10e20 Blog

Treating your users or audience like a human being rather than a faceless mouse clicker is crucial to any relationship online. Some sites excel in their ability to inspire and encourage a user to go deeper, feel comfortable with the experience they are about to have and possibly visit again or tell a friend.

Professional design has this effect, from the spacing of information so that each block of content is far enough apart from the other so that the eye can flow smoother- to the copy written with personality, making an audience feel as if they are understood or even better part of the conversation.

Give me options
Look at this page that I am directed to after I create an account with Flickr.com:

It welcomes me with an ‘OK, you’re all set…‘ and then suggests some pointers to help get me started as well as some recent photo submissions from users that I can investigate further.

Same thing when a Gmail account is created. I am shown some simple tips graphically and then prompted to ‘see my account‘:

Moo.com has another great example of this. When I completed an order instead of simply saying, “great your done, thanks for the order!” I am prompted to sign up for the Moo newsletter, “catch up” on the Moo blog and view what other people are doing with Moo cards on the Moo Flickr group:

Have a personality
When my order was completed and confirmed I received an email notice of the status. It wasn’t the same dry copy saying the usual stuff. Yes, all the information I needed was in there but it also made me laugh. That is great. I will be more likely to use them surely if the product meets my expectations. Look at the personality put into this automated bit of information (some information removed):

Hello patrick

I’m Little MOO - the bit of software that will be managing your order with us. It will shortly be sent to Big MOO, our print machine who will print it for you in the next few days. I’ll let you know when it’s done and on its way to you.

Remember, I’m just a bit of software. So, if you have any questions regarding your order please first read our Frequently Asked Questions
at: http://www.moo.com/help/

and if you’re still not sure, contact customer services (who are real
people) at: http://www.moo.com/service/

Thanks,
Little MOO, Print Robot

Tell me a story
Covering all the angles seems to be the direction that news sites are going in with regards to telling a story. Reading a recent story online at CNN I am presented with more than just a few paragraphs of the story. I can view 2 videos, look through some relevant photos and read 3 articles that deal with the same main story:

This broadens the reach of the story and allows the user/reader to learn more and become further engulfed. And this can all be done at the pace of the user, unlike a news cast on TV when it is a linear event- the internet allows for a non-linear gathering of this information.

Respect my time
Respecting a users time may require that a designer or writer sit in the users shoes. Does your events listing site have a lengthy flash animation welcoming the user each time? This may deter a parent sitting down at the home computer for the only 20 free minutes they have that night to research a weekend activity with the kids.

Cut to the chase. Give the information in the time you would want it. Bells and whistles are for New Years Eve, keep it to the essentials. Think of your work as a haiku and limit to what is important to tell the story effectively, sell the product or simply relay the information. People will thank you.

Habitat’s site for home decor had even me a bit confused for a second with their initial page. I was supposed to choose what to do next but the options are hidden initially and when I realize that I have to rollover the 3 sections to reveal the navigation I am distracted by the movement and how it hides the previous section. This, in my opinion was not needed.

The products are beautiful and the site is super clean without it. When I finally got into the site there was a good example of using Flash effectively and creatively. Photos of various rooms in a house are shown and when you rollover them (again, I would have liked it if it was obvious to me that these elements were interactive without requiring interaction to know this) you see what product it is. This is nice.

Look at Adobes page for Flash, there is a tiny bit of animation towards the bottom on this page and they sell the program! Yes, minimal use on a page is fine or full blown sites with Flash that are meant to be explored in such a way are great but knowing your audience and their needs are paramount.

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