How clients really use your website

It sounds simple enough to solve, but when every client or prospect has different information needs, how can you solve everyone's needs at the same time? You can't ... but you can get a lot closer to the reality of how your visitors really use the web.

In analysing sites, we usually find design and construction that assumes visitors will pour over each paragraph, reading every word and then carefully comparing their options before finally clicking on a link.

In reality, most visitors will just glance at a page. Quickly run their eyes over some of the text and then quickly click on the link that looks like it might answer their question. Large parts of your page real estate - even whole sections - are entirely overlooked.

You're thinking that you need to create a great product brochure with lots of detail while the reality for your site visitor is a highway billboard that is flashing past at 100 kilometres per hour.

Of course, this is a generalisation but if you think about your own browsing habits, you're sure to find these habits familiar.

So, three reality checks about how your clients and prospects use your website in the real world ...

Reality Check #1: Visitors don't read your website ... they scan your website

This is very much like when we say we read the newspaper in the morning. Really we scan through the paper. Because if we truly read the paper it would take us hours every day. We look for flag words that are relevant to us in headlines, which give clues to how relevant an article might be to our interests.

It's exactly the same online. We look for clues and prompts within the text, navigation and graphics that might lead us to the information we desire.

The exception to the rule is that when we find the information we are seeking, we will stop to read content like news stories and product descriptions. But if the content is longer than just a couple of paragraphs, many viewers will print it because it's easier to read off paper than from the screen.

Why can you rely on your visitors scanning and not reading your web pages?

  • Clients and prospects are usually in a hurry.
  • Visitors know they don't have to read everything.
  • They've become very good at scanning.

Reality Check #2: Visitors don't make optimal choices

Pages are often designed in the mistaken thinking that users will assess the options before them and make a rational choice about the optimal outcome.

The reality is quite different. Usually we don't choose the best option ... we choose the first reasonable option. As soon as we discover a link that looks like it might answer our quest for information, we click on it.

In his 1998 book Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions, Gary Klein describes how he spent 15 years studying high-stakes decision making by fighter pilots, fire fighters and chess masters. In their first study of field commanders at fire scenes, they began with the hypothesis that the commanders would compare just two options and choose the most optimal.

In reality, the commanders didn't compare any options. They took the first reasonable plan that came to mind and then did a quick mental check for problems with their plan. If they couldn't see any problems, they had just developed their plan of action.

So why don't your clients and prospects make optional decisions when visiting your site?

  • They are usually in a hurry - again.
  • There is very little downside to making a poor decision ... just click 'back'.
  • Weighing up the options may not improve their chances on a poorly designed site.

Reality Check #3: Visitors just muddle through

In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there with a hidden camera filming the area. What they saw was kids from the slum playing around with the computer and in the process learning how to use it and how to go online, and then teaching each other.

Your clients and prospects exhibit the same online behaviour. Few will ever take the time to read instructions. Rather they dive in head first and muddle through ... and in the end, learning.

And the reality is, we get things done that way. We've noted many people use websites effectively in ways that are far removed from what the designers intended.

For example, people will type a website's entire URL in the Google search box every time they want to visit ... sometimes several times a day. They think that Google is the Internet, and that this is the way you use it. But it works for them.

Why are your website visitors content to just muddle through?

  • It's not important for them to understand how things work, as long as they can use them.
  • If they find something that works - even poorly - they stick to it.

The answer: if your audience is going to act like you're designing billboards, then design great billboards.

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