Tweed Promotions Internet web page services

Introduction

 

Background the site is presently used by Mr Craig MacLean to support his daily futures stock market report which is directly sent each morning to subscribers by email. At this time there are around 40 subscribers to this daily report. Following a review of the web site statistics it is evident that very few subscribers regularly use this web site, if at all. The client is wishing to make greater use of this web site and encourage his subscribers and potential subscribers to use its features

Site goals

The site goals have been determined by extensive discussions with the client's representative who has made it very clear that the client's primary goal is to use the site to increase his annual subscriptions to a daily futures report.

The Secondary goal is to encourage visitors to the web site to sign up for a two weeks free trial period which will give them the opportunity to assess the suitability of the trading reports and it is hoped this will follow on to a paid subscription .

The client wants to incorporate other enhancing features that will encourage greater use of the site. This is to include an educational platform for existing and other users to learn about the basics and more advanced aspects of futures trading. This will include explanatory graphs and charts which will explain how to interpret and read the Mclean reports. The purpose of these features is to increase the interest in futures trading and the report..

Success measurement

Our Client wants to use this site to increase his futures report subscriptions. The success of the web site can be assessed by the number of trial subscriptions and paid subscriptions the site generates. This will be determined by surveying new clients at time of subscription and asking how they found out about the report.

User experience

The site is to be designed to cater for the novice and inexperienced futures trader right through to the professional trader. The site will offer educational segments catering for both levels of users and a subscriber based password system giving subscribers access to the daily MacLean reports on line .Up to date and searchable archive files of the reports will provide a source of historical data for research and analysis.

Audience definitions

Potential new clients wishing to learn about futures markets to the experienced professional trader
Existing clients wanting to obtain extra information or confirmation of data.
Clients are likely to be high risk takers and on average aged between 25 to 35

Scenario

Investors wanting to take high risks to potentially make a lot of money will use the MacLean report to gain trading advice for trading the futures markets.

Professional traders wanting to supplement their own information to verify their own views or to gain other's insights into futures trading.

Competitive analysis

The MacLean report may be competing against the McLaren report which is operated out of Byron Bay this site gives trends coverage of the Australian futures markets and the American market namely the Dow Jones. The writer of the McLaren report has media coverage on the business channel CNBC with a weekly commentary on the activities of the market.

Content analysis

General overview

The site at this time offers a degree of meaningful content but it is very disjointed in its structure and very difficult to read. This content needs to be rehashed into a more manageable and readable format and in a more structured manner which is easier for the user to access. The archives of the daily MacLean report are not current and have not been updated for several months. This would discourage potential users by giving the impression that the site is not adequately maintained and may imply sloppiness in regard to the site maintenance. For the serious user or potential user they are unable to do any evaluation or assessment in regard to the Mclean Reports current levels of success. At this time this would more than likely limit new subscriptions to the MacLean report to word of mouth from existing clients. There has been some attempt to use testimonials to enhance the status of the report but this result is totally inadequate and needs to be improved considerably. These testimonials need greater prominence within the site and reference made to them on the home page and a clear front page navigation aid to them. There needs to be a concerted effort to obtain suitably worded testimonials that will demonstrate the successful features of the MacLean report to the fullest potential

.Improve content,improve graphics, improve fonts and add some colour and provide relevant information. Break up the content into more meaningful segments. Make them easier to read. The site is not user friendly and contains a high level of technical terminology which would presently go over many users' heads. The home page needs to be user friendly and easy to navigate. The present use of glossary is inadequate and needs a greater level of clarification for the new user

Charts

Existing graphics are of a poor quality and need to be improved to enable the client to clearly read the information provided. The charts are an important part of the MacLean report and are a representation of the information required for trading futures. The charts need to be easily understood and must quickly convey the information required by the user. These new charts could be constructed as animated gifs or as a flash movie to identify the different selling and buying trends and to clarify the trading scenario being discussed. Movement in these charts will help to simplify the learning process for the user and enhance the usability of these charts for the experienced trader.

There needs to be an easily accessed information sheet explaining the purpose of the chart and its icons. Users need to be shown how to correctly interpret these charts and trend lines

The site would benefit by a greater use of graphics and the breaking up of text content into smaller and more readable segments.

User aids

There would need to be a glossary page that has a search facility for finding the meaning of different words. This glossary page would set out the words in a structured alphabetical order

Also the client would like to have glossary hyperlinks on all words and graphic content that need an explanation. Specifically the client wants these content explanations to open up on the page being read but not detracting from the reading content. The client wants this explanation to open on the content page in its own small page space so that the user can still see the contents page and not lose their place. Where appropriate the explanation will include charting and graphs to make the meaning clearer to the user.

The educational segments will also need to be restructured into four levels of learning. The four segments will consist of:

(a) Fundamental explanations about how to read the charting and a description of the system used to analyse and forecast trends.

