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| CD Baby vs. CDnow - webdesign study |
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| posted by Derek Sivers on Thursday January 04 2001 @ 02:12AM PST |
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Laurel Greenidge
English 481
Final Analysis
December 7, 2000
CDNow.com vs. CDBaby.com: A Stylistic Comparison
Sometimes bigger isn't better. As a music lover and admitted CD junkie, I pay a lot of attention to where my money goes. Initially, when buying CDs online I went to CDNow.com first because I had heard of the site through their extensive advertising campaigns. I didn't see much of a problem with it, until I visited CD Baby to buy an album that was available only through their Web site. I discovered that CDNow.com does a lot of business, but stylistically, the more focused, customer-oriented, independent CD Baby.com makes customers feel more at home. Through a comparison of layout, target audience, word usage, personalization, graphics, and multimedia techniques, a smart viewer can distinguish which online record store has a better approach to their Web site.
CDNow tries to cram too much on to their home page. I counted 100+ links from their home page to other places, both inside and out of their Web site, not including their menu/navigation bar that sits at the top of all their pages. CDNow would fall under Lynch and Horton's classification of a "menu home page," as it offers a list of links to places within the Web site. The designers attempted to follow a tip from the Web Style Guide: "Menu-style pages need not be dominated by plain lists of text-based HTML links..." (37). CDNow's site designers don't just use a long list of HTML links; lots of graphics are used as well. However, a mistake comes in the fact that the designers did too much. On their home page, along with the 100+ links CDNow had fifteen graphics. "Although strong graphics can be effective at grabbing a browser's attention, large graphic menus impose long loading time for pages, especially for users linking to the Internet via modems or slow network connections" (42). The problem with CDNow's home page is that the designers are trying to attract too many people and use too many graphics for their sale announcements and special offers. As a result viewers with slower connections can get frustrated. While comparing the two sites, I was often annoyed at how slowly most pages on CDNow loaded in contrast to CD Baby's site. Instead of using long lists of links followed by lots of graphics to enhance their links, an imagemap could have been used to save space, to pack "the maximal number of links into every square inch of the page" (37). Because so much is placed on the home page, less than a third of the information and menus fits in the area immediately visible to the viewer. Most people will simply search for whatever they are looking for using the search feature instead of scrolling down for more than a foot to see what else is offered because there is just too much to comprehend. As the Web Style Guide reminds us, "Large Web sites offer so much information to so many audiences that it can be impossible to represent the depth and breadth of the site content in a single home page" (39). CDNow's designers would be able to reach the attentions of each of their targeted buyers by first offering a menu of musical genres, then offering articles, links, or specials from each genre in that genre's own home page. This way, people interested in classical music wouldn't have to wait for the picture of Christina Aguilera to load before they can find the link they want to go to. It took four seconds for CD Baby's home page to load on my computer at home, while it took 28 seconds for CDNow's home page to load.
CD Baby's home page is more focused than the CDNow page. There are eleven links, three of which represent the different types of CDs available on the site. CD Baby utilizes the area "above the fold" (36), or the top thirty square inches of the page as defined by the Web Style Guide. You immediately have a small version of their menu at the top navigation bar, followed by a large clear logo that tells you exactly where you are, a listed navigation menu, and three examples of the types of albums sold at the site. You only have to scroll a quarter of an inch to see the rest of the page. The links divide the site up into chunks that allow the user to pick what they are interested in and leave everything else behind. There are no lengthy articles that would only interest a small group of people or graphics that take so long to load that a reader may become uninterested in the site because of the time they have to wait. Again, this aspect of the site is in keeping with the Web Style Guide's goals. "The goals for most Web sites are to transmit internal information and to communicate with potential clients and the general Web-browsing public..." (42). Because there is a good balance of graphics and text, the CD Baby home page loads quickly for most browser types and user connections, and its simplicity allows a user to quickly figure out where they should go to find what he or she is looking for.
