10.06.2008
Branding & UI for the smart(er) web visitor
posted by Stephen Banks @ 11:20 AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7417496.stm

This recent article from the BBC has huge implications for web based design, branding and UI. It literally changes everything about what we think about "top down" design.''

Quick quote from the article & renowned usability expert and author Jakob Nielsen:

"In 2004, about 40% of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60% use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there."

In brief, it says that 75% of visitors to a site don't come in through the home page. It says users are getting smarter and smarter all the time and they are learning how to use search engines to bypass what they consider "the fluff" and go straight for the "hot potato" - to borrow Jakob's phrase. How does this impact professional branding & design methodologies? It means we must really consider what is "most" important to the visitors - be they one type or many types. We must look at the usability of the site from many different angles and run test cases of users who enter through a sub page and never see the home page. It means the branding and subsequent design of the site must encompass the "strike team" type of visitor who searches for the exact product or service within a site (within google) hits that page, digests the content and then leaves and never sees another page. This visitor might also turn out to be one of the most important users of a site, by the way: smart, motivated and wanting to make a decision fast based on the information within a site.

If there is business critical branding & marketing intel that only lives on the home page, its time to strongly consider tying into this messaging from other parts of the site. Think of it as advertising other parts of the site within the site. No longer do visitors leisurely stroll through a site, seeing all there is to see. Now they assault it from an oblique angle and deftly evade anything unrelated to their mission.

I know I have been operating this way for years. Rather than go to a company's home page and click 3-4 links that might reward my time, I simply tab over to that Google search field we all have omnipresent in our browsers and I enter "company.com > product name > release date" and that usually takes me right to the page I want. Ironically, if the parent site doesn't have this information but a secondary site does, I have no qualms hitting the alternative link for the intel. See what this means? Sites need to be structured smartly, with a focus on information & content for the intended audience. Gone is the scatter shot approach of trying to create one site for everyone. Companies risk losing control of their information to sites that are better focused and structured.

I think it's very possible to present a strong branding message to these commando types of visitors, you just have to think as smartly as they do.

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