by Skellie
Photo by kalandraka.
Making your site more usable is really the art of making it easy for visitors to do what you want them to do.
Whether that’s coming to grips with what your site is about, commenting, subscribing, contacting you or buying your product, usability gets results.
“Usability” can seem like a pretty abstract term, though. What does it really mean? What does it involve? How do I get it? Do I have it already?
In this post, I want to discuss just how useful it is to think of your site’s usability as conversational.
Let’s talk
When you visit a new website or blog, you — and every other visitor — will be internally asking it some questions.
First, I want to show you an internal conversation between a visitor and a website lacking in usability. I’m using the Skelliewag.org image to represent a hypothetical website. (The yellow photo is by Flickr photographer bettybraun.)
Visitor: “Hi. You don’t know me. I was just wondering… what is this place?”
Site: “If you head to my About page, you’ll see that I’ve got two kids, a lovely wife, and that I live in the Bay Area. I also really like snowboarding.”
Visitor: “That’s… that’s all great — maybe we can talk about it later — but I’d still just like to know, uh, where I am. You know — what this place is, what you do here. That kind of thing.
Site: “Oh, you want to know, like, what sorts of things I write about, whether my content is worth your time — all that stuff?”
Visitor: “Exactly. Can you tell me?”
Site: “Why don’t you just read a few of my posts?”
Visitor: “Well… I’m kinda busy. There are about a hundred things on my to-read list. Why should I do you the favor of reading your content when you haven’t even explained what it’s about? It could be about model trains. I hate model trains.”
Site: “OK, yeah, I appreciate that. Here’s a compromise: you write a list of what I need to improve on the site, and I’ll take a look at it later in the week. Sound OK?”
Visitor: “Well… sure. That could be satisfying, in a way I can’t really explain. How do you want me to contact you when I’ve written it?”
Site: “You’ve got to ask me to tell you about myself. Then I’ll give you my contact details.”
Visitor: “That doesn’t make sense.”
Site: “Yeah it does. You can’t just ask: ‘How do I contact you?’ Oh, click on the contact page. That’s too simple. You’ve got to go to my About page again. You’ve got to read through that stuff about my snowboarding medals, then you get to my email address down the bottom.”
Visitor: “You know what… I think I’m just going to go check Google Reader. Maybe… maybe Kathy Sierra is blogging again. I just like to check sometimes.”
Site: “Hey — wait… you’re really going to miss out on some great stuff!”
Visitor: “Yeah — like what?”
Site: “If you’d just read my posts…”
* * *
I think the conversation shows how crippled a blog with bad usability really is. For all we know, poor Mr. Site could have created the blogging equivalent of the great American novel. What’s the use, though, if nobody feels compelled to read it?
Here’s the kind of conversation you do want happening on your blog.
Visitor: “Hi. You don’t know me. I was just wondering… what is this place?”
Site: “Hi there. You’ll see from the tag-line: “Making freelancers better,” that this blog is written for freelancers of all kinds. You can probably guess that the emphasis is on advice and tips. If you want some more information, just ask.”
Visitor: “Yeah, that would be good. You see, I’m a freelance coder. I mainly work on web apps and that sort of thing. I’m just wondering whether your content is written for people like me, or if it’s mainly for freelance writers, designers, those sorts of people. I’m just going to click on your About page — that will tell me, right?”
Site: “Yeah. As you can see from the first couple of sentences, the content I produce here is really written with all freelancers in mind. I actually worked as a freelance coder for about a year, but I do design mostly now.”
Visitor: “Right. And I see you’ve been working as a freelancer for nine years all up. You must really know your stuff.”
Site: “Well, I should hope so. You can see some examples of posts I’m really proud of towards the top of the sidebar. That’s all the stuff I think new visitors should get started with.”
Visitor: “Oh, wow. 101 Free Productivity Tools to Supercharge Your Freelancing. I’ve been thinking about my productivity a lot lately. Your other posts look great too. You know, I’m thinking of giving you a trial in my feed reader. How can I subscribe?”
Site: “You can see the orange RSS button just above those popular posts you’re looking at.”
Visitor: “That was easy. You know, I was also thinking about writing a guest-post for a freelance blog, and yours looks pretty popular. How would I contact you about that?”
Site: “There’s the Contact page, right next to my About page. There’s a form right on the page, so it should only take a minute.”
Visitor: “Fantastic. Will do. But first, I’ve got to bookmark your 101 Productivity Tools post. And you know what, for a change, I’m actually going to read it!”
* * *
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53 Comments, Comment or Ping
Brian Purkiss
Very nice post.
That is something a lot of web sites don’t get.
Granted, my site isn’t formatted the best… but that’s beside the point.
