What do you look for on a product page?

Tue 31 May 2005, 10:03 AM

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by Ben Langhinrichs
I have been looking around some to see how other websites show product pages, and I was wondering what you look for on a product page.  I mean this less in terms of content (yup, you probably want to see features, price and who is using it), and more in terms of presentation of content.  Is your first instinct to look at screen prints or run a canned demo or look at lists of features?  How much should be up front and center on the first page, and how much should be accessible but not cluttering up the first page.

A couple of examples I like so far are:

AnyPlace Administrator for Team WorkPlace - Nice, clean layout with business justification on the left a screenprint on the right, a ten minutes canned demo as a link, and a short list of features, system requirements and pricing below.  Better if testimonials were available.

ProcessIt! page on Teamwork Solutions site - Nice visual diagram showing business process, link to canned demo.  Better if it were possible to link to it directly, but it is framed.

A couple of examples that don't look so great:

Oracle JDeveloper 10g - Manages to be cluttered without actually revealing anything.  This is where I've been, and I want to move away from it.

Java 3D API - How can you have a 3D API and not even show something in 3D.  It begs for visual appeal, but aside from eye candy, there is not even any meat and potatoes.

So, those are my reactions, but what about you?  What do you look for?  Point me to an example if that is easier, but 

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