With A ‘K’

I’ve been asked by one of my former co-workers at Verizon to repost to this new blog my thoughts on the new design for SuperPages.com (which I had posted on a previous blog). So, here it is:

Although I no longer work at SuperPages, I still have a very good relationship with many of the people still there (the Directories group is now called Idearc Media) and am rooting for their continued success.  The new site design, however, was a big step backward for a number of reasons:

1) Lack of Brand Connection.  Verizon, and now Idearc, has spent and continues to spend millions of dollars every year on the “We know around here” brand and design.  To launch a site completely void of any of the look, feel, or verbiage elements that campaign creates a large disconnect between the dollars spent on the brand and dollars spent on the site, making each spend less effective.

2) No Differentiation.  SuperPages.com has a number of very powerful tools that make their site experience superior to other yellow pages sites out there.  The “search on a map” functionality, for example, is extremely powerful and has been reworked recently to make it easier to use.  The new site design buries many of the elements that makes SuperPages.com different in the market and highlights the core functionality that is identical to everyone else.  I challenge users to find the map search from the home page.

3) Wasted Space.  SuperPages.com is a business and the home page is the primary access point for users to be funneled to revenue-generating areas of the site.  To devote as much space as they do to the local wi-fi list (most of which seem to be pay locations I’d never go to vs. free locations) and to the giant blue bar are the most notable parts of the page, while the core functionality (the search) is forced to a much smaller area to the far left of the page. 

From a design perspective (which is more personal preference than objective observation),  the site feels more like a typosquatter site (the site that comes up when you mis-type a url and is filled with either pop-ups or pay-for-click ads) than a site for a nationally-recognized brand.

I’m hoping the new design doesn’t limit the continued growth of SuperPages.com, but can’t help but think they could have done a lot more to advance the brand and user experience in their new design.