The consistency of CD Baby's design is another element that sets it above CDNow. CD Baby keeps the same layout for every CD page. All CD pages have a picture of the album cover, at least two songs to listen to, a description of the album, the artist's Web site and/or email address, genre of music, and links to similar artists. This technique is suggested by Horton and Lynch: "Repetition is not boring; it gives your site a consistent graphic identity that creates then reinforces a distinct sense of 'place' and makes your site distinct and memorable" (56). The layout of every CD page is easy to understand, once you've seen and understood one, you can understand them all. The user knows exactly where to look if they want to find reviews of the CD by someone who already has it or where to hear a clip of a song. Some of CDNow's CD pages have album covers, some have songs to listen to, some only have prices. More popular albums have all the information you would need-track listings, production notes, pictures of the album, song clips, and other information about the band. But if the most popular CD isn't what you're looking for, there's nothing you can do to find out more about your selection (except go to a different Web site). On CD Baby, the page for Bill Bonk's CD Spaghetti Western contains all the elements that every other CD page on CD Baby has. On CDNow, however, the page for the same CD contains just the price and a few production notes (including the wrong release date, it says it was released in 2000 while the CD was actually released in 1996). Again, the Web Style Guide supports CD Baby's designers: "A consistent approach to layout and navigation allows readers to adapt quickly to your design and predict with confidence the location of information...across the pages of your site" (56). Because CDNow lacks consistency throughout the site a user will not know if searching for the artist they wish to know about will produce the results they are looking for. A main part of the problem is that CDNow has taken on too much. To offer as many CDs as they do, as well as offer all kinds of articles about artists and each of their albums, it is virtually impossible to keep a Web site up to the standards that it should be held to. There are also many broken links on CDNow. While searching for a CD that both CD Baby and CDNow carried, I thought I had found at least three I could compare, but all three turned out to have a bad link somewhere along the line. Some took me back to home page; others just took me to the wrong CD. If I was the average consumer seriously looking to buy a CD at that time, I would have left and gone to another site.
A good layout allows viewers to navigate easily throughout a Web site. The authors of the Web Style Guide state that "A 'signature' graphic...allows the reader to grasp immediately the purpose of the document and its relation to other pages. Graphics used within headers can...signal the relatedness of a series of Web pages" (66). CDNow has a large header that consists of an advertisement and a bar with sixteen links, to places such as "custom music" or "gossip." Because the advertisement is different with each page the viewer goes to, it can take up to fifteen seconds to load a page that has no other pictures. CD Baby has a header at top of each page that remains the same throughout site with links to the home, contact, search, browse, and help pages as well as links to your account and cart. There are no advertisements to slow things down. CD Baby uses lots of colors, all contrasting; different sections of pages are blocked in different colors (style of music, track listing, notes and reviews). The boldness of the colors visually sets apart the different sections of each page-the top of the home page is for links, the bottom is for examples of the CDs they carry. Different sections of CD pages are divided in columns, using different colors to separate the columns. Red, on the left, is for the track listing and album cover. Blue, in the center, is for notes and reviews of the record. Orange, on the right, is for the style of the CD, links to artist Web sites, and other CDs you might like. The authors of the Web Style Guide suggest visually setting apart different sections of the page, saying that column use "provides flexible space for variations in page layout, and it narrows the text column to a comfortable line length" (69). The authors also suggest site designers "establish a consistent, logical screen layout...that allows you to 'plug in' text and graphics without having to...rethink your basic design approach on each new page" (63). Because CD Baby's designers used the same colors and approach to every CD page, they didn't have to worry about where to put things on each page and made the site very consistent and easy to use. CDNow's color scheme is very conservative: white background with blue writing throughout, with sections of pages separated by blue or gray bars. The colors don't visually set different sections of pages apart, or tell me where certain things are going to be.
