User Behaviour and Website Effectiveness
Website user behaviour is driven largely by a series of unconscious expectations built up over years of visiting other websites. If your website deviates from these expectations by too large a margin then the effectiveness of your website will diminish. You should still be creative about how your website looks, but you need to make sure that you take these visitor expectations into account.
If you feel that your website is performing poorly and has untapped potential then one of the things we'd look at is its user bahaviour. Improving how your site interacts with its users is one way to help improve its return on investment (roi).
How DO Users View a Website?
As well as these unconscious expectations there are some basic human traits that need to be considered when designing a website:
- People do not treat all parts of a web page equally - you need to place the important content in the "golden triangle"
- People are impatient - if what they need is not immediately apparent when they arrive at a web page they will leave (and probably return to the search engine results page)
- People cannot process too much information at once - so don't present them with a difficult to navigate site. They like familiar structures.
- Poeple will scan rather than read - so images, colour coding, etc are important for guiding the visitor. And keep any text phrased for a person of a low reading age.
- People do not always absorb what they read (scan)
- People will tend not to scroll below the fold unless guided to do so
- People will not navigate down many levels
We'll Help OPtimise Your Website for User Behaviour
Once we've established the areas of weakness we'll be in a position to advise on how best to reengineer your website to ensure that typical user bahaviour is catered for. Your site then has the best chance of converting visitors into revenue.
If you recognise from the list above that your site does not comfortably accommodate how people typically use a website then there is an opportunity to increase effectiveness and return on investment. Contact us today.