Un-concreting the Cow Path

7 Jul 2006 10:14 AM

Comments 59

It is hard for me to believe that it has been 10 years for www.dell.com.

Back in those days, everything about the website was streamlined—the information architecture, our vision and maniac focus on the user experience. The site was an extension of how we naturally interacted with our customers … directly. We tested the laws of e-commerce in those days by challenging conventional wisdom that complex configurable products could never be sold and supported online. We innovated, we broke glass within Dell, we made a science out of the purchase path.

The unfortunate truth is that we ended up concreting the cow path. We measured everything. We began designing and orienting the site around those measurements. Over the last couple of years, we watched as our site became larger, more complex, harder to use, and downright fatiguing. We ended up making easy very hard.

It was time to go a bit back to the future. We needed to get back some of the old risk and innovation (break some more glass) and focus on the user experience, organize the site the way customers want to use it versus the way Dell is organized, and provide comprehensive and inspiring information about our products. Our goal was to do this in a consistent and uncluttered format and — most importantly — make easy easy again.

If you have been spending any time on dell.com recently, you may have noticed some of these changes. Our journey is to continue to blend the science with the art with a focus on our users.

We are focused on making things easy again. Love to hear what you think.

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Andy Brudtkuhol

10 Jul 2006 10:50 PM

You should make a better attempt to involve your customers in this converstation. The first thing you can do is advertise your blog. It's not shown on dell.com or any of the other communication avenues you have with your customers.

The second thing you can do is ask us questions about what we want. This seems to be a failed attempt to get back in touch with the customers you have lost. Simply creating the image of a transparent edge will not solve your problems. Solving real customer issues will. It can start here.

My first request is a better support knowledge base. It's impossible to find drivers let alone answers to difficult systems issues.
Steve

10 Jul 2006 10:57 PM

This is great. But where's Michael Dell? I don't see the point in blogging if the big guy isn't posting.
Andrew Lark

11 Jul 2006 12:37 AM

About time. Dell.com need a serious makeover. I don't like looking for systems based on the size of my business. That worked fine ten years ago when computing power was somewhat defined by enterprise scale and IT strategy. Make it easy for me to define systems by my work profile and give me more guidance on what technologies could benefit me more than others. If I'm building it, I'm then likely to buy more.

Great to see you launch the blog.
Weymaster

11 Jul 2006 1:27 AM

It is great that you are putting more effort in making your website easier for everyone.

I think the major challenge for companies like Dell is the technical support. I'd like to be able to talk to people who actually know what they are talking about, not just reading it from a website as I could be doing that myself. I'd be willing to pay more for a consumer line product if it meant that I would be getting better support.
Jeroen Ritmeijer

11 Jul 2006 3:57 AM

I couldn't agree more with Andrew. I cannot stand having to select the size of my business and then the line of laptops I am interested in. Just show me laptops and let me optionally search for the processor type, screen etc.
You have lost a number of sales to me because I could not be bothered browsing around for hours.
Nevertheless, I think this blog is a great idea.
Dave Goodman

11 Jul 2006 4:59 AM

In contrast to some of the snark going round the blogosphere right now, I think this could be a really good thing for you, if you do it properly (i.e. both the redesign of dell.com and this blog). First thing's first, put your link to the blog About page at the TOP of the page - you're about five seconds from a click-away if a new reader can't figure out what the point of the blog is.

Second, more opinion pieces - get your people to actually talk about what's going on in the marketplace generally, what they see as the up and coming technologies (not just Dell ones) and what Dell's doing about it. Trust them to represent your company well and give them the freedom to talk with the passion that got them into technology in the first place. Sure, we want to hear about new products and services you have, but don't make that the focus or this thing will become an advertising reel. Oh, and be open and honest about your failures and reply to your critics (a great example of this can be seen in the LAPD's response to the LA Times savaging of it's new blog <a href="http://lapdblog.typepad.com/lapd_blog/2006/05/lapd_response_t_1.html">here</a>.

