This post is a landmark for our blog. By the way, he, no less than, is four hundred and fourth. In honor of this, we decided to write about how we once used the powerful potential of page 404 on Odnoklassniki. And at the same time made a small selection of unusual and interesting pages from other sites.

Our experience

Every day Odnoklassniki’s social network is used by more than 40 million people. And about 150 thousand of them stumbles upon page 404. The share is tiny, only 0.37% of the total number of visitors. But in absolute terms, a very decent attendance. “Your energy would be for peaceful purposes,” we thought, and decided to use this traffic well. At that time, page 404 looked like this:


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There was no point in just making another designer page. After much thought for half an hour, the idea of ​​a charitable campaign in favor of WWF was proposed. Nature must be protected - it is known from school. But this topic is very extensive, a bit too much for the unfortunate 404 pages. Therefore, we set ourselves three tasks:

• remind people of the extinction of rare species of animals;
• introduce closer to the WWF Wildlife Conservation Fund;
• give visitors the opportunity to make a personal contribution to the preservation of the global natural ecosystem.

As a result, the new 404 page looked like this:



Above came the text of the error itself, so that the user immediately understood where he went. Next to the Odnoklassniki logo we placed the WWF logo. Below was an information block consisting of a photograph of a representative of an endangered species (a small selection was assembled) and a brief description. In addition, from this page led to the official WWF group in Odnoklassniki. The first and second tasks were solved. And for the third task, we placed in the WWF group a special iframe, through which visitors could get to the site of the foundation itself and make a donation.



The result exceeded our expectations - about 50% of random visitors to page 404 followed the link to the WWF group. This project lasted one month, and at the time of its completion the group grew to 30 thousand people. Moreover, according to the WWF itself, during this month, Odnoklassniki users made about 7% of all donations. However, in reality, this proportion was most likely much higher. The fact is that, going from Odnoklassniki to the WWF site, not all visitors immediately donated. Some returned later, but directly, and not in a roundabout way.

The success of our project and the recognition of the general public, including in the form of foreign media , inspired us to further achievements. Our next 404-project was a charity event in favor of the Foundation for Change one life.



This is a fund to assist in the adoption of orphans. We have kept the same page structure: logo, photo, description. And in just two weeks that this project lasted, there were 18 appeals from potential adoptive parents. And the first children were adopted a month after the start of the project.

The experience and results obtained in the course of these two projects have demonstrated the undervaluation of such a tool as page 404. Of course, its potential depends solely on attendance. And let it better bring a small, but good, than it serves only as a beautiful stub.

Other's

Of course, not everyone shares our opinion. In most cases, the 404 page is not issued at all. Some webmasters pay more attention to this element. And sometimes there are really interesting page 404 design options. Not all of them are good in terms of retaining visitors to the site and ease of navigation, but are made with fiction.



Very expressive illustration, with humor.



True webmasters immediately say that this option is no good. But we liked the design.



Animated page on which the fat sparrow of Asian origin swings.



The triumph of minimalism, as well as design over functionality and utility.



A good example of a functional, and at the same time fun page.



Another example of an exclusive design page. Stylish and beautiful, and the strangeness of the picture makes stop, catches the attention.



Mail Chimp Always creative approach to the design of 404 pages. For a long time on this page Homer Simpson stayed, and now he is replaced by a frozen monkey. Animated page with the symbol of the company, frozen in a cube of ice.



Animated interactive page with beautiful effects. True, heavy.



This page has probably already been seen by many. But we decided to turn it on, because this is one of the best examples. Not perfect, but close to it.



Fish died. The page is animated, with an adaptive design, and yes even interactive. True, the quality of the animation is not very, but it looks interesting and appeasing.



Another well-known example. With humor, logically connected with the products of the company, everything is well thought out.



One of the best ideas for 404 pages. It is not immediately possible to figure out what it is, not even the links. But the idea is beautiful.

At this exhibition of achievements 404 is over. If you have in mind other options for unusual and beautiful pages, lay out the links in the comments.