I’ve had a lot of conversations lately about creating very welcoming entrances to websites and services. Mostly, people want to gently welcome users to a website and point them down a few key paths towards important information and resources. Some clients know their users well enough to float key tasks to the top levels of a website. Creating “guided experiences” based on that knowledge can give users a jump start to finding what they need- fast! I’ve been collecting samples of sites that do that well.
Tufts Medical Center
How can we help you today? — A task driven power menu leads users towards common concerns and goals. ( designed by Primacy. Learn more about this project)
Acapo
View sorted by user intent:
Cube Bikes
Product search driven by user type and lifestyle:
Audi
Big search with popular directions towards task or content:
True Car
A simple discovery process that leaves you feeling better than search:
Brooks Shoes
A full screen “finder” experience from Brooks shoes (I’d cut out the complicated “motion test” but other than that…) It also has a nice sticky footer that leaves you with a statement about who you are and what you need:
WebMD Symptom Checker
WebMD has a symptom checker that is an interesting wizard- there’s a neat hover over capability that let’s a user “point to where it hurts”.
Design could be slicker, but the functionality is right on and takes you to what you were looking for.
http://symptoms.webmd.com/#introView
