Designing to Make Customers Return

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Designing to Make Customers Return

• Chris Rourke
• User Vision Ltd www.uservision.co.uk
• 20 March 2002
• eBusinessClubs, Glasgow

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Who is User Vision?

• Edinburgh-based Usability Consultancy
• Usability Services to Products, Web sites and
  Software
• Consultancy
• Audits / evaluations
• Usability Testing
• Training
• Clients include Dell, Intelligent Finance,
  Scottish Enterprise, Royal Bank of Scotland,
  Scottish Widows, BT
• My background Trained in
• Engineering Psychology
• Human Factors / HCI
• Ergonomics
• 12 Years consulting and training experience

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Outline

• Components of good sites
• E-commerce Conversion rates
• Improving the User Experience

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Why Do You Return to Websites?
Source Forrester Research
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Different sites have different needs

• E-commerce - Amazon
• Good prices selection
• Ease of use to find purchase
• Trust
• Portal Site - Yahoo
• Good topic organisation
• Breadth of topics
• Good content
• Ease of use - search

• Community - Motley Fool, friendsreunited
• Good content
• Ease of use message boards
• Trust
• News / Info BBC
• Good content (archives)
• Ease of use search
• Brochureware
• Informative content
• Design / Style
• Ease of use

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News Information site
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Community Site
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E-Commerce Site
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Conversion Rates

• Success on the web number of people who visit X
  the who become customers (conversion rate)
• 43 of purchase attempts to purchase goods on the
  web fail Creative Good The Dotcom
  Survival Guide

The user experience is the next competitive
battleground Jerry Gregoire, former CIO Dell
Computer
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Conversion Rates

• Percentage of site visits that result in a
  purchase (or whatever you wanted the visitor to
  do at your site)

Average conversion rate
Shop.org and Boston Consulting Group, The State
of Online Retailing, April 2000 PC Data
Online, 2000
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Why Conversion Rates Fall
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Effect of Increasing Conversion Rate
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Improving Success Rates

• To double the success rate of a site, you either
  need to double the number of visitors or double
  the conversion rate

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Benefits of Usability on Web

• Increased conversion rates
• Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Word of mouth
• Reduced development costs
• Increased productivity (intranets)

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Why Is Usability Suddenly Important?

• Web offers
• Complexity
• Technology
• Compelling features

• Users want
• Simplicity
• Service
• Achieve goal

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Web Usability Design Principles

• Home Page
• Page layout and content
• Merchandising
• Download times
• Navigation and Links
• Search Engines

• Registration, Application Forms
• Error messages
• Frames
• Web Accessibility
• Flash

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Download Time Page Size
If your pages are slow, your users will go

• Guidelines
• 1 second feel moving freely through the pages
• 10 seconds to keep attention on task
• Aim for 40 to 50 Kb
• Repeat graphics (cache) and improve perceived
  time
• Optimise images
• Specify height and width of every image and
  table.

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Navigation Mystery navigation

• Which symbol is
• Profile
• Tech. Support
• Services
• Contact
• FAQs
• Search
• Technology
• News

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Search Engines
Spell check logic helps users find goal
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Product Comparison
Letting customers compare products gives them
much more confidence in purchasing on-line
www.infocus.com
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Navigation to a goal

• Allow users to select different browsing
  strategies to reach their goal
• Tabs
• Search
• Ways to shop

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Registration
Clear instructions on the page help users avoid
errors
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Conclusion

• On the web, perception of brand quality is
  determined by the customer experience, not only
  the visual look of the site
• People return to sites where they achieve their
  goals
• Good usability and content will encourage your
  users to return
• Learn more Introduction to Web Usability 25
  June, Glasgow UK Online for Business
• www.uservision.co.uk
• chris_at_uservision.co.uk

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