In this report, I will evaluate these two websites according to the following criteria: Design, Ease of Use, Copywriting, Content and Interactivity. Based on the review, I will conclude which of them is a better site explaining my decision. Finally, I will present some recommendations on how the better website may be improved.

1. 0
Website Review
June 2013
In this report, I will evaluate these two websites according to the following criteria: Design, Ease of Use, Copywriting,
Content and Interactivity. Based on the review, I will conclude which of them is a better site explaining my decision.
Finally, I will present some recommendations on how the better website may be improved.
SUGAR CRM vs.
SALESFORCE

2. 1
A) DESIGN
In the area of graphic design, Sugar CRM has a clean and well defined
design. Looking at the home page, they feature at the top three large
ads -shown in a slideshow– advertising their latest product, mobile
app and important news. Below these images there is a description
of their four solutions: Marketing, Sales, Support and Platform. The
good thing here is that you can have a clear introduction to their
business without scrolling down since all the main content covers
the first half of the page. The rest of the page is dedicated to
showcasing some of their worldwide customers –linked to their
worldwide’s customer page- and a description of their businesses’
areas supported by photos and an introductory video to their CRM
platform which provides clear and additional information to their
products and keep the visitor browsing.
The website aesthetics provides a clear and positive impression. The
use of text fonts and sizes, colors and background are consistent
across the entire site. They have an appropriate use of images
visually connected to content.
The layout is clear and they keep the interface consistent across the
entire site.
The company logo is small, positioned on the top left on every page
and with link to homepage. The search option also appears on every
page and on the top left of the navigation bar.
Salesforce’s graphic design is simple with good use of appropriate
colors. Their approach to the home page is similar to Sugar. Firstly,
they show a similar style of ad at the top –shown also in a slideshow-
that offer links to informative demos on key features, pricing
information and free trials. But what grabs the attention is the huge
tag line – No hardware. No software. No boundaries - featuring their
advanced cloud computing/software solution. They know that they
are successful in that area, so they get the customer’s attention using
that marketing.
Below the ads their main products are presented. You need to scroll
down to see the six suggested items and access to the links provided
below, such as details, demo and pricing, to find out more.
Following they feature their marketplace apps and some success
stories. Finally, a set of highlights of their business is described. The
content featured here is large; it comprises lot of information packed
into a small space. The font is very small and there are not images to
make it more attractive. As it stands, it doesn’t grab my attention as
it is fairly boring and overwhelming.
The website provides a good first impression and visual aesthetics.
Images are properly used to illustrate key features and are suitable
to the text.
The page layout is simple and well designed; however, it is not
consistent within pages (i.e. “Customer Community” page) and
across all their websites (It is not within the scope of this report to
carry out that analysis, however, an example are the developerforce
and Salesforce AppEchange websites).
Their logo is on the top left of the navigation bar with link to
homepage on every page.
The search box –on top right- along with the main navigation bar
remains in every page, except on the “Customer Community” page
that has a different design.
B) EASE OF USE
With regards to the ease of use, Sugar CRM’s navigation works well
and show visitors where they are and the company name on all
pages.
The navigation is consistent across the entire site. The navigation
bar remains on top on all pages to allow visitor ease of use and
remains visible as you scroll down which is a good usability practice.
On top left side, it includes the company logo with link to the
website’s home page.
The navigation links use appropriate wording. The text link wording
is always in light blue color allowing users to easily find web page
links.
The information architecture is well planned out. They catch
visitor’s eyes placing on top of every page the most import content
using different calls to action (for example: videos, case studies and
reports).

3. 2
The content is easy to read across the entire website, however, on
the main bar they use large drop-down menus that might confuse
the visitor to scan content (for example: the “Product” link).
No site map exists for this website; they seem to replace it with the
navigation bar.
Salesforce has a good designed website that allows visitor to surf it
quickly and easily. Although the navigation shows visitors where
they are along with the company name, the text is not always
consistent with the navigation menu.
The navigation bar is not uniform throughout the site, i.e., the home
page and the Community page have a different navigation bar and
the travelled path is not provided.
The use of links is clear; you know where you will go by clicking on a
link. Good wording and formatting of navigation links in light blue
color.
There is not always link to the home page, an example is the
Developer site under the Community drop down.
The information architecture is simple. The most important
information on every page is not always on top of the page, visitors
have to scroll down to see the full content.
In addition, content is properly formatted by using header tags, bold
text and colors.
A link to their site map is not placed on every page of the website, for
example, the Blogs page under the About us menu.
C) COPYWRITING
Sugar CRM’s website use short text and precise language to describe
their business. The About section clearly describes the company’s
mission, they also include press releases and articles that focuses on
the benefits of their products.
They keep the text large and easy to read with strong use of
keywords (for example: CRM Software, CRM Solutions, CRM for
support in the home page) and bold text to highlight hyperlinks.
The content is broken up with plenty of short sub-headings set in
heavier type allowing visitors to quickly get the gist of each section.
They make an appropriate use of white space across the entire site
to separate everything apart and add images to make the content
more interesting.
Salesforce’ s page keep the text short and simple with easy access to
more detailed description on these attributes on other pages of the
website. The content looks sometimes boring and a lot busier
because of the quantity of the content (i.e., the About us section).
The text is large enough and easy to see and read, except the text
located on the lower part of the home page that is too small. They
don’t use bold text to highlight key phrases or important concepts.
They use hyperlinks to find out more information.
They provide enough white space around the text and add images
and icons on individual sections, i.e. product overview section.
D) CONTENT
Sugar CRM contains excellent variety of resources: Case Studies
available online and to download in PDF format, Demos designated
to promote their products, live and on-demand Webcasts, free
Whitepapers upon registration and Step-by-step video’s instructions
for performing basic tasks in Sugar. Together, these five types of
materials are easy to find and presented under the Solutions section.
In the About section, there are Press Releases & Articles.
The on-page copy analysis shows the use of simple and clear
language across the website. Good use of different headers with
descriptive sub-headings including keywords in them. They use
short descriptions/paragraphs allowing visitor quickly understand
what the content is about and bold few important words to emphasis
main points on a paragraph.
Looking at Salesforce, the available resources (Demos, White Papers,
Reports, etc.) are not easy to find. I had to use the search bar to find
them. They are presented in a sub-navigation bar in some of their
products’ pages, for example, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and
Salesforce Chatter, making difficult to see when you first visit the