I see so many web sites come through DesignSnack.com (a design showcase I’m active in) that aren’t clear what they’re about.
It’s crazy.
At any rate - great post.
Dec 7th, 2007
Mike Smith
Awesome post that had me laughing so many times.
I actually am reworking some of my sites now to give better readability and conversation. Learning this has been a process but it seems that with the past couple posts I’ve read on this blog, I’m right on track with your brain with the new designs I’ll be rolling out.
Keep up the awesome writing.
Mike
Dec 7th, 2007
Ritu
Skellie, first thing first, I envy the creativity in you. You made this post so much fun to read by using images, had it been a a conversational post just in text, I am not sure how interesting it would have been.
You are very right. Usability of any blog or website is the key to make a visitor return. Although content still is king the sheer joy of knowing where to find what certainly helps in getting repeat visitors. It’s sort of like you go to a store and you know exactly where you can find men shoes and women shoes. If I am going to be wondering inside the store for 15 minutes where I can find shoes for men ( assuming it offer both men and women shoes ), well, that’s that for visiting again, the fact that my wife might love it is a different story.
Anyway, I think the usability of my blog is, well, alright. The only thing that has hurt me the most is the changes I made in terms of content and what I write. At first I started it as informational blog on web application and later swtiched it to more towards personal blog focusing on what I think of certain things while trying to add value for the readers.
Thanx again for a wonderful post Skellie. This was one of the post I trully enjoyed and you had me quite entangled with the way you presented it as well. Kudos to you and your creativity!
Dec 7th, 2007
kristarella
Haha - awesome presentation.
Easy to contact? Check.
Know what’s happening on my site? Hmm. I’ve been meaning to update my about page to make it a bit more informative about me and my site. My tagline isn’t very obvious - at the top of the browser, it’s not even that informative, which I suppose comes from not being a specialised/niche blog. Will think some more about that.
Dec 7th, 2007
Jason Curlee
WoW…great thinking as well as being helpful….one of the best I’ve ever seen (actually its the only one I’ve ever seen) on presenting this topic. It is going to help me totally rethink my info on my page.
Dec 7th, 2007
Chris Dohman
awesome and creative post skellie. it’s a great way to bring the situation to life and get a real perspective. i gave this a sphinn.
Dec 7th, 2007
Gisele B. from myBeautyMatch.com
Skellie,
Ritu is absolutely correct, that was an incredibly creative way of explaining your point of view on the topic of usability for blogs.
You are correct Skellie, visitors don’t stay long enough on our sites to find out everything about what we do. We have only a fraction of a second to catch visitors attention in the hopes of engaging them more into our content.
Thanks for the reminder!
Gisele
Dec 7th, 2007
Jack
Dang, what a great way to explain usability. I’m totally going to have to post this link around.
Dec 7th, 2007
Mike Goad
Very interesting post. Also very timely for me.
I rewrote my about page last week. My main blog is a personal blog, but I do tend to write often on some things that interest me, so I adjusted my about page to reflect that.
I also put up a contact page at about the same time. However, it was a placeholder for the contact form I was going to put in there. It did have a comment field… which someone used to query me about my rates for advertising on my blog. Unfortunately, she included all of her personal contact information. After posting the comment, she recognized relatively quickly that her information might be “going public” in a way she hadn’t intended. She added another comment asking me to remove that information. Fortunately, moderation is turned on for comments from people who hadn’t posted before so her information was safe.
That evening, I installed the comment form.
Another piece that I am considering installing is a “privacy policy” page, just in case someone considers sending me their personal contact information.
Dec 7th, 2007
Linda R. Moore
Truly excellent post, and it brings the message across so clearly. Based on some of your earlier posts I already rewrote my “about” pages (I have three blogs) but it could always use a tweaking. It never occurred to me to put the “what” first and the “who” last, but it does make a lot of sense.
I liked the store analogy above, although stores do have this nasty habit of moving everything around on a regular basis to introduce shoppers to new stuff.
Dec 7th, 2007
James Turnbull
Hi, long-time listener, first time caller!
I just wanted to say thanks for another excellent post. Over the past few weeks I’ve been slowly putting suggestions of yours to work in my own blog, and if I do say so myself, as a result my blog has gradually come to look more professional and attractive…at least relative to the other blogs in my VERY narrow niche of blogs on Korean social issues!
Given how I’m using your ideas half a world away in Korea, it just goes to show how universally applicable they are. Keep up the good work.
Dec 7th, 2007
milo
Great way of expression, what about creating a video next time?
Dec 7th, 2007
skellie
Thanks for the positive feedback! I’m actually breathing a sigh of relief over here, because I wasn’t sure how this type of post would be received. I’m glad it was entertaining, maybe a little funny, and hopefully useful.
