It’s the lil’ things that make a difference
Posted by Keith Tan in Creative on September 23rd, 2008
While doing some research for a client project, I recently visited the National Geographic website. I had come across it some time back when I read some news about it being revamped, but never had the opportunity to really take a look at it.
Nat Geo is probably one of the world’s largest creators and publishers of nature-related content. Covering a spectrum of topics from prehistoric creatures to the construction of modern wonders of the world, and having its own channels and magazines, they must have accumulated a wealth of information throughout these years. Coupled that with having to deal with a wide range of visitor profiles (preschoolers, educators, researchers, coach potatoes, just to name a few), revamping the website must have been one helluva mammoth task. And just to add to that, Nat Geo is one of my favourite cable channels too 
Well. I just thought I’d share 3 nice features that I like about the site.
Design Consistency
Despite having probably 1000s of webpages and multiple subject matter microsites, they have managed to achieve consistency of webpage layout and design throughout all of them. From the main homepage to the Green Guide microsite, you develop a sense of comfort as you journey through the pages. Gradually, you build familiarity with the website and navigation becomes a breeze. The web designers have also allowed the “personality†of each section to permeate subtlety. Notice the background design that appears before it loads. Very nice touch indeed!
The National Geographic website homepage
The Green Guide website homepage
Personalized background design for each microsite or section
Neat little navigation/search tools
In the “Animals†section, there is a nifty search tool on the right of the page. It allows visitors to find animals in an alphabetical order, or by providing keywords in the search bar. Like all good search tools these days, it displays matching results as you type in your keywords. Move your mouse over each name and a little thumbnail of the animal appears. Now, that is what I call a great use of real estate that promotes great surfing efficiency!
Nifty search tool tucked in the top corner
Search list of animals alphabetically
Search by keyword. Thumbnail of animal appears upon mouseover!
Sample views for E-newsletters
Despite the popularity of content syndication tools such as RSS and widgets, e-newsletters are still pretty much part of any organization’s e-marketing arsenal. As a website, you want your visitors to subscribe to your newsletters. Not only does it provide a means of site updated, its can also be a source of revenue by sticking  banner ads in them. However, we’ve all gone through the process of signing up for enewsletters that we found had little value later on. Some of us take the time to unsubscribe, while others (like me) choose to delete on first sight or block them subsequently. In other words, people are getting jaded from such subscriptions.
Nat Geo has added a small, but smart touch to its signup forms. It provides users to view a sample of their past e-newsletters. This way, users get to see upfront what they will be receiving in their mailboxes, and can make an informed decision on whether they wanna subscribe to it. It would be interesting to find out the impact of introducing such links, such as how it affects the subscription, open and clickthrough rates. (As I write this article, I noticed that Cnet.com has also implemented something similar however Discovery Channel has not.)
View sample of the enewsletter before subscribing
