10 most profitable tactics in the process of reworking the site
In this post, I decided to publish my translation of the article by Jacob Nielsen (for more, see here http://www.useit.com/jakob/ ): “10 High Profit Redesign Priorities”.
Some ideas in improving usability directly lead to higher sales and high user ratings. The following design tactics should be at the forefront when updating (creating) a site.
Often I write about the most popular mistakes in web design, but what are the main things you can do to make more money? Next, I will describe 10 Internet tactics with extremely large financial returns.
1. E-MAIL distribution.
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E-MAIL newsletter allows you to build relationships with customers in the intervals between their visits to your site. The newsletter is an excellent companion of the site, because it meets the many needs of users: mailings allow you to constantly keep users up to date with company events; using mailing sites provide users with detailed information and allow them to carry out various business transactions.
E-mail sending is quite an inexpensive thing. It does not require the use of high technology and should not be used too often. If there is no E-MAIL mailing on your site, then implementing this idea right now will probably be the only and most effective way to help increase the profit of your resource. If you already have the functionality of E-MAIL mailing, then the study of the exact needs of users to improve the quality of mailings, will make it at times more important for your organization. (Most of the E-MAIL mailings that we encountered on the way were not able to respond to the hopes of the users that they pinned on it, in order to ensure quality communication with the organization.)
Another advantage of mailing lists is that this is the only way to free your site depending on the search engines. Overall, the path to this release is the most important strategic issue facing Internet managers.
2. Informational content of the Services / Products pages
The product pages of e-commerce sites, “Business to Business” and commerce suffer from a lack of information. It is quite difficult to find pages with a sensible description of products that would give potential customers all the information they need to get in order to make a decision about an order.
In my last book, I provided information indicating that the stingy description of the company's products is responsible for 8% of the usability problems on the sites we tested. Worse yet, a stingy product description is responsible for 10% of users leaving the site (these are the cases when users just left so as not to waste too much time finding out the details and not spoiling their mood). Designing product pages that are aligned with user needs is a high-priority way to increase sales, on the basis that users have already defined their interests through a page visit.
You need to make a detailed description of your products, but with the expectation that it should be clear even to those users who are not experts in your field. For example, on the production page of laptops, do not follow the example of Dell, which describes there that the screen has “WSXGA +” mode. Just say that it has a resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels. (Be honest: did you know this tremin? Moreover, you are probably five times more turned on computers than a normal person.) And even better, be like Apple and show different screen resolutions one after another so that users can visually see how A lot of information can be displayed on each of them.
3. High quality illustrations
One of the easiest ways to improve a product page is to show good illustrations. For a photo of the main character at the top of the page, place the most significant photo of a small size. Below, place a few other photos in different angles, as well as photos showing various details. Also, do not forget the error number 10 from the list of "Top 10 mistakes in Web-design 2005": to make an enlarged version of the illustrations only slightly larger than the original images. Instead, try to make an enlarged version of a small illustration such that it is as close as possible to the maximum screen resolution.
It may seem to you that the use of large illustrations is contrary to the main directive on fast loading Web pages. But there is a fundamental difference between an excessive increase in the size of the pages, by placing inappropriate, large illustrations, and giving the user a view of the illustrations in good resolution only after he asks for it. In the first case, slow loading hinders the flow of visitors to the site. In the second case, the delay in loading is already expected . And in the case that the delay itself is always something bad, at the request of the user, it is no longer such a big problem, as it is designed to meet the user's needs.
The big disadvantage of the online environment is that the user cannot take in hand and consider your product. But photos with approximations and good quality of photos can give the user a good approximate idea of the quality of the product, which is the most important factor in the location of users to online shopping.
For software or online services, show fullscreen screenshots, instead of small photos.
4. Comparison and differences in products
You must get rid of users' fears about the possibility of buying what they do not need. Otherwise, they will constantly postpone orders, and perhaps never buy anything from your site. When you have different products in the same category, you should explain to users so well the difference between them so that they understand what advantages there are in their chosen product compared to others, even if they are not experts in their respective fields.
The distinction between products is clearly easier to implement for companies that are seeking to simplify their product lines from the very beginning. Why offer a bunch of products that actually have no differences? For example, Dell has four different notebook models: Inspiron, Latitude, Precision and XPS, some of which are available on six different sales lines. Even if there is a difference between these models, it is not explained on their website.