Good luck in the blogosphere Dell, you're off to a reasonable start.

Oh yeah, full-text RSS feeds, minimum twice-daily updates and a dedicated blogger who provides the core content wouldn't hurt either.
Renai LeMay

11 Jul 2006 5:00 AM

Welcome to the blogosphere :)

Renai LeMay
News Journalist
ZDNet Australia
Jaap

11 Jul 2006 8:08 AM

A link to some other website would be nice, too. Face the blogging critics. Link to the articles that mention this blog, and answer them. It's a networked, distributed conversation you should aim for, not just a vertical one with individual blog visitors.

The absence of links, and the apparent lack of blogosphere consiounceness raises the suspicion that the author, Manish Mehta, isn't publishing himself (herself?), but instead writes little articles in Microsoft Word and sends them to a web-savvy assistant. If that's true: stop it, and do it yourself. If you don't, it makes the website feel fake and empty, without a real person behind it.
Brett Rogers

11 Jul 2006 9:33 AM

My two cents: y'all got beat up pretty bad with greatly varying user experiences. You're not the only computer company with that problem, but perhaps the most notorious for it. I'd recommend that Dell apply a swat team to get out into the field and listen to its customer base and potential customer base about all problems across all computers and then apply the solutions and tell us how you solved the problems here on your blog. Give us the story of sweat and innovation behind the answer. Show us that you're listening and changing.
David Brain

11 Jul 2006 9:46 AM

I wondered if you could comment on the exploding lap top pictures I saw a few weeks ago. I have a Dell Inspiron at home that gets pretty hot and I take it on planes. It's agood machine in all other respects I hasten to add.
ThatGuy

11 Jul 2006 10:40 AM

To Steve's point. What was the point of Scoble blogging if it wasn't the big guy? Sounds like a confused point to me. Like what I see and glad to know Dell has decided to open up and become more transparent. Guess the folks in Round Rock can see the world past all that construction outside their campus.
Alex

11 Jul 2006 10:58 AM

I still don't care for your website because you make people log in just to download drivers. Additionally the site is far from logical as before you can even select a product you need to select home, small business, etc. Why don't you just show me the different products and I'll decide if I want to use it at my office or my house.
Matt Stuehler

11 Jul 2006 11:07 AM

Here's a question - Dell.com - like all the other major PC companies, has these links on it's homepage - "Solutions for Home & Home office, Small business, Medium business, Large business, etc.."

Does this make sense?

Why is this relevant to customers. If I want a great PC at a great price, why does it matter whether I'm using it for my house, my small business, or my large business?

I always wonder, "Hmmmm, are they giving price breaks to big businesses (or home users)? Do they feature the cutting edge PCs only for big business?" I wonder if I can get a better deal in one of the other "solutions" sections.

These links have been deprecated on Dell.com in favor of more generic categories - "Notebooks, Desktops, Servers, etc..." - which I think is a good thing. But I wonder if their continued existence is merely a reflection of the way Dell is internally organized.
Evan Erwin

11 Jul 2006 11:25 AM

WOW! I know Jeff Jarvis gives you guys a hard time but I think this is a great start.

To combat the poster above, I decided to see if I could find the drivers for the Dell I'm using right now. It took me about 10 seconds. I like the new homepage interface.

The only problem I encountered was, after I chose my system (Precision 470), I had to click "Find Downloads" - Why? Why not just list the components as you normally would see them AFTER clicking Find Downloads?

There is some good information in this blog and you continue to ask opinions of your readers. I say keep on keeping on.

I would, however, advertise this just a -bit- more. Don't be scared of promoting a new blog--it will only encourage you to keep writing :)
JT Darrin

11 Jul 2006 11:30 AM

What the heck is this drivel? This has to be the worst attempt at a corporate blog I've seen in a while, it provides no information, no value and is in no way entertaining or compelling. No comments from M. Dell, no comments on things that are going on etc.

Worthless....

Un-concreting the Cow Path

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