Web Leads New Wave of User Interactivity.

Woodworkers are finding more options to improve business, purchase products and consult with other craftsmen as the internet helps lead the industry into the 21st century.

WHILE THE INTERNET'S World Wide Web works great as a fancy display device, the real power of the Web lies in interactivity. Indeed, with the right interactive programming, a wood industry Web site can be transformed into a sophisticated marketing and sales tool that offers every visitor a highly personalized, highly responsive experience.

According to Stella Gassaway, co-author of Designing Multimedia Web Sites, "Multimedia applications have transformed the Web from a publishing medium to an interactive medium. The word 'interactive' has come to represent the most dramatic demonstrations of user control."

In essence, these next-generation wood industry Web sites take advantage of a simple truth. People who take the trouble to visit business Web sites are generally extremely thirsty for information. They tend to be more interested in purchasing a needed product than consumers who shop using conventional methods. So if a vendor can take the time to offer slick ways to slake that thirst, there is a good chance that a 'net cruiser' can be transformed into a net customer.

Fortunately, one of the inspiring things about the Web is that new twists on slick interactivity are emerging all the time. What follows is a sampling of key interactive elements that every wood industry Web site should consider.

Online Ordering: Anyone serious about doing retail business on the Web should either have an online ordering system, or be planning one. Before deciding on your approach, do yourself a favor and visit a search engine like Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) or Excite (www.excite.com) and type keywords like "e-commerce," "online ordering," etc. You'll be presented with a plethora of online ordering solutions from which to choose.

A good industry example can be found at Fort Harrisonline (www.fortharrison.com). Here, net surfers can shop for furniture pieces and charge purchases to their credit cards.

Web Site Search Engines: Too many Web sites are little more than elephantine filing cabinets floating in cyberspace. There is plenty of information, but digging for it can be irksome. On-site search engines help solve this problem by fetching very specific data. Practice with search engines like Yahoo! and Excite, and then decide how you can put a search engine to use on your site.

Graphic Data Drills: A variation on the search engine, graphic data drills enable Web site visitors to quickly narrow their quest for information to an ever-finer point using graphic icons. With every point-and-click, they get closer and closer to the precise data they really want. Baker Furniture's site (www.bakerfurniture.com), for example, sports a clickable map of the U.S. data drill. Users simply click on a state to find the nearest Baker dealer or distributor and surfers can find the most convenient Baker location.

Smart Links: While it is easy enough to offer any variety of links off your Web site, seasoned Web sites are beginning to offer links that simultaneously promote the business. Rockwood Plantation Teak Casual Furniture (www.rockwoodcasualteak.com) for example, offers links to its dealers' Web sites.

AUSAM provides links to a variety of sites that highlight information woodworkers can use in everyday operations. The site (www.autocabinet.com) also offers a downloadable trial version of its software that enables users to create cabinet drawings and reports on their PCs.

Text-Only Option Buttons: Here's an offering where less is definitely more. While too many Web sites seem to feature every technological bell and whistle known to man, savvier Web site builders realize that many people are cruising the Net with low-power 28.8K modems and low-power PCs. Smart Web site builders are accommodating these cruisers by enabling them to click to "text only" versions of their sites. As a result, people can get to the data they want without suffering through interminable download times for the fancy graphics, frames, etc., they don't want anyway.

Online Mailing Lists: Mailing lists are a unique Internet communication tool. Circulating the Internet the same way e-mail does, they have the added capability of enabling all subscribers to both read and respond to messages on the list. One subscriber may post a thought-provoking message, and 15 more subscribers may respond to the list with their own reflections -- which can in turn be read by everyone else subscribing to the list.

Other mailing lists, like the one offered by Richard Bissell Fine Woodworking (www.bissellwoodworking.com), serve more like traditional newsletters. Subscribers sign up at the site, and receive periodic mailings that alert them to new products and changes on the Web site.

For the latest skinny on mailing lists, check out Liszt (www.liszt.com). The free service currently tracks more than 90,000 mailing lists circulating the net.

Online Bulletin Board Messaging: Such bulletin boards or "forums" were one of the first ways Net users began forming cyber-communities. Messages can be posted at a Web site for all to see and for all to comment upon. Voila -- instant public square. George Berry's Furniture Studio (www.woodguy.com) offers a general interest message board at its site.

Ask An Expert: One of the easiest ways to build business relationships and good will is to offer free - and valuable - expert advice over the Web. Stan Pike Designs (www.javanet.com/stanpike) answers any and all questions about wood furniture making at its site.

Another example of forum interaction between woodworkers and Web site overviewers can be found on Woodweb. Management consultant Anthony Noel monitors an Internet forum about business issues affecting woodworking companies (www.woodweb.com/industry/businessboard). Woodworkers entering the forum receive advice on everything from running a more efficient shop to dealing with disgruntled employees. The Woodweb site has several interactive forums, including the business forum that Noel monitors.

And that, as they say, is just for starters. During the corning year, look for ever more interactive technologies to continually raise the bar on Web site responsivity. Companies that utilize those types of technologies will benefit in the long run.

Perhaps most "bleeding edge" in the world of Web interactivity will be panoramic VR Web sites, which offer visitors photo realistic, 3-D-like representations of products and environments that irresistibly suck visitors into the action Given that panoramic VR works best only on higher-end PCs with high-speed Internet connections, the medium probably will not catch on until after the millenium. Nevertheless, it's a technology that should be tracked, if only to be aware what the next level of Web Interactivity will be.

Currently, interesting Web-based panoramic VR work is being done by firms like iMove (www.smoothmove.com) View36O (www.view360.com), Communique (www.cvemedia.com) and eVox Productions (www.evox.com).

Of course, the prospect of upgrading a site with new interactivity may cause some grumbling among Web designers who have just finished building a Web site. But given the high financial stakes involved, it appears inevitable that interactivity will soon be considered de rigeur for Web e-commerce. And in the process, the medium will be transformed into something more useful, personable and profitable for operators and users alike.

As more and more information is exchanged over the World Wide Web, companies will continue to seek new innovative ways to attract viewers and potential customers. Interactivity, a focus on personalized touches and options that excite Web surfers are just a few examples of woodworking in the 21st Century.