

The Click #004

The last Click argued that a website has to communicate a firm’s personality in order to sell. I’m not sure many of you agreed. Everyone who replied said - roughly - that personality might work for quirky products, but it won’t work for normal businesses.

But a personality doesn’t have to be zany.

I imagine you want your dentist to be precise, your accountant to be meticulous, your train driver to be one-track-minded and your programmer to be geeky.

Websites should show these sort of personalities. To demonstrate this variety, I decided to find 50 decent ‘About Us’ pages.

Why ‘About Us’ pages? They are hard to do right. It’s where the temptation to blather away in meaningless platitudes is strongest. Also, it’s where people turn when they get lost.

50 ‘About Us’ pages is too much for one man. Here’s my first six. I’d welcome suggestions of others, drop me an email at andy@the-click.co.uk.

50 GOOD ABOUT PAGES (PART 1)
1. ThoughtWorks
http://www.fromthebottomup.co.uk/about.html
A story works better than a dozen adjectives. This page has great narrative.
(This is the best example I could find from a solidly blue-chip firm. I’d love more, otherwise my argument looks flimsy. Please email . )

2. Ryanair
http://www.ryanair.com/about/abouthome.html
This page demonstrates Ryanair’s fanatical devotion to low cost fares. On the other hand, their site is so ’special’ that you can’t link to the ‘About’ page without breaking the navigation.

3. Howies
http://www.howies.co.uk/about.php
It’s a big ‘About’ section, but every page works. David Carruthers at Oyster suggested this fabulous site. I’d never heard of them before. Now I want their t-shirt. Check out this story about their battle with Levis.

4. BusinessBricks
http://www.businessbricks.co.uk/aboutus.shtml
OK, we designed the site but we didn’t write this page. Clear, lively and enthusiastic.

5. FogCreek
http://www.fogcreek.com/About.html
Joel Spolsky is an inspiration for this newsletter. His firm’s about page conveys vision, intelligence and expertise.

6. Skype
http://www.skype.com/company/
Being believed is an essential problem when writing a website. Testimonials get round this problem, especially when written by recognised experts. Even better if that expert would be expected to rubbish you.

So, what do you are these effective sites? Or do they suck? Post your comments below…