Losing Confidence: Does confidence and relevancy affect a site

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Notes on slide 1

I wanted to explore the idea of how user confidence affects a site and what happens when a users loses their confidence to continue.

Visitors come to a site expecting the site to fulfill their need – But they won’t stick around if they don’t have the confidence in the site to deliver what they need

Stand Up. Imagine you need to send a clean and simple Bday card to your mom. Nothing over the top just a short happy bday message. Sit down anytime you wonder, even momentarily, if you’ll find the type of card you’re looking for. Once sitting, stay sitting until we get through the experiment.

Do you still think AG will be able to help you? Sit down at any point that you wonder to yourself if you are going in the right direction

3 pages in do you still think AG will be able to help you?

Is this a card you would send to your mom? If not would you continue searching? If not go ahead and sit down. Ask person still standing what about the experience is still inspiring your confidence (1 sentence)? Ask 1 st person that sat down what caused them to lose confidence so quickly (1 sentence)? So confidence levels vary greatly for any number of reasons but a site should do everything it possible can to keep users’ confidence levels high.

My theory is that there is a lot that plays into user confidence – the correct / incorrect presentation of triggers (links), the way a site looks, the type of content they are looking for, number of clicks (though much less significant), etc.

Visitors come to your site with a fairly high confidence level. Each page a user encounters on a site either adds to or subtracts user confidence

A well structured page will better match user’s expectations and move them closer to completing their goal adds confidence

It’s only natural then that a poorly designed page will severely impact a user’s confidence level A page that doesn’t match expectations or makes the user feel they are getting further away from completing their goal reduces confidence

Spool conducted studies on how links affect confidence. And saw as users’ confidence dropped so did their chance of finding content. Similar patterns are happening on our sites. But as I mentioned earlier I believe there is more to confidence levels than just links.

Quality of Link Titles Style & Presentation of Design

JibJab’s home page does a good job of reinforcing their brand proposition – funny content If you come here looking for funny it’s clear that is the only thing you are getting

Hallmark is trying to sell plates – mail you paper cards – and show ecards all at the same time This page doesn’t have a clear focus – trying to give me relevant content but missing the mark

Organized page layout Good user flows

Designing clear user paths makes finding content easier

Creating links that cause a lot of back and forth (pogo-sticking) adds confusion – lowering confidence

After you navigate to a bucket of content it’s the content’s job to add confidence

Gap doesn’t just mix all jeans together – they organize ‘like type’ of jeans together adding confidence they will have what you want Grouping makes choosing easier

Macy’s has a random mix of content – if I’m looking for only boot cut jeans and don’t see them right away my confidence level has been reduced

Jared Spool conducted testing on only links – I want to see how other factors affect confidence. Expand on the existing notion of only links add confidence. Over the next 6-9 months I’m planning on conducting studies, testing projects, making site updates around this idea.

Any thoughts, data or studies that you are willing to share to either prove or disprove my theory are welcomed.

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Losing Confidence: Does confidence and relevancy affect a site - Presentation Transcript

LOSING LOSING Does confidence & relevancy affects a site CONFIDENCE CONFIDENCE Craig Kistler November 12, 2009 World Usability Day
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lapstrake/2658665656/
LET’S TRY LET’S TRY SOMETHING SOMETHING Quick & dirty crowdsourcing study
THEORY THEORY
Send Exit Confidence Level High Confidence Low Confidence Fairly high confidence level starting off
Send Exit Confidence Level High Confidence Low Confidence Closer to completing goal adds confidence
Send Exit Confidence Level High Confidence Low Confidence Further from completing goal reduces confidence
Jared Spool Founder, User Interface Engineering “ ” We were amazed when we discovered the answers from the first three clicks strongly predicted whether the user would eventually succeed or fail, even if the clickstream was 15 or 20 clicks long… As soon as the confidence values dropped, so did the chances of the users finding their desired content.
3 THINGS 3 THINGS That affect visitor confidence
1 Relevancy Relevant Links, Relevant Design, Relevant Content
Links & Design Reinforce Brand
Trying to Say to Much
2 Good IA Well Organized Flows, Pages and Content
Thoughtful User Flows
Irrelevant User Flows
3 Content Merchandising appropriate types of content
Grouping Content Makes Choosing Easier Easy Fit Loose Boot
Random Content Forces Users to Work Harder
NEXT NEXT Proving or Disproving the Theory of Confidence STEPS STEPS
THANK YOU THANK YOU ckistler@ag.com Twitter @ SmallFarmDesign