“About Us”: GlaxoSmithKline Gets an A Minus

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has grown from a pharmacy established in London in 1715 to the world’s third largest pharmaceutical company. It produces an array of vaccines and treatments for asthma, cancer, viral infections, AIDS/HIV, and diabetes, as well over-the-counter medicines and other healthcare products. GSK’s main About Us page is here.

OVERALL GRADE: A minus

Confused visitors quickly become exasperated visitors, and then non-visitors. Why are some of the links in the menu at the upper left of the About Us page repeated in the About Us menu directly below the first menu, and repeated yet again under Quick Links at the lower right? At the very least, one of these menus should be made more prominent, so we’re pushed in a particular direction.

We are also put off by the fact that the American site of GSK does not have its own About Us page; instead, the viewer is switched to the U.K. site. The U.S. site would benefit from having a U.S.-oriented history page.

Personality: A minus

The history on the GSK site is extensive, well illustrated, and easy to access: there’s a link to it on the main About Us page. It gives a summary of events, with the option to click on each event for details. The expanded view stays open until we close it. We greatly appreciate the fact that GSK offers us the option of a non-flash version. All these are excellent features that we wish we saw more often.

The main About Us page has links to Presentations by the company’s leaders over the last few years--a great way to put a face on the company.

Accessibility: A

The Contact Us page is extensive and well-organized, making it easy to find the appropriate contact for media, investors, job-seekers, and so on. Our only quibble is that the Contact Us link appears at the end of the menu at the upper left. Most sites have it at the upper right and/or in the footer, so it took us a couple seconds longer than usual to spot it.

Products/Services: B

The About Us statement on the main About Us page is: “to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.” This could apply equally well to any of GSK’s competitors, or to the company whose name follows it in the phone book. Such a statement is useless as what Rosser Reeves called a “Unique Selling Proposition.”

In GSK’s case, the fix is simple. Incorporate on the main About Us page a few facts from the Company page, which offers an excellent summary of the company’s global presence, its research on the World Health Organization’s top-priority diseases, and its production of vaccines and of medicines for life-threatening illnesses.

We applaud the Awards page, which lists awards in four different categories and states what each was given for. We’d like to see links to media coverage of these awards, so visitors to the site would be directed toward the most positive things the media has to say about GSK.

TAKEAWAY

Even an organization with global reach and a wide array of products should summarize itself on the main About Us page. GSK has an exceedingly good range of materials linked to the About Us page: it’s only the main page that needs tweaking.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

10 Commandments of About Us Pages (continued)

Commandment 6: Honor thy visuals. A solid block of 9-point Verdana tempts visitors to click and move on. Break the text into paragraphs or themes or timelines. Use subheads. Add photos, both current and archival, and generously lace them with captions.

Sixth in a series; for the series so far, click here. Commandment 7 will be posted in early May.

“About Us” Evaluation: Poetry Foundation Gets an A

The Poetry Foundation is an independent literary organization devoted to achieving a more prominent role for poetry in our culture. Its roots go back to Poetry magazine, founded in 1912, and to the Modern Poetry Association, founded in 1941, but its present incarnation is thanks to a lavish bequest from philanthropist Ruth Lilly.

OVERALL GRADE: A

This is a wonderful “About Us” page: it’s elegantly simple but packed with info. Shades of green and orange are used to set off main topics and subdivisions. We don’t even need to read headings to sort out the topics and their priority: the colors and sequence do it all. Edward Tufte would approve.

Products/Services: B plus

The left-hand column presents the history of the Foundation and its goals. We love the fact that a great deal of information is condensed into a small space, with an appropriate subheading and pictures of the two most important figures in the organization.

The order could be a bit more logical, though. After a brief statement of the Foundation’s nature (the first paragraph), why not tell us about Harriet Monroe and Poetry magazine near the top (where Monroe’s picture appears), then Ruth Lilly’s bequest, then the organization’s current endeavors?

One oddity: the organization’s tax-exempt status is mentioned twice, in the context of making donations, but there is no pep talk about why anyone might want to donate. Indeed, the first mention of donations is immediately followed by the information that Lilly’s bequest guarantees that Poetry magazine will exist in perpetuity--and so, presumably, has no need of further donations.

Personality: A

Just right of the introduction to the Poetry Foundation is a series of letters from the president of the Foundation (accompanied by a photo) that gives us a sense of who runs the organization and what his priorities are. Again, it’s simple but effective.

Accessibility: A plus

Without leaving this page, we can navigate to a list of the staff and board members (column 2), become a fan on Facebook or Twitter or (column 3), subscribe to a newsletter (column 3), and subscribe to RSS feeds or send an email to the Foundation (footer). We particularly like the fact that near the top of column 3 are up-to-the-minute ways for the tech-savvy to get more poetry into their lives: for example, a free iPhone app for poetry.

TAKEAWAY

This is one of the best single-page About Us pages we’ve seen. It’s dense, but hierarchically organized (as much by colors, graphics, and placement as by words), resulting in a page that’s informative, attractive, and easy to navigate.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

10 Commandments of About Us Pages (continued)

Commandment 5: Honor thy readers and their attention spans. Hurried visitors will be more likely to finish your page if you ruthlessly cut anything that’s not crucial for that enticing overview. Can’t bear to part with a paragraph that’s unnecessary for the Big Picture? Move it to another page and add a link. At the same time, give good material its due. Some topics need explication, and some audiences (especially literary folks) enjoy longer copy.

Fifth in a series; for the series so far, click here. Commandment 6 will be posted in mid April.