Call to Engage

Most websites are designed to direct you towards a “call to action.” This may be a call to purchase, contact, subscribe, tweet, or download. “Click here” and your wildest fantasies will come true…

This is a very important component to brick and mortar businesses on the Web that need to quantitatively measure the number of contacts, revenue generated from each contact, and cost to acquire these contacts. For a digital downloads site, it’s an even cleaner and more direct route. Set up an Google Adwords campaign, measure the number of exposures, cost-per-click, clickthroughs, and the number of downloads or purchases. It’s a direct funnel with little wavering and clearly defined holes*.

The analytics funnel can be measured simply with numbers in, numbers out, and diversions along the way. 0-100% optimized.

What about blogs, online books in HTML, magazines, or art exhibitions and galleries? An argument can be made that for these types of sites, the goal is to get the user to engage more than it is to get the user to click, buy, or contact. If you are using a photo montage, slideshow, or writing thought-provoking blog articles, is your goal to ship the user away via a click, or to get her engaged, talking about your story, and believing in your vision? A “call to engage” is what this site needs. Design to lead the user into your story, captivate her with your photos, and rid the landscape of peripheral “calls to action.”

Most news sites follow a three or four-column approach to their website. This can be understood, as the news business model is tied around advertising. But, wouldn’t it be nice if you read your articles with big type, restful whitespace, and engaging pictures? Many follow the recipe, but forget that the signal gets lost for the noise when your reading one amongst four columns, and the highest contrasting elements on the page are the banner ads, trying to get you to click away and buy a cell phone.

The next time you redesign, consider if it would be most appropriate to have numerous and loud calls to action, or provoking and relaxing calls to engage.

*The attrition and loss of users along the way due to checkout abandonment, site bounces, or click-aways.

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Posted by Andy Vaughn on April 22nd, 2010 in business, design | 1 Comment »

Smell the Roses

“Stop and Smell the Roses”

…is a famous saying to people who are constantly rushing from here to there, without any enjoyment of the process, no time to reflect on life. In recent history, this statement had validity. People were goal-driven, results-oriented, and didn’t pay attention to anything but the bottom line.

Then came the “Social Web.”

The Social Web gets us all to “Smell the Roses” much more than we used to. We may not acknowledge it, given our history and value for results. But, it’s permeated our culture. And, it may be to our detriment.

Take Facebook, for example. Last Month, Facebook exceeded Google in the number of U.S. visits, and (I’m sure) has a significant advantage in time spent on site.

What behaviors are the average Facebook user engaging in? Social interaction, gaming, browsing photographs, notes, comments, etc. From a user-experience perspective, this is largely “browsing.” There is a frequent lack of purpose, motivation, or driver behind each click. There is a limited number of conversions, and searching yields only the next page of browsing.

One of the more frequent complaints I hear about social media is one of spending too much time and getting nothing accomplished. With a user-interface and design ecosystem engineered to reward browsing, it’s apparent that social media can be both addictive and quantitatively unrewarding.

The results may speak otherwise. I have on frequent occasion received a lead or project due to social media interaction. However, the deal was closed outside the social media arena, and measuring the resources of input in getting that job was difficult.

Facebook, Twitter, and blogs all have value. But, there have been many days where I’ve been socially engaged and feel extremely connected, but accomplish nothing towards my goals. I urge you to be conscientious of your behaviors and the results of those behaviors. Awareness is the first step.

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Posted by Andy Vaughn on April 21st, 2010 in business | No Comments »