4. 3
page. Here is a screen shot of the Sales Cloud product page on the
Product drop down:
Good use of videos to showcase the features of their products.
Content on pages is formatted using header tags with a short
description of the page’s content with supportive sub-headers.
E) INTERACTIVITY
Sugar CRM does a good work in this area. Their website contains
calls to action through the entire site, i.e., the telephone number
displayed on top of pages and at the end, free trail button on drop-
down list in the Product section and at the end of the page, demos,
etc.
In addition to the telephone number provided on every page (except
the support page), they have a contact page providing all contact
methods by region (headquarter address, telephone numbers, and
emails).
The only way to subscribe to receive newsletters is when you sign up
for a free demo.
They do not have a chat option to interact with potential customers.
Downloads in PDF format are available across the entire site, i.e., for
whitepapers, case studies, pricing comparison chart, etc.
Salesforce use a different set of call to actions to engage users: large
size of the telephone number in two formats (alphanumerical and
numerical) at the top (except the Community section) and at the end
of every page. Contrasting with the background, the green “free
trial” call to action button is located at the very top right on the pages
across the entire website. Demos and free trial buttons in strong
blue on the right side of the image in the home page and on the site
map area, etc.
Besides the telephone numbers provided, there is a “Contact” link
where users are expected to provide personal information to be
contacted. No email lists are provided.
To increase user engagement they have the option to chat in real
time with them. This option appears as a blue button on the right
side on the home page. They should have it throughout the rest of
the site to potentially reach more users.
To access to white papers, demos, e-books, datasheets, reports, etc.
they require the user to sign up. There is no hint as if downloads are
available next to registration. In terms of newsletters, I wasn’t able
to find them.
From an interactivity perspective, I think they do a great job with the
calls to action, although, they need some improvements to make the
overall user experience more engaging.

5. 4
CONCLUSION:
In my opinion, Sugar CRM has a better website.
From a design perspective, the home page is strategically structured
to showcase the company’s products as the first thing you focus on,
which means the user don’t need to scroll down or work to navigate
to find more. Aesthetically, it is also very pleasing.
The website has a large navigation bar at the top, which remains
there consistently whichever section of the site you go to. The drop
down lists show all the options available in each of the sections, this
allow for easier scanning as you can jump to the group that you are
interested in and scan the items within them.
Additionally, I think that they have a consistent navigation, good
color of large fonts contrasting with their background and lot of
white space and images making the overall navigation across the
website an enjoyable experience.
Unlike Sugar CRM, Salesforce’s site design demands more effort to
find what you need. Moreover, the lack of navigational elements or
options in the menu of the main navigation bar makes difficult to
navigate and find what you need. It is tedious to have to go through
a number of links in order to reach the one that is interesting to the
user visiting the website.
For these reasons, I choose Sugar CRM as better website.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
 When you move across the navigation bar, there is no visible
change in its color to show you where you are positioned neither
when you hover over the menu with your mouse. To improve
the overall user experience, I recommend using a lighter color as
you travel or hover over the menu in order to distinguish it well
from its background.
 They use a search icon that is placed on the top right of the
navigation bar. A search box expands when you click on the icon
to type something overlapping the telephone number. I
recommend resizing the navigation bar in order to make the
search box visible all the time or repositioning the search box.
Here is how it looks like:
 The options available under the “Products” and “Solutions” drop
down present a lot of choices in groups. The order of the groups
and mentioning some elements more than once are confusing to
the user.
I recommend changing the groups order, featuring the options
relevant to the menu in the first column, for example, move the
“Switch to Sugar from” option in the “Solutions” drop down to
the last column of the list.
Since some options point to the same thing, I would also
recommend removing duplicate menu, for example, the “Use
Sugar for” option from the “Solutions” drop down as it is already
under “Products” menu.
 I recommend adding a live Chat option. This will bring into more
leads and potential customers.

6. 5
APPENDIX
The report is based on the following websites addresses:
(1) Sugar CRM: http://www.sugarcrm.com/
(2)Salesforce: http://www.salesforce.com/