Even if you have a small, definite product line, you should obviously make the most of the difference between the products on the site.
Comparison tools can also help the user in choosing, overcoming his helplessness and facilitate the sale. But such tools work only when they illustrate a key difference, briefly and unequivocally. Often, many sites follow the simplest path, loading users with huge tables of specifications, without worrying about highlighting key differences.
5. Support repeat orders
I have already mentioned the best way to organize repeat orders: implement E-MAIL newsletter, which will make users think of you even when they are not ready to buy. And when they want to spend their money, they will remember, of course, about you.
To make people spend more money, make repeat orders as simple as possible. People often need the same things over and over. Why make them go from time to time all five levels of navigation on your site? Clients of “Business for Business” sites often need to order various resources, spare parts, accessories for equipment that they have already purchased, so you should make these types of orders as simple as possible.
Last month, in one of our studios, a team of testers greatly appreciated this when FreshDirect (online groceries) allowed them to make repeat orders from their previous shopping list.
Re-orders are the reasons for the total user experience, outside the site interface. Combine your product line with the possibility of future repeat orders. Continue to distribute classic items so that people can order new copies of things they like. If you are going to release new things, keep the dimensions and other parameters the same. For example, if a user bought a certain size sweater a year ago, then when buying a new year's sweater model with the same dimensions, he must be sure that he will suit him like the previous one. Maintaining a constant size is much more important for electronic sales than for retail real, where people can try on things they like before buying.
6. Simplify text
You can double the usability of the web or intranet site simply by rewriting the text, following the instructions for online content. Improving the content is perhaps the most important improvement you can make to your site, but this improvement is on far positions in this list (as you can see - note), because it is not a one-time fix. You should hire good editors for all your projects, train them in writing for the Internet, and check all their texts with even better editors who are even more aware of the usability of the content.
This procedure can be quite expensive, but it is worth it.
7. Delivery for the elderly
Older people are the fastest growing segment of Internet users. In fact, this is the only ever growing group of users in rich countries where the majority of young people who want to shop online already have accounts.
Most elderly citizens are rich and do-it-yourself time control. When it becomes difficult for them to move around a lot, the Internet becomes the best place for them to spend a huge pile of their money. Older people tend to be more intolerant of piracy and tend to spend money on legal things, unlike fancy young people.
Best of all, you can take advantage of the fact that most sites discriminate terribly against older people. Even government sites, which are supposed to be aimed at people of retirement age, have a design that satisfies about thirty people. Due to the fact that most sites are difficult to use for older people, they will very well help your business if you are the noble exception that recognizes their specific needs. (Generally speaking, these needs are not so specific - it is much easier to make a website accessible for use by older people than to make a website for the needs of people with disabilities; moreover, older people are much larger and much richer.)
8. Giving gifts
Special wish lists and gift certificates are cheap ways to increase your sales and present the site to new users.
9. Search
Perhaps this item should not be on this list; but nevertheless, the benefit of improving the search is simply enormous, the required investment is large enough, incomparably greater than for all the other points described here. Therefore, the proportion of price / benefit is not so stunning a boon to search, compared to my other recommendations. But this is still a positive improvement, so you should work on it.
Users are very dependent on search, which is the main interface of the Internet. While the search is getting better for the entire Internet as a whole, it remains at a rather sad level for web and intranet sites.
Improving the search on your site requires you to purchase and install the best search software, followed by "tuning" for your content and user requests (for example, adaptation of spell check). Worse, you may need to fix all your content so that it is searchable. For example, you may need to rewrite the titles of the pages that would clearly describe the content of the page, so that users know what they will see on the page if they click on the link with this title in the search. You will also need to write "use a user dictionary."
While redoing all the content of a resource for search accessibility is quite expensive, it will allow you to improve the position of the site in external search engines, and SEO (search engine optimization (promotion)), as you know, is one of the most important ways to get greater profits. Investing in a search is a much more sensible investment than scrolling through ads that most users won't see due to banner blindness.
10. User Testing
User testing deserves to be number one on this list because it contributes to correctly defining the goals and functioning of the project, with little or no investment. But I know that most users do not pay attention when I say too much about the need for testing: people prefer to be told what to do than to learn from their own mistakes.
Despite all this unpopularity, I still recommend that you do custom tests. There are always questions that are unique in your own activities, which are simply impossible to solve by reading general research. Always remember: the doctrine of usability can cost you very cheaply, especially if you use inexpensive paper prototypes that allow you to test the interface even when it is at the design stage.
