Frank Schulte-Ladbeck

Consumers want to be informed, but they also want to obtain their goal easily. How do you create a website which allows exploration while permitting a quick transaction?

I have a situation. I want to buy a product that is intangible, and I want to go through the process quickly; however, like many consumers, I want to know that I am getting something good. This could be any service product, but I am thinking a long the lines of electricity service, a website hosting provider, or a social community site. In each of those cases, I receive a service, but I do not really interact with it. They are services which are in the background of my life. I was specificly looking at the sites of various electrical service providers when I realized that one site appealed to me because its design allowed me quick access with three basic buttons.

   This is where I came to something of a paradox. I wanted that ease of use, and the site appealed to me, but I want information that will show me that I making the right choice. I have always had that drive as a consumer, but I think that this trend is growing as consumers wish to be wiser with their money. One site had a great navigational menu on the side which would allow me to quickly pick a page that would answer my questions. The problem for me is that the main body dealt with information for existing customers. As a possibly new customer, I do not want to hear about these details. Another site relied on a flash presentation, which caused me to leave before it loaded. Yes, having a commercial can be a great sales pitch, but I want more meat with little time to search for it. I know that HTML5 will allow for similar presentations, and flash can be effective, but I am not convinced that this is the best solution for the website user in all instances. The site with three buttons was appealing. Here we had three basic directions: existing customer information; sign up for the service; and more information..The look was clean, and I had a clear path to my goal, so I liked that site the best.
    Yet, I was left wondering if they had the best option. I began tolook at other sites which provide background services in my life. I saw sites stripped down to the most basic choices, and others with a myriad of choices. I know that each firm has to find the best means to guide the customer to their goal, which is better for the business, so we will find different solutions. I wondered if their could be an optimal configuration though. The site with three buttons was great for me as a standard user, but it did not provide some basic information on its landing page which could have pushed me to click the button. The other aspect that I considered was what if I am a different type of client. I could be a business partner or maybe an even an advertiser. The buttons would not have served me well. Also, I want this data to be quickly accessible. Maybe I only have a short time between meetings or lunch. This led me to my idea of the optimal page.
    If I was setting up a landing page for this scenario, I would want two means of navigation to meet different customer desires. The three buttons were great, but at the bottom of the page, I would have major or commonly visited pages. Think about Facebook. At the top of the page, an existing user can log in. In the middle of the page, a new user can sign up, but at the bottom of the page is a list of pages which meet the needs of different clients. One thing with the Facebook page is the color scheme. These pages are listed in blue in a lettering similar to the other lettering on the page. I would want these pages to visually stand out, so I feel that using a complimentary color, like green with Facebook’s blue themed page, would work to highlight that menu. The other item to note is that taking the Facebook example again we see another good design element: everything falls above the fold. This means that all of these navigational elements load on the screen of the browser, so the user does not need to scroll to find theinformation. Although I love javascript, I think that it might be better to have as little as possible on the landing page. Some people, like me, turn the javascript off when browsing, and sometimes it takes longer to load. We want quick, so it might be better to have heavy use of javascript on other pages. Lastly, I would have a well considered bit of advertising copy to encourage a user to click. I might change this up. Maybe here having copy written on images for a slideshow would be acceptable. The other elements should load first, giving clients the quick access needed, but the slide show may convince users to click.
    Those are my thoughts on the topic. Having advertising copy is great, and having information readily available for existing customers can be great, but you have to find a balance. I would not mind making one click to find a page that is directly relatable to my search. Also, I think that you have to carefully plan out elements to be quickly seen.

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