Neil Hopcroft

A digital misfit

Someone pointed out this site – I’m assuming, given the context of the link, that they are a legal company. However, I can’t see from their website what they do. I guess the problem here is relying too much on brand awareness and not enough on clear statements of who you are or what you do.


Categories: Memories.

/ 7 Comments

7 comments

    • neilh

      And I’ve just failed their brand awareness test (being somewhat a stranger to litigation).

      Theres no mention of what they do on their site, until you have navigated to the place you want. Theres really no excuse for missing such a simple piece of information.

      Reply
      • miss_soap

        No mention of what they do? There’s a list on the front page. Including things like ‘Litigation’ and ‘In-house counsel’ which, IMHO, make is glaringly obvious what they do.

        I’m sure there are plenty of sites which fail to state in simpler terms the function of the corporate entity that they represent. Microsoft.com doesn’t actually say, anywhere on its front page, what the Microsoft corporation actually *does*. It relies on branding, as much as Eversheds does.

        Reply
        • neilh

          That list is only useful if you already know what they do – I even went to the complete list which reads more like a list of stock market sectors.

          My point is one of web design – don’t get me wrong, I’m in no position to comment on anything of a legal nature (except to say that they’re all scum) and I’m certainly not criticizing the idea of using them (it would be foolish to choose lawyers based on the ease of use of their website) – Microsoft is *nearly* as bad, though it is clear from their page that they make things and, while those things have stupid names (windows, office) you can immediately find out more, and although it is a bit hidden, there is an ‘about microsoft’ link which gives you a potted history and their vision of the future. I spent five minutes moving around the everdead site before I posted my comment, I tried to find information, admittedly my use of language is more colloquial than corporate but it should be clear to me after that kind of time that I know exactly what they do.

          They are certainly not alone in poor website design – my sites are, after all, hardly a vision of beauty – my aim is to make the world a simpler place to live in by pointing out bad stuff and getting people to understand it could be made better. This site could be improved by the simple addition of an ‘About Eversheds’ tab in the menu at the top and two paragraphs on that page explaining “we’re a growing company of 400 fearless litigators with a history stretching back to vlad the impalor” or whatever.

          Reply
  2. ewx

    “Find out why we’re Law Firm of the Year 2004.” was a bit of a hint. (Perhaps it didn’t say that when you looked…)

    I haven’t found out why they’re law firm of the year tho l-)

    Reply
    • neilh

      Theres a bunch of pictures but I obviously filter those efficiently enough to ignore their content….most sites have a ‘what we do’ section, if they don’t make it obvious from their home page.

      Reply

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