Some ideas in improving usability directly lead to higher sales and high user ratings. The following design tactics should be at the forefront when updating (creating) a site.
Often I write about the most popular mistakes in web design, but what are the main things you can do to make more money? Next, I will describe 10 Internet tactics with extremely large financial returns.
1. E-MAIL distribution.
')
E-MAIL newsletter allows you to build relationships with customers in the intervals between their visits to your site. The newsletter is an excellent companion of the site, because it meets the many needs of users: mailings allow you to constantly keep users up to date with company events; using mailing sites provide users with detailed information and allow them to carry out various business transactions.
E-mail sending is quite an inexpensive thing. It does not require the use of high technology and should not be used too often. If there is no E-MAIL mailing on your site, then implementing this idea right now will probably be the only and most effective way to help increase the profit of your resource. If you already have the functionality of E-MAIL mailing, then the study of the exact needs of users to improve the quality of mailings, will make it at times more important for your organization. (Most of the E-MAIL mailings that we encountered on the way were not able to respond to the hopes of the users that they pinned on it, in order to ensure quality communication with the organization.)
Another advantage of mailing lists is that this is the only way to free your site depending on the search engines. Overall, the path to this release is the most important strategic issue facing Internet managers.
2. Informational content of the Services / Products pages
The product pages of e-commerce sites, “Business to Business” and commerce suffer from a lack of information. It is quite difficult to find pages with a sensible description of products that would give potential customers all the information they need to get in order to make a decision about an order.
In my last book, I provided information indicating that the stingy description of the company's products is responsible for 8% of the usability problems on the sites we tested. Worse yet, a stingy product description is responsible for 10% of users leaving the site (these are the cases when users just left so as not to waste too much time finding out the details and not spoiling their mood). Designing product pages that are aligned with user needs is a high-priority way to increase sales, on the basis that users have already defined their interests through a page visit.
You need to make a detailed description of your products, but with the expectation that it should be clear even to those users who are not experts in your field. For example, on the production page of laptops, do not follow the example of Dell, which describes there that the screen has “WSXGA +” mode. Just say that it has a resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels. (Be honest: did you know this tremin? Moreover, you are probably five times more turned on computers than a normal person.) And even better, be like Apple and show different screen resolutions one after another so that users can visually see how A lot of information can be displayed on each of them.
3. High quality illustrations
One of the easiest ways to improve a product page is to show good illustrations. For a photo of the main character at the top of the page, place the most significant photo of a small size. Below, place a few other photos in different angles, as well as photos showing various details. Also, do not forget the error number 10 from the list of "Top 10 mistakes in Web-design 2005": to make an enlarged version of the illustrations only slightly larger than the original images. Instead, try to make an enlarged version of a small illustration such that it is as close as possible to the maximum screen resolution.
It may seem to you that the use of large illustrations is contrary to the main directive on fast loading Web pages. But there is a fundamental difference between an excessive increase in the size of the pages, by placing inappropriate, large illustrations, and giving the user a view of the illustrations in good resolution only after he asks for it. In the first case, slow loading hinders the flow of visitors to the site. In the second case, the delay in loading is already expected . And in the case that the delay itself is always something bad, at the request of the user, it is no longer such a big problem, as it is designed to meet the user's needs.
The big disadvantage of the online environment is that the user cannot take in hand and consider your product. But photos with approximations and good quality of photos can give the user a good approximate idea of the quality of the product, which is the most important factor in the location of users to online shopping.
For software or online services, show fullscreen screenshots, instead of small photos.
4. Comparison and differences in products
You must get rid of users' fears about the possibility of buying what they do not need. Otherwise, they will constantly postpone orders, and perhaps never buy anything from your site. When you have different products in the same category, you should explain to users so well the difference between them so that they understand what advantages there are in their chosen product compared to others, even if they are not experts in their respective fields.
The distinction between products is clearly easier to implement for companies that are seeking to simplify their product lines from the very beginning. Why offer a bunch of products that actually have no differences? For example, Dell has four different notebook models: Inspiron, Latitude, Precision and XPS, some of which are available on six different sales lines. Even if there is a difference between these models, it is not explained on their website.
Even if you have a small, definite product line, you should obviously make the most of the difference between the products on the site.
