Thursday, January 25. 2007You only get three seconds to make an impression
A quick tip for website designers. No matter how cool your website or web application is, if a visitor can't work out what the hell is going on in 3 seconds, they will leave. There are very few exceptions. There's something to think about before you add another layer of unnecessary AJAX into your application.  Bubbl.Us. As if picking a name straight from the web 2.0 Name generator wasn't bad enough, they decide to confuse you a bit more with the main page. Imagine you had 3 seconds to work out precisely what the above web application does. Brainstorming, yes thats right. What the hell does that mean? If you are going to let your visitors guess what your product will do, then you're probably going to disappoint them. I'm sure you all remember Crescendo. I've talked about the importance of getting to the point with your main page before on this blog. See Management Speak, and What do you do? Some sites that get right to the point the way I like it are emurse.com (Your Resume, Improved), getMooh.com (Get out of any situation with a fake phone call!), TimeSnapper.com (An automatic screenshot taker) and Bigulo.com (Find People You Know). Unfortunately sites that get to the point are few and far between. I blame the Lorum Ipsum generator for this crap. People have forgotten that the most important thing on a website is the content. Not the gradient, not the drop shadow, not even that PhotoShop brush that you thought would be cool as a background image. If your content doesn't say interesting stuff in a concise manner, then no amount of CSS Zen will help. Writing for the web is the toughest and most important part of developing web sites/applications. Get that wrong, and every other part of the design process from your information architecture through to your IE5.5 on OSX CSS hacks just doesn''t matter. Anyone got any good examples of web applications or sites that do a good or bad job of explaining what they're about? Trackbacks
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But sites like Bubblus use your curiosity to entice you in. If people knew exactly what the site was, they might not sign up.
Yeah, curiosity might "entice" one visitor in for every 3 it sends packing, but what does that achieve?
You're tricking people into signing up for a service that they wouldn't be interested in. They're hardly going to be good customers. It's like fooling someone to attend a religious event, by claiming its a party. They're not gonna drop to their knees and convert for you, if anything they'll just walk out in disgust.
Emm, writing isn't actually part of web site design you know. So don't blame the designers Des. Someone else is supposed to fill in the Lorum Ipsum sections.
Yeah that's fair enough JSM.
That said, designers need to also bear in mind when they're adding "10 pixel light grey on white text" to their design that people come to read, not to see CSS effects. So even at the design stage, a tagline needs to be considered. Designs should include a reasonably large in your face "This is what we do". Cause if there isn't one, then nothing else matters. (cue metallica)
What should they have said? Click to start a mind map? Who knows what that is?
Doesn't it make more sense to stop trying to explain it and get the user right in on the action - like bubbl.us seem to be trying to do? They could have done a bit better there too admittedly, with a fuller sample screen. Geni.com does an even better job of it.
Hi again Rowan, I totally agree
"Who the hell knows what a mindmap is". That is Bubbluss first problem, and address it. Also, why would you use one? In my opinion, they should have 1) What it is 2) Examples of why you'd want to use it 3) A screenshot of what one looks like to get the point across 4) Maybe even a gif/flash demo to show how you interact with it. I personally think site like TaDaList are a much better way to entice people to sign up ... http://www.tadalist.com/ "Mystery marketing" sites tend to assume that Joe Browser wants to learn all about the product and wants to find out for himself how useful it is. He doesn't in my opinion. He just wants to use software that makes his life easier. Even SkyPod had a clear "What and Why" page. (http://skypod.nakatomiweb.com/) Cheers for reading Rowan,
I've had a part in working on a site that is for a particular niche of homeschoolers (http://simplycharlottemason.com)
We've had all sorts of things on the home page, but the traffic didn't take off until we started using the current paragraph that concisely states what we're all about. We spent a lot of time working out how to hit the main highlights without getting too wordy. We definitely see the benefit of repeat and word-of-mouse visitors because they now understand the focus. And don't forget, if you do a good job telling everyone what the site is about, it gives Google something nice to chew on too.
I don't think the criticism of bubbl.us is well-founded (except for the crummy name, which... yeah). That is, there's a big honking "START" button on the page that takes you right into the app. You can't even register until you've done that. There are admittedly some usability problems with the app, like adding child boxes, but I think they're using plain language (as mentioned, most folks don't even know what a mind map is).
