eCommerce and web sites have been evaluated as begin far better at supporting their owners' brand positioning than they are at providing basic usefulness and usability for target customers.

Web Sites must temper Creativity with Usability

eCommerce and web sites have been evaluated as begin far better at supporting their owners' brand positioning than they are at providing basic usefulness and usability for target customers.

While pass rates for Brand Image criteria range from a high of 85% to a low of 55%, pass rates for user experience criteria go as low as 14% — with basic text legibility test coming in at just 23%.

To make sites as usable as they are pretty, companies need to benchmark site support for critical user goals, keep both user personas and "brand personas" front and center with the design team, and break ties between image-oriented design and functional design in favour of what real users need — not what marketing wants.