Graphics are a great way to show off your site and attract customers, but there is a fine line between too much and too little. The home page for CD Baby features only one large graphic-the picture of a baby's head inside a CD. This simple graphic fills out the home page, breaks up a list of links, and reminds the user exactly where they are. CDNow uses a larger amount of small graphics on their home page. Their logo is hidden in the upper left-hand corner of the page, almost unnoticeable if you weren't looking for it. The other graphics are pictures of pop and rock musicians that are useless if the user's interests lie beyond pop or rock music. CDNow keeps the graphics to a minimum on the page you get after you search for an album. There are only the graphics from the outside frame and the advertisement; no CD covers are shown until you decide which album you want to look at (and sometimes not at all). The lack of graphics on what can be the second page a viewer sees makes this page seem almost barren in comparison to the home page. CD Baby puts a picture of every album cover when you do your search, which is a good idea in case a buyer only knows the CD they want by the cover art.
Horton and Lynch suggest incorporation of multimedia aspects into a successful web site, a style element used by both CDNow and CD Baby. At both web sites, plug-ins are required to hear clips of some songs. When clips are offered at CDNow (they only offer music clips for some CDs) they can be listened to with one of three plug-ins: Windows Media Player, RealPlayer G2 or RealPlayer8, or MPEG (a browser plug-in). Some songs are offered with all three plug-ins, but for at least half the CDs I've looked at, Windows Media Player is the only plug-in you can use to listen to clips. What's wrong with that, the site is supposed to be consistent, right? Well, if you happen to be an Apple/Macintosh user, and don't have Windows (like most Apple/Macintosh users), you can't listen to most of the songs. Even if these users try to download the Windows Media Player plug-in, they can't because their operating system isn't from Microsoft and will not support this plug-in. Another problem with the multimedia plug-ins on CDNow is that they only support the two most recent versions of RealPlayer, RealPlayers G2 and 8. If a user has an older version of RealPlayer and wants to listen to a song, they have to download software-which can take over an hour for users with slower connections. The Web Style Guide advises against this, saying "Most casual visitors will not stay if they have to download custom software; it's too easy to go elsewhere" (139). And it is easy to go elsewhere. Amazon.com offers the same clips of popular songs CDNow offers to listen to with an older version of RealPlayer. CD Baby also requires a basic RealPlayer plug-in to listen to any of the songs that are offered. What sets CD Baby apart from CDNow is that every single CD has at least two songs you can listen to, and each clip is at least two minutes long, while on CDNow the clips are about 30 seconds long and some CDs may not have any clips offered at all. Offering longer excerpts of songs allows the user to get a better idea of whether or not they want to buy the CD, and makes him/her more likely to come back and use the site again.
A well-defined target audience can help ensure that a Web site doesn't try to cover too much or too little. CDNow's target audience seems to be anyone who might buy music online, from early teen-agers to people in their mid-40s. The range of music covered on CDNow's site (from pop to classical) allows us to make this determination, as well as the fact that they offer music from both big-name record companies and some independent (indie) record companies. Again, because CDNow is trying to reach such a large group of people, it is almost impossible for them to reach this goal. The designers put pictures of the sexy teen pop stars and angst-ridden rock stars on the home page, which successfully reaches the teen to early twenties market, but can alienate the jazz or classical listeners. The site includes many different types of music, but if you're looking for an indie CD you may be alienated because the less popular CDs aren't represented as well as the most popular ones. CD Baby's target audience is late teens to early 30s-the main age group of people looking for a particular CD or artist that may be hard to find in their local record store. CD Baby reaches their target audience easily. They offer the hard to find CDs and make them very easy to find on the site. No particular user becomes annoyed because their genre isn't represented on the home page because the three CDs at the bottom, though they change from day to day, always represent different genres. One day, for example, there was a Native American tribal music CD, a Brazilian jazz CD, and an acoustic pop CD at the bottom of the page. Maybe one day the classical or rock genres won't be represented, but the user can definitely see that CD Baby appreciates different types of music and their listeners.