(b) A base level explanation of futures trading and trading techniques. This will be a training module targeted at the beginners in futures trading and also for those who want to know how the futures trading system operates. The client has anticipation that there may be several stages in this training process and that these pages will be using a sequential navigation process. There may be a quiz at the end of each segment that the participant can answer before progressing on to the next level of learning.

(c) Advanced level training and risk aversion techniques for the experienced trader and professional.

(d) Client would like to include a game simulator as a learning aid. Users would be given the opportunity of investing say $1000 of game money in this futures market game simulator.

Clients using the 14 day free trial MacLean report subscription could then base their transactions upon the reports recommendations. They can then, after the two week period, evaluate their results

The sole objective of this training module is to encourage participants to subscribe to the news letter. There will also be provision for including associated learning and information hyperlinks to external sources.

Generally all report content and training module content within the site would need to be of a printable format to enable the user to print any pages of interest with ease.

Navigation system

Internal navigation

The present navigation is not easy to follow. The site needs clear navigation aids to identify where the client is within the site. The navigation needs to be restructured to provide easier navigation within site. Related pages need to be grouped for easier access and simpler navigation. The main navigation within the site would be a hierarchical navigation style and it is to be designed to enable the user to reach the desired site content within the recommended three clicks

Any existing dead ends need to be restructured and these dead ends eliminated. There needs to be a consistent main navigation bar with navigation buttons linking to the four main segment pages and at the bottom of each page a secondary text navigation bar. For long pages a "return to top of page icon" should be added. This main navigation bar can be constructed using suitable financial related icons. This home page navigation bar is to be on all pages giving one click to home page from any page within site.

The navigation for the educational section would be of a sequential structure to facilitate the sequence of the learning program which will progressively increase the learning level on each subsequent page. The user is to be given the opportunity to test their skills before progressing to the next training lesson

Global navigation

Improve access to external contacts (determine appropriateness of links and relevance to site content. External learning and information sites may assist in providing clients with enhanced learning aids) .

The client has indicated his interest in providing external links to sites providing live trading. The client has indicated that he will make the necessary arrangements for this external link and will provide the URL link for this service. This service would be available to subscribers who have successfully logged in and the text hyperlink will be located on the page displaying the daily MacLean report.

Site content

Content grouping 1 Futures details, charts, report contents
2 Educational , glossary , chart definitions, games simulator
3 Author details and report Profile, privacy statement, testimonials, disclaimer
4 Subscriptions, contact details, trial subscriptionsSite usability

Due to the sites dependence on graphs to present information it is likely the professional user would have high speed internet connection and likely to use a high resolution screen to facilitate a clear interpretation of the graphics it is therefore important that the graphics are of a high quality and convey the necessary information clearly.

Visual Design concept

The client wishes to retain their existing logo for the front page

Subscription

The subscription page will give users the opportunity to take out a 12 month subscription to the daily MacLean futures trading report. Applicants will be given an explanation of the levels of subscription that are on offer Applicants will be directed to a Subscription Form for entering their personal details. On this page there will be a text "privacy statement" hyperlink the user may then enter their personal subscription details. The subscriber may then choose to pay by credit card, if so, they will enter a secure area in which they will enter these credit card details. There will be other optional payment methods i.e. By cheque, 7 day invoice or direct transfer. There is to be another option for users to applying for the free 14 day subscription Upon completion the subscription form will be submitted to the client's server database.

Subscription page needs to mention that subscription may be tax deductible for traders. And therefore may be very cost effective for some subscribers.

The client is considering multiple levels of subscribers. All subscribers will have a login password which would provide online access to the MacLean report each morning. Additionally the password access will also check the subscription status of the user and will only allow currents subscriptions into the report and live link section of site. Non current subscribers will be given a message concerning subscription expiry and denied access.

Multi level subscriptions

Provide provision for password access to exclusive areas for paying clients. Client could access the daily report on site if required. This access may also include a daily update report during mid market trading for the day which would summarise trends actioned so far that day.

For the top level subscribers the client would like to provide an exclusive telephone or internet conferencing level of communication

Summary

The home page is to be constructed using design concepts that make it user friendly and easy to navigate. The navigation aids need to be clear and simple to navigate. There needs to be a main navigation bar on each page constructed from suitable and appealing financial and other icons. This navigation bar is to be on each page. There is to be text navigation bar at the footer of each page. There needs to be a site map. Pages need to have content broken up using subsections to improve readability and also require the addition of graphics or animated giffs to enhance the comprehension and visual appeal of these pages. The education section will benefit by the use of flash movies to step the user through the learning process. For the subscribers there is to be an exclusive Subscriber section which will have password access for their exclusive use to the Daily MacLean Report and the live online trading link. The testimonial links are to be given prominence on the home page

 

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