You and your users

How you communicate with your users on your website is very important. If you don’t send the right message then they will move onto another website. With so many blogs on the Internet you have to be different and it can be as simple as how you communicate to your users. It can be how you write your articles or how you set the website up.

I came across a question recently regarding the text used to invite a user to sign up to a websites newsletter. There are many examples of this and many sites do it in a different way. Here on blogging tips for example there is no text next for the icons at the top for Twitter or Facebook but further down the sidebar is an inviting form asking if you would like to sign up to the newsletter. It is better to have a clear call to action but do icons do enough to convince your users to signup? The icons representing Twitter, Facebook and RSS are all icons that for many are a standard image that is seen on the Internet and will be enough for a user to understand that they can use those to view the respective information. However is this enough for a user that is not a regular internet user?

The most popular call to action we see on the Internet is “Click here”. This is by far one of the most frustrating things I see on the Internet, yet so many people still use it. Why do I detest it so much? With a call to action like this it doesn’t convey anything there is no message as why they should click here or any thought about any users who are not using a web browser. If you read this out of context then what does Click here actually mean? Not only does it not help a user but if you are doing this then you are also missing out on an opportunity to help your search results with relative linking.

A lot of people do believe this is enough to motivate a person to click but if you think about it does it mean that your website is not designed in such a way that the user doesn’t know what a link is? Your website should be intuitive for the user to know what to click and what not click then all you need to worry about is the content that they will be reading.

A “Click here” link doesn’t give your user enough information on actions you expect him or her to make. It also doesn’t show clearly the benefits subscriber will get if they finally click on it.

While designing a particular call to action you should not forget to think about three elements:

• The action you want the subscriber to take
• The reason why they should take this action
• The design (text, image, location).

The design of the call to action is just as important as the action itself. The colours you choose to use for the link or for a button for example can be the key to a user finding the link and thinking about clicking it.

Different colours have different effects on your users.

Using red for example on a link can be a good way to attract your users to the link in the first place as it is very bright. Yellow is another great colour to use as it one of the first colours the eye picks up, of course this also depends on the surrounding colours on your website. Orange is a good colour to use as it is bright and cheerful. Blue is not a great colour to use for buy it now buttons as it is a very calm colour. Have a play with some different colours on your website and see how each colour works for you.

Once you have your call to action ready you also need think about how the call to action will guide the user around the website. You need to think about the path they will go on as they go from one page to another. You may want them to see a service you offer on the homepage but on the service page you will want them to contact you or buy from you so think about each page they will encounter.

Written by Lee Doel from The Funk House
Posted on October 3rd, 2009 and filed under Blogger
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