Kyle: My issue was mainly that the person on the other end doesn’t know what the hell “START” is actually going to do. I went ahead and clicked start, and I still didn’t know what was going on. I typed some text, pressed tab, scrolled my mouse wheel, and I have 2 big brown bubbles in front of me, and I’m still not sure whats going on.
Here are questions, that I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that people might want answered before signing up… What is a MindMap? What would I like one? How could a MindMap help me? What does a useful Mind Map look like? This assumption that people want to learn about and try out your application is nuts . Most people are looking for things that will help them in life. The first page of the app needs to show them how, or they will be out of there pretty quickly.
Des,
would love to see your traffic spike after a link from svn. Nice work Lar
Yeah, it will be interesting to compare it to a reddit spike, and a digg spike.
At the moment it seems pretty tame, although it could be just Analytics taking its time to update. That said, they did post the key point on their blog, so maybe the clickthroughs aren't too high as a result.
Oh, I agree completely their UI needs work once you're in the diagramming area. I didn't know what the hell to do, either, and even when I figured it out, adding child boxes is a pain.
I just think that a big fat START button is a nice improvement, and that "brainstorming" is good enough. Adding a bunch of text about what mindmapping is will be more confusing to people, I think. If the app's UI was a little more intuitive, then I think they'd be sitting pretty.
We came to this same conclusion on http://www.myfreecopyright.com.
Good web copy made it so much easier for people to grasp and was night and day for people understanding our business in 3 seconds.
Totally man, I definitely agree with your point here. Oversimplification is as treacherous as over-complication.
Here's another one I just ran across that I think is a good example: http://www.magnify.net/
They strike a nice balance with a good headline and just a little bit of text to elaborate.
It took me more than 3 seconds to figure out what was going on with THIS page. I couldn't figure out if the bubbl.us image was an Ad or content, until I skipped down to the second paragraph.
My initial impression told me that this site is not an authority on UI .....but didn't really get to the content.... sorry. Cheers!
I'm impressed that you managed to post a comment while simultaneously "not working out what was going on".
There is an "About" Column on the right hand side, in case you missed it. Anyways, see ya later.
you clearly have not the faintest clue what you're talking about. the site is created for people that do - generally people who work in the creative industries and who need to generate ideas and patterns within and outside the original idea. its all part of the planning process and goes towards product development, consumer insights, propositions, etc, etc.
Right Tony.
The splash doesn't contain any of that information. Any of it! Are you getting me? No information = not good. Show me a useful brainmap! Why do creative people use them? Are you basically telling non-creatives to fuck off, the site isn't for them? If so a better way to do that would be to say "Bubbl.us is a tool for allow to creatives to brainstorm" I've tried using the tool, I still can't work out whats going on. I have a friend who would most certainly be a "Creative" type, he couldn't work it out either. Incidentally your rambling about "part of the planning process etc etc" is about as clear as mud. Can you explain to me why I would use Bubbl.us over say, pen and paper? Cause this site certainly isn't answering that question.
Senduit is extremely clear and direct: http://senduit.com/
They seem to have updated their front page (for the better). I wonder did someone from there read this post?
Excellent, thats exactly what they needed.
Thanks for pointing that out.
I get ribbed a lot for the description on my mashup listing page...
"We create websites using content from other sites." http://mashware.com/ ... but I actually thinks it's the best way to explain a mashup to a layperson. Any feedback appreciated. TL
Todd,
You're site has a short and simple description of what you do, combined with examples of why it's useful. Thats exactly what you want on a page! Good job. Des
Hey,
We've updated our homepage after reading this post. Is it direct enough? Any feedback is appreciated. http://www.stockalicious.com
Yeah, thats very clear.
In about 1 second I knew what your site did, and I also knew I had no interest in it. Don't take that the wrong way, I just don't follow the stockmarket. None the less your site served me well, as if someone ever asked me for a website where they can monitor their portfolio, I'd now know where to send them. Nice one. |
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This website is the online diary of me, Des Traynor, a User Experience Researcher in Dublin, Ireland. I work with Contrast. I usually write on 5 topics: I update about 3-4 times per month. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss this good stuff. If this is your first time here, check out the archives.My official homepage provides more information about who I am, and what I research. You can contact me at destraynor [at] gmail [dot] com Quicksearch |
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