Do You Know All The Who's, For Whom You Are Developing? Options

[iamlost]

Kim has republished her article The Secret to Persuasive Design is in the Invitation from Search Marketing Standard.

In passing I'd like to shout out to:

A site built for a certain demographic that misses its mark is dangerous to the bottom line.

That one sentence could start a book.

Still being explored are emotions and the part this plays in web site design. Should the cancer information site experience be the same for the person who just learned they have the disease, as well as their family? We’re unable to pick up on our visitors’ emotional states, but we can look for patterns and make predictions.

Those two quotes are related. The person with cancer and the family of that person are also two separate demographic groups. And thus a site built for one may well, as stated in the initial quote, miss the other and lose a captive audience.

And there is nothing more detrimental to a bottom line, be it traffic or various conversions, than snubbing a group or part of a group that actively wants in. (OK, OK spammers and scrapers excepted...there are always exceptions...)

Consider all the different audiences (demographic groups) when it comes to cancer - they go well beyond the simple patient and family breakout.
* children of various cognitive levels/age groups, their siblings also of various ages, the parents for themselves and for their chidren, other family and friends.
* various ages of adulthood mean different things so far as the disease itself, treatment options, prospects, family and financial concerns.
* male or female; social, educational, ethnic, and spiritual backgrounds all generate demographic differences which impact the density and delivery of information.

That cancer site begins to look quite a bit different when viewed in this manner. How do you meet the needs of the most visitors? Of each group? How does that affect content, layout, architecture...

Writing an invitation is not necessarily a simple action. It is the initial filter that welcomes, or not. Do you mean to turn that traffic away? Did you know that you were?

[EGOL]

When a website is being created, hopefully the creators have some goal that they hope that the site will achieve - and that goal implies who the market for the site is intended. Perhaps the creators have identified and have the ability to capture some keyword rankings that they believe that the target market might search for - or they plan to get traffic from other websites and from other sources. (Note the intentional use of some squishy words like "hope," "implies," "perhaps," 'intended," "believe," and "plan.")

Different populations might arrive when the site opens and these visitors may or may not be part of the target population.

Who embraces the site will be a subset of the population or populations who arrive.

I have found that it is easy to assume who you are building for but then find that your rankings, or who is actually searching, or who links to you, or simply who is typing your domain are unintended populations. Sometimes these are great discoveries - the target market might be a subset of an enormous population. Things can work out differently than we planned. So, we need a step in the process to figure out if the market we hit is the market we wanted. And, then how to make the market that we hit one that we want.

[DCrx]

then find that your rankings, or who is actually searching, or who links to you, or simply who is typing your domain are unintended populations.

It's the four stages of user obliviousness...

* Denial (we don't need user research, we 'know' who the user is)
* Anger (why are users so stupid?!)
* Bargaining (I'll let you talk about use centered design, but don't expect anything)
* Acceptance (we've hit a dead end, can you help?)

Different emotions at different stages are also important to note. While a few might be able to empathize with the user, few tools allow for the site structure to provide emotional usability within the design. It is mostly handled with text.

The site might be able to deliver a certain text at a certain time, but little else.

A site can develop use profiles, rather than Name, Rank, and Serial number registration interrogations. This way, the user types get the information they need, the way they need it -- without disclosing John Smith just became a user for a cancer site.




This post has been edited by DCrx: Oct 22 2008, 09:02 AM

[cre8pc]

What I find fascinating is that even in application development, the emotional state of site visitors isn't taken into account.

For example, say you're a weight loss product web site. Customers can order more products online.

Why do they come?

1. Because their doctor told them to lose weight and eat healthier? What state of mind is the potential customer in then?

2. Because someone called them "Fat"? Perhaps they've arrived to the site and want to be comforted.

3. To purchase for someone else? They may know what they need and want fast, direct access with no browsing.

4. They've just ate a brownie! They want to starve for a week. Does the site have a section for rescue, with call to action prompts to suggestions for what to eat so they don't punish themselves?

This is why search behavior is so meaningful and dangerously over looked by companies.

[cvos]

This is a great topic - i wish your feed worked so i could receive these.

[AbleReach]

I love the weight loss example.

When I search for information on weight loss, I want to see statistical averages for what is the healthiest. Show me a BMI calculator, how much calories it takes to maintain my height and weight, and tell me some stuff about how much walking each day makes a difference. It'd also be a good time to chat about vitamins, fiber, interesting nutritional factoids and portion control for the easily munch-inspired. I'm not going to be interested in getting diet pills myself, though background on their risks is handy.

You might be able to get me on a mailing list for recipes that are yummy and good for me. Selling me a cookbook is possible. I'd also be interested in clothes - not the hot babe clothes, more the practical side of dealing with changing body shape. Speaking of changing shape, exercises to help tighten the looser and saggier would be welcome - just don't lather on encouragements about losing weight to look better. If I was trying to lose 20 lbs in a hurry, perhaps to look better in a bride's maid dress, you could probably get away with showing me the babe clothes alongside the anti sag exercises, and throw in one of those notorious "body shapers" for good measure.

For goodness sake, don't show me some hard body with big hair brandishing a Bowflex... though you could interest me in the practicality of if real people like them or garage sale them, and how easy or impossible they are to store and set up.

That's just me.

Tucked in there you'll see lots of ways I could bisect Kim's weight loss examples.


Kim's #1 & 2: I have an appointment with that snooty (skinny) young doctor who is always telling me to take up yoga and lose weight, no matter what I'm in for, and I want to bolster myself with background info on my progress.

Kim's #3: I'm worried about a family member who is living on macaroni and cheese. I want ideas for helping them, which could include selling me the right gift cookbook. Or, I'm cooking for my elderly, overweight, diabetic neighbor and want ideas for how to approach the menu.

Kim's #4: I just ate a brownie, which is fine, but before I cave and overdo it I want to check that health info and remind myself how close I am to the statistics - the second brownie is more likely to stay on the plate after I see that now I have maybe a 10% greater chance of heart disease, as opposed to last year's 30%.


One thing all of this has in common is information - resources - but information alone is not enough. If it was, any old stack of stuff would do.

p.s. I'm down 50 lbs - 25 last year and 25 so far this year.

[EGOL]

p.s. I'm down 50 lbs - 25 last year and 25 so far this year.

Congratulations! That is fantastic - especially since you have been making progress for such a long time.