One of the great things about the Web is that it’s virtually timeless. A business can operate 24/7. Likewise, people can purchase products at any time of the day. But, it is common for Websites to only allow users to complete sign ups, purchases, etc in one sitting for fear of having to start over.

Now, Vectormagic, like Browsershots, understood that people are busy. Both sites offer an easy way to link back to the results of their request. No need to wait in front of the computer.

Those sites also understood that it’s not because a transaction is not completed that it never will. Perhaps your users underestimated the time it would to take to sign up, receive a service or purchase a product on your Website.

So what if they did?

Users can always leave. Maybe some will not return but, if you make it easy for them to stop and come back without losing what they were working on, they will remember the quality of your customer experience.

Netflix, the online video rental site, goes even further by turning pending sign ups or transactions into marketing opportunities through email reminders.

Sure, keeping additional sessions is more work on your back-end and there’s information you can’t (and shouldn’t) be keeping (eg. live inventory, credit card information, etc) but, if it leads to more engagement and additional business, maybe it’s an idea your company should consider.

Suggested Reading:

• [Design ideas] SAP, Bloglines, Gap checkout
• [Design ideas] Geni, Facebook, AOL

As voted by clicks using weighted ratios. Posts are listed in no particular order.

• Focus your design in 3 simple steps
• 11 tips on presenting ideas, concepts or designs
• 12 tips on improving work, life and the work-Life balance
• Making the best of design pattern libraries
• 9 inspiring Web uses in 2008
• The new Facebook reverse engineered
• [Design ideas] Geni, Facebook, AOL
• How to make atypical Navigations work
• 20 Best Websites of 2008
• 11 tips on creating great user experiences

Thanks for reading.

Good design: SAP customer service

SAP is one of the leading providers of business software (CRM, ERP, business intelligence, etc).

Wait up to to a minute

SAP understands the difficulty busy IT professionals may experience in finding the appropriate solution for their company. To help users make an informed decision, their product page displays all relevant contact options. Also, after roughly a minute of inactivity, a layer is displayed providing an easy way to chat with a customer service representative.

Very smart integration of customer service and click-to-call best practices to increase conversion rate. The layer can easily be closed by the user and will not reappear.

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Good design: Geni signup form

Geni is the 2.0 equivalent of a family tree. It allows users to create and share a tree with their family members.

Geni’s homepage does everything right. It engages users through a contextualized signup form, states the Website’s mission and summarizes the options, builds credibility and reduces concerns with privacy. Fun and efficient, the visual flow (visual order of importance of page elements) is perfect.

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Good design: ATP Tennis Live scores

(Upon selecting Live scores)

Clear, using big fonts and real-world tennis conventions, ATP Live scores provides all the information needed in one simple and clean interface.

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