The Art World
How Do Web Visitors See Your Site?
Recent research has revealed some very interesting facts about what’s important to people when visiting a website. These observations and their implications may give you a new appreciation of the importance and value of professional design and messaging as well as keep you from relying too heavily on personal preferences when assessing (or critiquing) a proposed site design.
A study that utilized sophisticated eye-tracking tools reveals that users’ habits on the internet aren’t that different from customers’ habits when they walk into a store. People glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles the thing they’re looking for. In fact, there are large parts of the page they don’t even look at.
Most visitors search for something interesting (or useful) that is easy to click on. If a new page doesn’t meet their expectations, they hit the Back button and continue searching the previous page. .
Users prize quality and credibility.
If a page provides visitors with exceptionally high-quality, high-interest content, they are sometimes willing to overlook design problems. This is the reason why not-that-well-designed websites with high-quality content can still gain a lot of devoted followers over time. For them, the site’s highly prized content is more important than the irksome design that hosts it. But very few sites have this overriding advantage.
Users don’t read, they scan.
The vast majority of Web users are impatient. They insist on instant gratification, which gives rise to a very simple principle: If a website isn’t able to meet users’ expectations, then the design has failed to engage the prospect or customer and the company loses an opportunity. The less intuitive the navigation, the more willing users are to leave the site and search for alternatives.
Users don’t make optimal choices.
As a rule, people visiting your site don’t search for the quickest way to find the information they’re looking for. Neither do they scan each page in a linear fashion, going sequentially from one section to another, top to bottom. Instead, users "satisfice" (a blend of "satisfy" and "suffice"): a decision-making strategy that foregoes identifying an optimal solution in favor of choosing the first reasonable option. As soon as a user finds a link that seems like it might lead to their goal, there is a very good chance that it will be clicked immediately. Finding the optimum link first is too often difficult and time consuming. Satisficing, on the other hand, is easy, fast and seems more efficient.
Users follow their intuition.
Typically, users stumble around a page, looking at bits of information rather than reading detailed messages. According to the experts, the basic reason for that is that users don’t care. It doesn’t seem to matter if they understand how a thing works, as long as they quickly understand how to use it. If what is important to a business owner isn’t important to them, they skip it. Presenting them with short, descriptive phrases, bold visual icons and a good use of white space aids their efforts to quickly find what they want. It also gratifies them.
Users want to have control.
Users want to be able to control their browser and rely on the design to consistently present and display data throughout a site in similar fashion. For example, they don’t want to be taken to a different site or browser window unexpectedly – especially if they aren’t able to get back to their pervious page with a simple click of the Back button.
At Cooley Advertising, we’re always looking for ways to improve our clients’ websites. And to do that in meaningful ways means working hard to improve the experience of each and every visitor.
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