October 29, 2010 at 02:41Web Pathology: No button to press
Captain Obviousness will laugh again, but the facts are as follows: a good half of those who contacted me for a consultation with the “Bad Sales” problem had no price and [Buy] button on the website near the product description! At the same time, the creators of the site did not raise any doubts about the mental usefulness, on the contrary, the level of their sites was much higher than average. There is a very reasonable explanation for this, and it lies again in the field of UX design and user experience modeling.
I’ll immediately explain that these were not literally online stores (for which all the necessary buttons are already wired in the engine), but rather informational websites with a list of services or a small catalog of goods. As it turned out from a further conversation, they did not see the point of indicating prices - “Because the exact price still depends on a lot, let them call right away”, and they did not put the [Buy] buttons - “Well, because it’s also clear to everyone that it is for sale "Why put the buttons, especially since we don’t have a basket in the engine."
If you want users to buy something from you, then:
1. Make the obvious - as likely as possible.
Make the product look like the product and in such a way that it can be instantly recognized by the user. No one will think about your interface. The user does not think - he looks.
2. Write the price.
Even if in an approximate form, “the price is from XXX rubles ...”. Without a price, this is not a commodity. And if this is not a product, then who will buy it then?
3. Indicate to the user the action that he must perform to purchase the goods.
No shopping cart functionality and [Buy] button? Then make a block similar to it with the text “[To order goods, call tel. (Xxx) xxx xx xx]. ” Otherwise, what should the user do when he sees the product and does not see a guideline what to do next? Wait for a response beep, wax owls?
4. Show that when you click on the [Buy] button, a purchase has occurred (or added to the cart).
When the user clicks on the button and visually nothing happens, often the real purchase also does not occur. Your well-hidden baskets remain unpaid.
In general, this is only a private type of pathology called “Lack of clear instructions for user actions” or, if in simple terms, the absence of a “Button for pressing” (these also include links and dynamic controls).
After the user opened the page, browsed, recognized its structure, read the text and understood some of this, the choice “What to do next?” Appears before him. If you have a likely answer to this question in the form of “Buttons for pressing,” then he will most likely use it. If there is no choice, then his thoughts will come to a standstill and return to the question “What am I doing here and what is my general task?”.
If he does not have a clear task related to your site, then he will simply leave your page somewhere further on the Internet. And he could stay on the site longer and thereby increase the likelihood of performing actions that are useful to you. Ideally, the buttons for all the most useful actions for you should be beautiful and in most cases the only ones on the page. But the buttons on those user actions that may upset you - hide from users away.
As a rule, by the absence of “buttons for pressing” they often sin:
Users - keep clicking, in the name of all holy things, keep clicking!
I’ll immediately explain that these were not literally online stores (for which all the necessary buttons are already wired in the engine), but rather informational websites with a list of services or a small catalog of goods. As it turned out from a further conversation, they did not see the point of indicating prices - “Because the exact price still depends on a lot, let them call right away”, and they did not put the [Buy] buttons - “Well, because it’s also clear to everyone that it is for sale "Why put the buttons, especially since we don’t have a basket in the engine."
If you want users to buy something from you, then:
1. Make the obvious - as likely as possible.
Make the product look like the product and in such a way that it can be instantly recognized by the user. No one will think about your interface. The user does not think - he looks.
2. Write the price.
Even if in an approximate form, “the price is from XXX rubles ...”. Without a price, this is not a commodity. And if this is not a product, then who will buy it then?
3. Indicate to the user the action that he must perform to purchase the goods.
No shopping cart functionality and [Buy] button? Then make a block similar to it with the text “[To order goods, call tel. (Xxx) xxx xx xx]. ” Otherwise, what should the user do when he sees the product and does not see a guideline what to do next? Wait for a response beep, wax owls?
4. Show that when you click on the [Buy] button, a purchase has occurred (or added to the cart).
When the user clicks on the button and visually nothing happens, often the real purchase also does not occur. Your well-hidden baskets remain unpaid.
In general, this is only a private type of pathology called “Lack of clear instructions for user actions” or, if in simple terms, the absence of a “Button for pressing” (these also include links and dynamic controls).
After the user opened the page, browsed, recognized its structure, read the text and understood some of this, the choice “What to do next?” Appears before him. If you have a likely answer to this question in the form of “Buttons for pressing,” then he will most likely use it. If there is no choice, then his thoughts will come to a standstill and return to the question “What am I doing here and what is my general task?”.
If he does not have a clear task related to your site, then he will simply leave your page somewhere further on the Internet. And he could stay on the site longer and thereby increase the likelihood of performing actions that are useful to you. Ideally, the buttons for all the most useful actions for you should be beautiful and in most cases the only ones on the page. But the buttons on those user actions that may upset you - hide from users away.
As a rule, by the absence of “buttons for pressing” they often sin:
- Advertising text blocks \ offers on the main page that are not banners. (Product discount? Two for the price of one? I wonder. What do I need to do for this?)
- Lists of goods, services and offers. (Ok, here are your prices. Where to click to order?)
- Tariff networks or a list of tariff plans. (Ok, here are your tariffs. Where to click to order? Or do I need to memorize your tariff plans?)
- Marketing descriptions of products and services. (I read it, I liked it. Do you want to offer me something or are you just broadening my horizons?)
Users - keep clicking, in the name of all holy things, keep clicking!