@ Milo: I don’t actually own a video camera! Good idea, though.
Dec 7th, 2007
milo
You might use Jing to play around, no camera involved, it’s a desktop utility.
Dec 7th, 2007
skellie
@ Milo: Cheers, will have a look tomorrow morning (it’s midnight — I should get to bed!).
Dec 8th, 2007
The Kaiser
Skellie - you’ve been a big help over the last week. Really. I relaunched my blog, and your advance has been amazing.
Dec 8th, 2007
Bente Lilja Bye
Cool communication technique, Skellie. Again you emphasize the importance of having key information easy available.
No matter what subject or type of site I visit, I’d like to know who is behind it (About page) and how to get in touch (Contact tool). Also understanding pretty immediately what the main topic(s) of the site it is, is very important.
I think About and Topic of site is what I expect to figure out at the same time in few seconds.
The reason why I think the About is so important is that I use that to quality check the information - and some plain curiosity of course. You need to verify that your sources are reliable especially on the net.
This critical evaluation of information is one of the most important things I teach my teenager son.
Dec 8th, 2007
paidtwice
I love that lady with the yellow background
Excellent post. I think my about page is passable and my contact page exists and is even easy to use… I need to ponder taglines. I seriously cannot come up with a good one to save my life.
Thanks!
Dec 8th, 2007
Anthony Lawrence
That’s an area I am constantly fretting over. Am I sending the right message? Is everything easy to find? What does it look like in old browsers, in little known browsers, in Lynx..
I am forever reviewing this stuff, worrying, self doubt..
90% of my visitors arrive on random pages from search engine results, so I am also constantly looking at the most popular landing pages and asking “Why would they want to read anything else here? What more can I do to tell them what the site is about, to get them engaged, to turn them into regulars?”
I *hope* I am improving, but again that nagging doubt always creeps in..
Dec 8th, 2007
Ades
Great post Skellie!
P.S with “i have two kids and lovely wife” line you almost knocked me out of my chair, for a moment I thought I got your gender wrong on my blog
Dec 8th, 2007
ImageGag
Cool post. My conversation with readers:
Visitor: “What is this site?”
Site: “ImageGag”
Visitor: “Oh, okay. See ya.”
Ha ha. Oh well, I’m still new.
Dec 8th, 2007
Anne
This has got me thinking. I am working on improving the traffic to my site. As I review my stats, I am wondering what would be a good amount of time for the avg. visitor to spend at a blog page. One big problem I have is that I want more comments. I plan to use some of your tips above to help drive more traffic to comments.
Thanks.
Dec 8th, 2007
cellie
Like everyone said - great post. And I was looking around web designer blogs about a month ago to hire someone and the thing that struck me is that most - 99% of the contact pages had no … telephone number. Something I thought that all business people should have (even if it’s Skype or voicemail type deal) … but that might just be me being non techie.
Dec 8th, 2007
jblu
I loved the dialogue…it got the point through in a somewhat humorous manner.
I also enjoyed your choice of pictures.
Dec 8th, 2007
cool dad
We’ve been considering having a ‘favorite posts’ section so that what we think is our better work won’t just get buried. This confirms that we should. Thanks!
Dec 8th, 2007
skellie
Thanks for the kind words everyone. Once again, relieved that it worked — at least a little bit :).
Dec 9th, 2007
free chat
Great article, after looking at some of my sites I think I can maybe do a better job of directing people to the end goal.
Thanks for the advice!
Dec 9th, 2007
Dmitra
The conversation is too long as for defining the aim of visiting. Usually the visitor isn’t abstract and have come to one’s site consciously from concrete place, already expacting to see something on that site. I think the better way in usability is to live up visitors expactations.
Dec 10th, 2007
Erez
Great article, I think more site architects need to put this conversation into action.
Dec 10th, 2007
Aaron Oppenheimer
Nice presentation. All design is about relationship, and the user interface - taken broadly to mean every way in which the user and product exchange information - is all about conversation. I recommend “The Media Equation” by Reeves & Nass for lots of interesting stuff about how people apply the social rules they have developed for dealing with other people to the products and media they interact with. Fascinating stuff.
Dec 10th, 2007
Pedro
I wanted to read this entire article but I got scroll fatigue. Pretty ironic an article about usability misses it on so many points. Oh, nice post tho.
Dec 10th, 2007
Tarek Koudsi
I agree with DMITRA. The length of the post lost me. I jumped into comments to see whether people reacted positively and was more interested in reading user’s experience. Which again, made me go read the post from the start.
A good (but lengthy) post.
Cheers,
Dec 10th, 2007
Lexi
loved this, skellie! making a useful blog or website seems so simple, but sometimes it takes some un-common sense. thanks as usual!
Dec 17th, 2007
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