Shift Media publishes white paper Website Usability for Educational Publishers
LONDON, 25 MARCH 2008.
Educational publishers may be losing sales as their websites are often
frustrating for customers to use and many also need work to meet current
legistlation on accessibility, according to education and learning consultants
Shift Media.
In the new white paper Website Usability for Educational Publishers, Shift
Media looked at the marketing sites of seven leading educational publishers.
"Although all of the sites we examined showed very positive points,
they were all let down by certain areas where users would struggle,"
says Shift Media usability expert Cheryl Luzet. "For example, the
add to basket button is pretty ubiquitous on e-commerce sites, but many
of the websites we looked at didn't even have this functionality. Consistent
navigation was also a big problem on many sites."
"Through sites like Amazon, customers are used to interacting with
very usable sites to purchase and get information about books," says
Luzet, "Publishers are going to have to raise their game if they
hope to increase their direct sales."
About Shift Media
Shift Media is a consultancy that specializes in education and learning.
It was founded in 2001. It conducts market research and analysis, develops
business strategy and creates multimedia materials for publishing companies,
educational organizations, corporate universities and the public sector.
Its recent clients include Blackwell Publishing, the BBC, McGraw-Hill
Education, Granada Learning and Sage Publications.
About Website Usability for Educational Publishers
Shift Media examined the websites of 7 educational publishers, judging
them against 24 principles of usability. Request
your free copy of the full report here.