Value Based Management

http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/

Intended audience
Ostensibly, anyone seeking information regarding management theories, methods, and models. However, the organization of the web site and the use of key phrases make me think that they specifically want people to come from search engines so that they can sell ads.

Usefulness of content
This web site seems to contain every imaginable management buzzword. For each topic, it gives a short overview, possibly a picture, links to related topics, links to related books on Amazon, and about a dozen text-based ads. For someone who has heard a management phrase and just needs a quick explanation, this content is actually quite useful in its brevity and accuracy. If you wanted more details, this site would not provide enough depth for you, and if you wanted to buy something, you'd really be in luck.

Consistency of design
The design is very consistent. On the main page, there are five columns of links, which do double-duty as topic descriptions. The links are organized by topic at the column level and alphabetically within each column. The font is consistently small throughout the site. The design is also consistent between pages for specific topics. The title, description, links, and ads for each topic appear in the same place, although the placement of the picture varies. This is not distracting, however, as the design is very basic. Actually, the design is so plain that it's clear the designers were not concerned with aesthetics here, which leads me to believe that they were focused on content.

Ease of navigation
The thing that really struck me about this website was the difficulty of finding anything on the main page. The font is tiny, and I estimate that there are roughly 350 links off of this single page. Also, the major topics on the page (for example, "Strategy - Value Creation", "Valuation - Decision Making", and "Organization - Change - Culture") appear broad and overlapping. Some topics appear in multiple columns. The main page links to specific topics, but those topics do not have subtopics, so this site is 350 links wide and 1 link deep, making it more of a web than a hierarchy. Even if you were browsing, there are such an overwhelming number of links that I would have little confidence in discovering a topic which is especially important because all topics are given the same treatment.

So why would the designers put together a web site with useful content, a plain design, and a main page which is impossible to navigate? My guess is that they're depending on people to come to this site through search engines so that they can sell ads, based on the following:

• The content is good enough so that people will find it useful and will linger at least for a little while.
  
• The main page is not navigable because there's no intention that anyone will use it for browsing. Instead, they'll come through search engines.
  
• There are lots of ads throughout the site.
• If you type "management theories" into Google, this is the first link that comes up.