Call to Action

Jan 212009
 

Should I say “Call to Action” or “FOUR”? Check out this Discount Golf Equipment site. When you visit you will quickly notice that it is a e-commerce site, and that they sell golf equipment. When visiting one of their product pages the call to action is very obvious. There are product details, pictures, product options, and an obvious method to make a purchase. What about the home page though? Are you compelled to do anything?

Getting Action Out of the Home Page

One of the big problems with a sites home page is that fact that they are usually designed for a general audience. We often design them trying to reveal everything we have to offer, and not really consider what the next action would be.

Here are your options, hope you do something.

So how do you get action out of a visitor without reallying knowing what they want, and without displaying your entire sitemap on the home page? You let them search.

Zappo Into Action

One of my favorite e-commerce sites usability wise is Zappos, the shoe store. What is their major call to action on their home page? It’s their search function. Comparing both sites they are both very similar in content. They both have: a search function, categories of products, and products that you can buy right from the home page. What gets people moving though is the very obvious search box Zappos has. It’s compelling, and once a visitor hits that search button the sale is half way done. Zappos knows the visitor wants shoes, they just don’t what kind. What should the visitor do? They should find it. What should the major call to action be? Make them search.

Not an e-Commerce Site

Not all sites are their to sell, but having a call to action on the home page is still just as important. Imagine if you site was just about golf tips in general like the Golf’s site blog, Golf Equipment Blog. Emphasis needs to be created to why a visitor is there, and what the valuble parts of the site are. Establish specific values, and specific actions will follow.

Site Emphasis

Jan 172009
 

One of the items I check when doing my Usability and Design Analysis is whether or not your site stays on topic. It’s a concept that is easier said than done. Even this site can be trying because I like to make posts that are not necessarily about usability or design. I keep them at least webmaster related, but the main emphasis is not always 100% clear. So what does make a good example?

The site Concert Tickets makes a good example. Looking at the home page you can quickly see that this site is nothing but selling concert tickets. I won’t go into details about the selling process for the site, but you can see how effectively it keeps you on track. The site also has plenty of room for advertisements. See any? No you don’t. Obviously the site owner wants to sell tickets, and not hope to make a cool nickel of a banner click.

Looking at a couple of deeper, more specific pages, The Eagles Tickets and The Dead Tickets, you can see the concept is not lost in keeping you tuned in. The layout is as you would expect after visiting the home page, another important factor, and it’s simply business as usual for this site. Here are the tickets, buy them here.

Concert Tickets is an easy to use site, easy to navigate, does not distract, and when a new visitor comes from a search to their home page it will most likely be perceived as exactly what they were looking for.

Limit Capitalization

Mar 142008
 

There are literally hundreds of items to look for on a site in regards to testing its usability. My favorite topic though, is a group of many of them, and they are all about creating emphasis. I’m a solid believer that every page has its purpose, and too often I see pages that have a difficult time conveying their primary message.

The reason the primary message is often lost is because there are too many uses of emphasis being used. To name a few: bold, red text, underlined text, larger font, change in font type, graphics, and the use of all caps. All to often I find sites that have 10% or more in content that is in all caps. To me, this is almost crazy. Using caps is not just a method to emphasize something, but on the internet, it is also considered a method of yelling. You don’t want to yell at your visitors, DO YOU?

When capitalizing words limit it as if you were using bold. Select only one or two words, possibly a short phrase, and limit its use for the page it is used on. A site with ten items screaming at you, just equals one loud one sided conversation with no emphasis on anything. What’s the point of the page? It should be clear by using a well thought out, highly prioritized, use of emphasis.

Grabbing a Visitors Attention

Mar 032008
 

Over the weekend, I did a special promotion for my favorite webmaster forum, and did a bunch of my Basic Usability and Design Analysis. I found a common theme for many of the sites. The theme was YELLING.

I made a post last week about the use of bold as emphasis. The bottom line of that article, restrain from over using it. When I accuse a site of yelling at me, it is because there are several key points that the webmaster has made on one page. All are clearly yelling out “Look at Me” because they use bold, red text, or a combination of things. If enough of these points are yelling out on one page, not one will appear the likely target, and the emphasis will be lost. The visitor will be lost as well. Here is a simple example.

Which test word has more emphasis?

Word1 | Word2 | Word3 | Word4 | Word5

Difficult to tell at best. If the point of page was to sell Word3, good luck. There is a 1 in 5 chance it will get clicked. Lets try the test again trying to sell Word3.

Which test word has more emphasis?

Word1 | Word2 | Word3 | Word4 | Word5

Pretty obvious where to look now. When using emphasis, or when you are getting ready to tell at a visitor what to do, don’t confuse them. Make your message clear, and let them know where to click. The key is to stay focused on the purpose of that specific page.

Going Bold

Feb 142008
 

I ran across a site yesterday that really went for the Gold, Red, or I guess it was just Bold. In an effort to basically scream at you to buy their product every emphasis technique was used. Font size emphasis, color changes, using bold, and change in font type were all used. My eyes had no idea where to go.

When emphasizing something important you should limit it to just a word, or a very short phrase. Highlighting an entire paragraph in red has little effect besides slowing down reading process. Visitors typically show up at a website for one or two reasons. To find information about something, or to buy something. If you are slowing them down with unnecessary reading, then your not doing anyone a favor.

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