Lazard: Staying in one place
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Polished presentation and innovative features increase the usability of a contacts page.
The Site
Lazard, the international investment bank, has a Global Presence section on its main website that provides information about its office locations from an interactive world map.
Blue dots on the Flash-powered map show the 29 locations around the world with a corresponding list of cities listed in regional groups to the left. Rolling over a name, though not the dots, triggers two boxes to appear over the map, one showing an enlargement of the region, the other giving contact details (business name, postal address, phone and fax) for the Lazard businesses in that location. This box is headed by the city name and the real time there.
The feature is also linked from the site’s Contacts page as the source of Global Contacts.
The Takeaway
Lazard’s contacts map is a particularly polished presentation of what is an essential feature for organisations with multiple locations whether national, regional or global. Employing a map to help visualise its physical presence (and impress it on the visitor) is not uncommon, but Lazard’s use of rollovers keeps all the information on the current page, providing a smoother experience than click-throughs or secondary windows.
The inclusion of a real time indicator is a genuine innovation (and an appropriate one for Lazard’s business), though inserting information about office hours would add value. So, too, given the utilitarian nature of the feature, would abandoning the section heading Global Presence, with its expectations of editorial content, in favour of Global Contacts, which would save anyone looking for the information having to go the current circuitous route through Contacts.
A drawback is that the feature does not work without Flash installed – this may cause accessibility problems, and will also block the information for the small but possibly significant numbers who cannot see Flash features. An alternative should be provided.
http://www.lazard.comFirst published on 30 March, 2006