Few websites are built on existential philosophies. Sites are built with a purpose: to be seen, to draw interaction and to create relationships. Just as we could ask if a tree makes a sound when it falls alone in the forest, we could also question if a website truly exists if it has no page views. For companies with a web presence, interaction is the goal.
According to Joshua Porter and his blog “52weeksofux.com,” interaction with a website can be broken into a cycle with five phases:
1. First Contact: First awareness of your website. Does it spark interest? Do they understand your site’s message?
2. First Time Use: The initial interaction and real first impression of your site. The user evaluates your design and makes an instantaneous decision to continue using your site.
3. Ongoing Use: Coming back for more helpings.
4. Passionate Use: The holy grail of web design. Users aren’t just regularly checking in, they’re immersed, clicking on multiple links, interacting with applications, and then telling sharing it with everyone from family to childhood sweethearts to possible stalkers via Facebook and Twitter.
5. Death: Despite your best intentions, your design failed. Users didn’t understand your navigation. Cluttered sidebars. Confusing instructions. Page views trickle toward zero, and you begin to consider a redesign.
“Passionate use” websites are like that one pair of jeans in your closet that make you look five pounds thinner, hit your ankle in the perfect spot, and never seem to stretch out after multiple wears. Your other jeans might be a good fit, but they’re never quite right, and you never feel that surge of confidence when you slip them on. Like those perfect pants, “passionate use” websites feel comfortable when you’re interacting with them. And that’s what all companies want to give to visitors of their websites – comfort, ease, confidence.
That feeling of comfort companies strive for is largely unconscious, generally a result of the decisions of the designer. If you look at most “passionate use” sites, they seem to have some basic principles in common.
Simplicity. Google and Craigslist are proof that people crave simple designs. With less clutter comes less confusion. These sites are quick and efficient, and while Google might lack the design flair of a search engine like Bing, it still reigns because it clears away all distractions between you and your goal.
Organization. “Passionate use” sites have a visual hierarchy. At first glance, size, colors, and layout position can tell a user which content is most important. Without any visual cues, a site is confusing. The best sites communicate the hierarchy of its content instantly, quickly ushering the user to the goal they came for and leaving behind a pleasant after taste. The New York Times website is among the most popular news sites, largely because it successfully organizes thousands of stories. The headline story is in a large, bold font. One picture is bigger than the others on the homepage. The eye follows the size of the headlines, order is maintained, and the human desire for stability is satisfied.
Content. No matter how glamorous, how innovative, or how noteworthy the design of a website is, it will fall into the death phase of the usage cycle if the content is shallow. Design is crucial, but without interesting, engaging content – the bread and butter of a website – it’s bound to starve.
If websites are like jeans, then Google Reader is like my closet.
Great insights. So often web design is treated like a work horse, expected to do the work of the strategists and planners, but in reality, it’s the design twists and tweaks that can make a site live or die.