Frank Schulte-Ladbeck

Why does a user come to your site? Is a new user able to accomplish that task quickly? Maybe my wife should check out your web presence.

I wanted to relate an experience that I had this weekend with my wife. She recently signed up for online banking. Now, to let you know, my wife does not deal with banks if she can avoid them. That has left most banking in my hands, and I am not comfortable with the fact. She should have her own relationship with a bank, in case something happens to me. The day after she had signed up for this wonderful way to bank, she goes to log into her account, but she cannot. In fact, she is quite upset about trying to navigate the site.

After a few minutes, she has decided that she is on the wrong site, so she is about to leave. I step in to show her where the log in is located. My wife may be typical for many internet users. She knows her way around certain sites, but she does not go to many places on the net. She mainly checks her e-mail, and she goes to her employer’s site for various tasks. For a new site, she needs to see the navigation quickly, and the cues need to be written in clear language (her first language being Spanish). She was using a monitor that could handle a 800 pixel width easily (an older monitor) while the site was designed for 1000 pixels (which may be larger than many of the newer monitors that people have). There was a good deal of marketing on the site, but she is already a customer who is using the online account, so this marketing was useless/annoying to her. The login was at the top of the site, but she would have to scroll along to find it. This was not an action that she performed often. You may be thinking that this is obvious; that was my reaction, but then I considered the implication.

You will have different users coming to your site, and you have to shape calls for action to each group in such a way that makes their experience pleasant. In the case of the bank, I can guess that encouraging their customers to use online banking or other services would be a prime concern. It would reduce costs while increasing profit. I can also guess from their website that most of their customers do not use this service. This gives us two basic user groups that we want to satisfy: convince new users to expand their relationship with the business; and keep current users happy with the relationship to keep them using it. If the login is not in quick sight when the page loads, the newly converted customer will have the same reaction as my wife: why am I using this service? This could be followed by the answer: I do not need it. What do you want your customer to do? This is a call to action, and you need to place these calls in spots that any user will locate without effort.

Do want a visitor to become a regular reader of your site? Then have the means for them to subscribe to the feed or email newsletter where they will be sure to observe the action that they need to perform. When thinking about your site, write a list of actions you would like the user to do. Next, go over what their experience on your site will be like, so when will they perform this action. For example, will a visitor want to print an article after they have read it, or will they want to print it before reading it? This effects where you would place the print command. I give this example, because you may have several different calls for action on your site that will differ in importance. Printing a form that a customer needs to place an order would rate higher than printing an article about how they can order the item. Real estate on your site is expensive. You only have a few moments to capture a new visitor’s attention to keep them on the site. The visible part of the page should contain your most important calls of action, and here we have to consider what equipment will be used to access the site: an older monitor with a lower pixel width; on a plasma screen television; or on their phone. Cluttering your calls to action in one area will cause confusion, so give each space to breathe.

As I go forward, describing how to change a theme to suit your needs, think about my wife and others like her. There are many great things that you can do with your site, but it may not help the consumer.

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