Improving the User Experience with Clear Strategic Intent

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Improving the User Experience with Clear Strategic Intent

Posted in Website Design Tips	May 4, 2006

Permalink: http://daily.mequoda.com/i//website_design_tips/improving_user_experience_with_clear_strategic_intent_156-1.html

By Kim Mateus, Managing Editor Mequoda Daily and Library

To communicate strategic intent, you must first know the answers to these questions:

What do users want to do at your site?
What do you want users to do at your site?

When a first-time user lands on your homepage—or any webpage, for that matter—it should be immediately obvious to that user, by simply scanning the screen, what can be accomplished, seen or found on that site and/or that page. Clearly and prominently focus on the action(s) that you want them to take and that they expect to take: Browse? Buy? Subscribe? Sign up? Join? Sell? The content and graphics should be well-presented and prioritized in order to guide the user's eye to the desired action(s). A jumble of images will cause the eye to jump around and the user will become confused.

Further, those action(s) should clearly relate to the strategic mission of the company. In order to trust the company and do business with it, site visitors must understand the deal. They must "get," right away, what the company does, what it expects in return and what the benefits are for signing up, subscribing, joining, buying or otherwise providing information.

In the first chapter of Website Design for Publishers and Authors authors Don Nicholas and Jane E. Zarem point out a few website design tips to keep in mind:

Clear strategic intent is easier to achieve when the website has a theme, very simplified functionality and clear navigation.
Complex websites without a clear purpose—and/or are filled with competing links and unrelated text or graphics—are ineffective because they confuse users.
Again, users should know from the very first screen why the site is there, what it offers and how it works.
That way people who belong there will know what to do. And people who don't belong there will know right away that they've taken a wrong turn on the information highway.
Strategic intent is, perhaps, the most important of the 14 guidelines. If users can't figure out your website, they not only leave quickly—they won't come back.

Mequoda Library Members Only: If you're a Mequoda Library member, reference Don and Jane's entire chapter, Website Design Guideline #1: Improving the User Experience with Clear Strategic Intent. Or check the full Table of Contents for Website Design for Publishers and Authors.

If you're not a Mequoda Library member, and are interested in accessing the full text of this chapter along with 413 other chapters, start your 14-day FREE trial.

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COMMENTS

Kim,

I absolutely agree with your article.

I also think it is one of the challenges most site owners struggle with.

I think there is a fear that the one thing you didn't list (or display) will be the one thing your prospect was looking for.

So, we overcompensate.

I'm guilty of it on my own web site (pianoworld.com), as is my "day job" employer.

My employer is a publishing company, with hundreds of products, covering four major markets. We have five primary web sites, including a combination corporate home and catalog, plus four subscription sites (one for each market).

In my head I know we should streamline the "home" page. But again the challenge is ... What do you show?

Of course there is another challenge. Personal opinions from: The owners, the executives, marketing (traditional), Internet marketing (my group), editorial, Web development, ... You get the idea.

Bottom line. You are absolutely correct, now if we could all just agree on what it should be :-)

Best,

Frank B. Internet Marketing Manager

Comment by: Frank B | May 5, 2006

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