Focus On Your Customer’s Core Needs
Many web sites fail in usability because they do not understand or anticipate
how visitors will use their site. Web sites designed for usability, on the other
hand, understand their customers, what they want, how they interact with the web
site.
An Example of How to Anticipate Your Core Customer’s Needs
Here is an example of how to increase the usability of your web site by focusing
on your core customer needs. Lets say you have an on-line flower shop. What are
the core needs of your customers?
| 1. |
Choose the flower arrangements by price and/or appearance. |
| 2. |
Determine whether your company can deliver to their desired location
on time. |
| 3. |
Determine that you are a reputable company that they can trust.
|
| 4. |
Place the order easily and quickly. |
So the first step would be to have your web site design company build an on-line
catalog that can be searched by price and type of flower arrangement. You might
have delivery search box that allows customers to search by zip code. Next, information
about your company, including your address, phone number and guarantee should
be immediately accessible. Finally, the order process must be as simple as possible.
This means asking only for information absolutely necessary to place the order.
It also means making it clear to the customer at the beginning of the order process,
exactly what they are ordering, when it will be delivered, and how much it will
cost, including shipping.
A Common Mistake: Web Site Design Based on Your Organization Structure Rather
than the Needs of Your Customers
One of the most common mistakes made in corporate, governmental or organizational
web site designs is to model their web site around their organization structure.
This type of web site design is "inward looking". It may make sense to its creators
within the organization, but generally will create a frustrating experience for
visitors to the site since it does not anticipate or attempt to meet their needs.
An organizationally structured web site is categorized by department or division.
Often, each division will create their own web content and may even give their
web pages a unique look and feel. This type of web design makes sense to management
within the organization. In fact, it may be very appropriate for intranet web
sites within an organization. So why is this type of web site design bad for web
design usability? Because this type of web site design ignores the needs of your
customers. The visitor to your web site will have very specific reasons visiting
your site. They see your company or organization in terms of fulfilling those
needs.
Here is an example. Say you want to find out how to volunteer for the local
county run homeless shelter. You visit your county’s web site and are inundated
by a maze of departments and governmental services. So you start to guess which
department runs the homeless shelter. The web pages of each department all have
a unique navigational structure so finding your way becomes an exercise in futility.
Alternatively, the county’s web site design could be organized around key customer
needs. Every page on the county’s web site could contain a common keyword search
box as well as a dropdown menu that lists the most popular county services. In
addition you could have a site map that lists all county services alphabetically
as well as a frequently asked question (FAQ) area that logs and answers all questions
that are asked county employees.
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