Comparison tools can also help the user in choosing, overcoming his helplessness and facilitate the sale. But such tools work only when they illustrate a key difference, briefly and unequivocally. Often, many sites follow the simplest path, loading users with huge tables of specifications, without worrying about highlighting key differences.
5. Support repeat orders
I have already mentioned the best way to organize repeat orders: implement E-MAIL newsletter, which will make users think of you even when they are not ready to buy. And when they want to spend their money, they will remember, of course, about you.
To make people spend more money, make repeat orders as simple as possible. People often need the same things over and over. Why make them go from time to time all five levels of navigation on your site? Clients of “Business for Business” sites often need to order various resources, spare parts, accessories for equipment that they have already purchased, so you should make these types of orders as simple as possible.
Last month, in one of our studios, a team of testers greatly appreciated this when FreshDirect (online groceries) allowed them to make repeat orders from their previous shopping list.
Re-orders are the reasons for the total user experience, outside the site interface. Combine your product line with the possibility of future repeat orders. Continue to distribute classic items so that people can order new copies of things they like. If you are going to release new things, keep the dimensions and other parameters the same. For example, if a user bought a certain size sweater a year ago, then when buying a new year's sweater model with the same dimensions, he must be sure that he will suit him like the previous one. Maintaining a constant size is much more important for electronic sales than for retail real, where people can try on things they like before buying.
6. Simplify text
You can double the usability of the web or intranet site simply by rewriting the text, following the instructions for online content. Improving the content is perhaps the most important improvement you can make to your site, but this improvement is on far positions in this list (as you can see - note), because it is not a one-time fix. You should hire good editors for all your projects, train them in writing for the Internet, and check all their texts with even better editors who are even more aware of the usability of the content.
This procedure can be quite expensive, but it is worth it.
7. Delivery for the elderly
Older people are the fastest growing segment of Internet users. In fact, this is the only ever growing group of users in rich countries where the majority of young people who want to shop online already have accounts.
Most elderly citizens are rich and do-it-yourself time control. When it becomes difficult for them to move around a lot, the Internet becomes the best place for them to spend a huge pile of their money. Older people tend to be more intolerant of piracy and tend to spend money on legal things, unlike fancy young people.
Best of all, you can take advantage of the fact that most sites discriminate terribly against older people. Even government sites, which are supposed to be aimed at people of retirement age, have a design that satisfies about thirty people. Due to the fact that most sites are difficult to use for older people, they will very well help your business if you are the noble exception that recognizes their specific needs. (Generally speaking, these needs are not so specific - it is much easier to make a website accessible for use by older people than to make a website for the needs of people with disabilities; moreover, older people are much larger and much richer.)
8. Giving gifts
Special wish lists and gift certificates are cheap ways to increase your sales and present the site to new users.
9. Search
Perhaps this item should not be on this list; but nevertheless, the benefit of improving the search is simply enormous, the required investment is large enough, incomparably greater than for all the other points described here. Therefore, the proportion of price / benefit is not so stunning a boon to search, compared to my other recommendations. But this is still a positive improvement, so you should work on it.
Users are very dependent on search, which is the main interface of the Internet. While the search is getting better for the entire Internet as a whole, it remains at a rather sad level for web and intranet sites.
Improving the search on your site requires you to purchase and install the best search software, followed by "tuning" for your content and user requests (for example, adaptation of spell check). Worse, you may need to fix all your content so that it is searchable. For example, you may need to rewrite the titles of the pages that would clearly describe the content of the page, so that users know what they will see on the page if they click on the link with this title in the search. You will also need to write "use a user dictionary."
While redoing all the content of a resource for search accessibility is quite expensive, it will allow you to improve the position of the site in external search engines, and SEO (search engine optimization (promotion)), as you know, is one of the most important ways to get greater profits. Investing in a search is a much more sensible investment than scrolling through ads that most users won't see due to banner blindness.
10. User Testing
User testing deserves to be number one on this list because it contributes to correctly defining the goals and functioning of the project, with little or no investment. But I know that most users do not pay attention when I say too much about the need for testing: people prefer to be told what to do than to learn from their own mistakes.
Despite all this unpopularity, I still recommend that you do custom tests. There are always questions that are unique in your own activities, which are simply impossible to solve by reading general research. Always remember: the doctrine of usability can cost you very cheaply, especially if you use inexpensive paper prototypes that allow you to test the interface even when it is at the design stage.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/31491/
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