People visit the About Us section of a website to understand the company’s purpose and mission, and decide whether to trust the organization. Our studies show that companies are missing critical opportunities to connect with visitors through their websites.

This 253-page report presents 70 design guidelines based on our usability research. Discussions and 209 screenshot illustrations supplement our findings.

Benefits

• Checklist of 70 design recommendations for improving the About Us areas of websites
• Description of user behaviors on corporate sites so that you can adapt your design to match user expectations
• 209 screenshots of About Us pages to illustrate designs that work (and don’t)

Topics covered

• Executive summary
  • User research: Two rounds
  • Trends in About Us usability
  • Overviews: Providing key context
  • Good and bad examples
  • Reasons for explaining yourself
  • Connecting to users
• Brands influence perception
  • Well–known brands
  • Lesser–known brands
• Guidelines
  • First impressions: The first 30 seconds
  • Company information
  • History and timelines
  • Business philosophy
  • Executive members
  • Social responsibility
  • Awards and recognition
  • Contact information
  • Customer service
  • Non-profit and charitable organizations
  • Graphics and multimedia
  • Usability basics
• Methodology

Download report excerpt (2MB PDF)

What’s new in the 2nd Edition?

This 2nd edition contains additional recommendations, increasing from 50 to 70 guidelines, with an expanded section on featuring videos on About Us pages.

Research method

The information in this report is based on usability studies. In total, 50 people tested 63 websites selected to cover a range of organizations, including large, medium, and small-sized companies as well as non-profit organizations and government agencies.