"[Take] a moment to add a friendly touch." Though directed at email users, this advice from The Elements of Email Style can be applied to Web sites that users visit repeatedly. CD Baby is much more personalized than CDNow. Every time you log in to CD Baby (after creating a user name and password), you are greeted with a different welcome. For example, today I was greeted with, "Hey, Laurel, How you doin'?" the second I logged on. While there is obviously no one sitting at CD Baby telling people hi every time they log on, the fact that an effort is made to make users feel like they are valued completes this goal. The use of "doin'" versus "doing" goes one step further. "How you doin'" is slang, casual, and implies a sense of camaraderie, while the more formal "how are you doing" uses correct grammar and is more likely to be used in situations of unfamiliarity. You don't ask the slang "How you doin'?" to someone you've just met, as you would "How are you doing?" This isn't the only example of CD Baby's attempts to personalize their site. After you search for a CD, the designers have placed "Just for you..." at the top of the page before your search results. The inclusion of the word "you" into almost all of the pages on their site makes the viewer feel that the search in fact has been done just for him/her and that CD Baby doesn't think of its customers as assets, but actually cares about their needs.
CD Baby also does a good job of using their choice of words to reach the average American. Using the name "baby" in its title and centering the diction of the Web site in a child-like tone is very clever, especially in a society where family-values are an issue at every election and you can't watch a television show or movie without it being rated to protect children. Little things about the site could almost be targeted at a small child, though they are obviously designed to amuse an adult. First, the logo itself-a cute little baby head stuck in the middle of a CD-appeals to the current sentiment about babies; all babies are adorable and lovable, and by extension, so is this Web site. CD Baby even goes on to say you that they're "the cutest little CD site on the web." Telling you that each search has been done "just for you" or saying "oopsy baby" if you make a mistake flatters and charms buyers, giving them attention that is usually reserved for children. After you order your first CD, an email is sent to you telling you that your CD has been "inspected" and "polished" "by a team of 50 employees" (Laurel-Your CD Baby Order!). It goes on to talk about how the whole town of Portland (where CD Baby is based) marches in a parade down to the post office to celebrate its voyage and tells you that they put your picture up on their wall as "customer of the year" (Laurel-Your CD Baby Order!) They end the email with "We love music. We love you" (Laurel-Your CD Baby Order!) Each time you order a CD, a different email in the same style is sent. Giving this type of individual attention appeals to the buyer's ego, and makes him or her feel like their business does matter to CD Baby. (CD Baby also lets their customers know that their opinion matters-if you email them telling them what they can do better, they'll send you a free CD.)
How easy is it to buy a CD from either Web site? If you know how to use the Internet it isn't difficult to use either site. You have to go through four steps on each site to buy a CD, each site offers secure servers for your credit card, and there is usually only a fifty cent to one dollar price difference in CDs (when the same CD is offered), with neither site being consistently less expensive. CD Baby offers fax and phone service for customers who don't want to send their credit card information over the Internet, a service CDNow is too large to provide.
The immense size of CDNow makes it almost impossible to keep a consistent layout as well as keep all the people in their target audience happy. However, it seems that the factor of size that makes the site stylistically imperfect is what makes it more prosperous than a site like CD Baby. CD Baby is not out to be the biggest music Web site in the world; they are dedicated to serving one corner of the music world; they keep their goals in focus and exceed their customers' expectations. Customers leave with the sense that they have been taken care of, and that they will be every time they visit the Web site.
Works Cited
Angell, David and Heslop, Brent. The Elements of E-mail Style. New York, New York:
Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1994
CDBaby@CDBaby.com. "Laurel-Your CD Baby Order!". lgreen33@u.washington.edu;
November 1, 2000
Flanders, Vincent. CD Not. Online. 4 pages. Available at:
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/cdnow.html
Horton, Sarah and Lynch, Patrick J. Web Style Guide. New Haven: Yale University Press,
1999
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