The Energy Detective (TED) is an excellent home energy monitor that displays your electricity usage, and can help you save money. For this example, we’ve tested the TED product website, The Energy Detective.com, to see if it’s as good as the product it promotes.

What Does This Website Do?

1. It promotes a product (TED 1000 and 5000 series) that keeps track of your electricity use without having to go outside and read the meter. It shows that you can use that information to reduce your electric bill. Since the monitoring is in real time, you can look at what you are doing that is eating electricity.
2. The web site is a promotional and sales site advertising an energy monitor which allows you to see your electric usage in real time, in order to save money on electrical output.
3. It provides info about Energy Detective (TED), a real-time, accurate electricity monitor. It also provides energy facts and other ways to conserve energy.
4. The website advertised the TED product, which is The Energy Detective: a product that allows one to see their electricity usage in real time. The site gives a good overview on the first page, and has links to FAQs, and even a video to explain further some of the advantages to using TED.
5. It offers information about a device called TED. This is a device which can monitor your electrical usage with real time data, to help you in keeping your energy costs down.
6. Based on the web page, it appears that the site sells the electricity monitoring devices. This site also appears to give advice on how to save electricity. It has a lot of technical information about the devices as well.
7. The website gives information and a product name TED. This is an energy tracking and savings tool.
8. This web page gives you information about TED (The Energy Detective).
9. This website explains a device for sale called TED (The Energy Detective).
10. This website sells TED (The Energy Detective), an electronic device that can monitor the electricity usage. This website also describes ways to conserve electricity.

With a large photo displaying two models of TED, and information upfront, the reviewers had no trouble quickly figuring out the purpose of the website. What did they like about it?

Best Current Feature

1. I like the color scheme and the fact that overall it isn’t visually “busy.” It’s kind of soothing to look at and it helps to focus on the text and photos. I’m kind of tired of web sites that try to grab my attention with a visual circus going on.
2. The pages load very quickly. Layout is very good.
3. Displaying the instrument in the front page quickly captured the whole concept.
4. The pictures of TED are shown in front of an attractive background.
5. I always look for FAQs on sites as that’s usually the best place to start in looking for answers to any question one may have. A good FAQ page (like the one on this site) will cover any and all questions that a first-time site visitor may have about the product, as that instills confidence in both the product and the customer service provided by the company selling that product.
6. I really like the video as more folks tend to be willing to watch a short video over reading details about a product. (I like to read details as well, but most others are more visual in nature.) I think the video points out a lot of very positive features of the product, and it also lends credibility to the product as it seems at least to have been done by an NBC news show. A lot of folks are worried about being duped by purchasing products online, and this helps in reassuring them that this product isn’t some kind of scam.
7. I like the pictures of the 2 monitors with the actual readings on them. This shows how easy it will be to see how much electricity you’re, with virtually no effort aside from looking at the device.
8. The site seems relatively straight forward; it sells electricity monitoring devices and explains effectively how it works. The energy facts were probably the most useful and accessible part of the site.
9. The best feature is the section of links on the left side of the web page.
10. The demo of TED in action on the banner is very informative and eye catching. Easy navigation through the website, and a lot of information on how to conserve electricity.

It seems to have hit all the high notes of a product site: clean and simple layout, attractive product images, complete product information, a good FAQ section, and videos demonstrating its use. What are the low notes?

One Thing To Improve

1. The Ted 5000 dashboard was interesting, but it wasn’t much fun. When something appears to be interactive it’s nice to be able to play around with it. I didn’t feel like it did any more than just a photo would do. The interactive element wasn’t worth having in my opinion.
2. I recommend that red print on the landing page be increased as it is difficult to read. Also, the blank white background at the top of the landing page creates the impression the site is not completed. The blue print on the left hand side of the columns should be changed to a darker color.
3. I would remove the broken line which runs through the top photograph, as it detracts from the visual image.
4. Your use of the same photograph on several of the pages becomes boring. I became tired of looking at the coffee pot.
5. I’d like to see better photos on the home page. Perhaps a bit more color on that page. On the positive side, I think the basic description of what the product is and does on the homepage is a perfect length.
6. It might be good to state that this is actually something you have to hook up and it has to be connected via your breaker box, not just something you set on your end table and turn on, which is what it looks like in the pictures.
7. I don’t really need that much technical information on the devices. It should be available, perhaps in a PDF document under specifications but it doesn’t really help me understand how the device will help me.
8. Maybe add some testimonials on how it saved a real human being money. It would also be cool if you could find a test subject where we could actually see real live data.
9. I would like to see some customer testimonials that mention how much they saved using TED. I did not see any real hard numbers on the site.
10. Add some color. The current colors are dull and drab. Brighten it up a bit.

Most of the suggestions are cosmetic and ones I agree with. The white space at the top does seem unfinished, as if a header was missing or failing to load, and was momentarily distracting. It could be minimized down to only the amount of space needed to display current news or updates. The vertical dashed line doesn’t have a purpose above the main image, and the red text above each model blended too well into the background that I hadn’t even noticed it until it was pointed out. These are all very small changes that could clean up the layout of the landing page.

Another good suggestion is adding testimonials, which is a very common One Thing To Improve. People like to imagine how a product will fit into their lives by seeing how it has worked for others, rather than rely solely on descriptions and photos. It instills consumer confidence when you display what real people have to say about your product. Even better would be providing a Product Review site for all TED owners to submit their experiences.

All the changes would be simple and easy to make, and once updated, the site could be re-tested through 3rd Party Feedback to see how valuable the suggestions are.