Marketers know that in order to execute successful campaigns, all channels of communication with customers require at least one call to action. The Web is absolutely no exception. In fact due to information overload, it demands even more candidly communicated calls. Calls to action extend much further than buying and include subscribing, donating, applying, submitting, bookmarking the page, contacting, referring to friends, discussing, getting help or support, or simply getting involved.

Visitors make a decision about whether or not to stay at a Web site very quickly, usually within a few seconds. Does your Web site convey its three most important calls to action within 20 seconds of a visitor arriving at your home page? If not the action they may well take is to hit the Back button.

Being an avid internet user myself, it’s all too often I see a corporate Web site simply displayed as an electronic brochure and find myself hitting the Back button or typing in another URL.

It all comes down to content. The right words will capture the attention of visitors and drive them to action and the wrong words will lead to distraction. "The goal of content is to expose business value and articulate it in a way that matters to the customer," leading subject matter experts Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg write. "Great copy persuades the reader to take action."

Studies of shopping behavior show that consumers tend to be more likely to buy something if they are asked to do so. Even panhandlers who ask for money on the street are much more successful than those who just hold out a cup or a sign!

So perhaps you are a charity or government department and you don’t have a commercial purpose in the sense of selling goods and services; however you still want to generate a call to action: an opportunity for the visitor to say, "Yes I'm interested!"

Every time you write a piece of Web content, you should also write at least one call to action at the end of that content. That's maximising your chances of converting a visitor to a prospect.

You may think that putting a simple contact form on your Web site will generate leads, and sure enough if you have a totally unique product or service it will generate a few. But most businesses operate within a competitive landscape, one with similar products and services. The best way of generating as many sales leads as possible is through demonstrating how and why someone would want to contact your company.

The whole idea is to get the users of your Web site to do something, or to direct them to a page or section of your website that you would like them to see. To do this, provide links within a product or service's descriptive content, and direct them to an online contact form that contains those same link texts. Links like "Receive a product demo", "Take a tour of this property", "Learn more about xyz" are all effective ways to directing your Web site visitors into a course of action.

By doing this you answer both fundamental questions; Why am I contacting you? (eg. for a product demo) and How do I do it? (eg. by following this link to a contact form).

Namita Davey, Project Manager

Labels: Design and Usability, Web marketing

The term ‘usability’ refers to how well someone might use a human-made tool to achieve a particular goal. Within the context of web design it refers to how efficiently a task can be completed, be it purchasing an item, looking for information or completing a function. The usability of a device is best summarised by Jakob Nielson's and Ben Shneiderman's five defining factors:

• Learnability (e.g. intuitive navigation)
  
• Efficiency of use
  
• Memorability
  
• Few and non-catastrophic errors
  
• Subjective satisfaction

These five factors should be at the front of mind during any web design project. Furthermore, the process should be user-centred so that its outcome is more likely to rate well against each of these factors upon completion. However, what becomes problematic is the measurement of ‘Subjective satisfaction’. Although this is the most difficult factor to measure, herein lies the greatest opportunity to create a truly unique and memorable experience.

Usability rules have become ubiquitous and it is almost easy to forget to even question them. We refer to previous work or best practice examples which all suggest the same things which in turn validate our decision to prescribe the same thing over and over again. All outcomes are categorically 'usable' but at the same time risk being indistinguishable. For the same reason I would hate Volvo to be the only car on the road I would also hate to see every Web site look the same. Essentially what I am interested in is the less discussed (and equally important) idea of knowing when to break convention and when to invite innovation into the process of creating a usable product.

At this point I could refer to many, many products which in my mind have exceeded all five of Nielson and Schniederman’s five factors whilst also breaking convention and ultimately providing an elegant outcome which is truly innovative. The iPod is an obvious choice. The very nature of how the device is used by its owner makes it unique and desirable. Instead of compromising the design, in effect a focus on usability has completely informed the design. This allows the product to ‘cut-through’ and establish itself as a one-of-a-kind.

Another example is Droog’s toilet door handle for the blind. This simple door handle appears much like any other. When you clasp the door handle you instantly feel the braille bumps behind the handle which:

• for the blind, instantly identifies the ‘male toilet’ from the ‘female toilet’ (without having to search for any additional reference)
• for the non-blind, instantly raises social awareness of the blind
• and as a piece of design is uncompromising

Given today is World Usability Day, I think it is important that we consider how to use usability as an aid in developing great refreshing design rather than a catalyst for more of the same. Yes usability is important (if not critical) so let’s make sure we truly understand it, embrace it and help it improve people’s day to day lives.

Tim Kotsiakos, Creative Director

Labels: Design and Usability