Often, in the marketing world, we design tools to grab the attention of consumers. Websites, banners, ads, billboards, say: Notice us! We have what you need!
In this mindset, the worst thing you can have is a boring design. A bored consumer will hate you.
But web usability expert Gerry McGovern asks us to consider another reaction: impatience. His experience suggests that the truth is a website visitor is much more likely to be impatient with your website than bored by it.
Consider some of the most usable websites in the world. Google. Instagram. YouTube. Craigslist. When was the last time you went on one of these websites and bounced off because the design was too boring?
Craiglist is a prime example. It’s plain design has not been changed in years. Why? Because users like it the way it is – it’s simple and easy to find what you’re looking for.
Yet website designers constantly complain the design is too boring. “But the people I hear it from,” says Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, “are invariably working for firms that want the job of redoing the site.”
There is an incredibly important point to consider with websites as a tool of inbound marketing. When someone finds and visits your website, you already have their attention. If they searched for information or products related to what you offer, they come to you ready to listen. You must pay attention to their needs.
They don’t want the block of attention grabbing gimmicks. They came to your website to complete a task. Your website’s main purpose is to make it as easy as possible to achieve that goal (a goal which is also yours: connection).
Boredom is not the enemy of this goal. Impatience is.
At Business Websites360, we developed our UXI designs with two things in mind:
That they be efficient to develop
That they be designed around metrics we know increase the site’s usability.
Sometimes clients come in wondering why they shouldn’t be spending ten’s of thousands and unforeseeable months developing their business website (yes, we encourage you to spend less on your website design).
The reason is we’re not interested in exciting our designers. We’re interested in developing websites that generate leads for your business.
The thrill of getting an exciting website design wears off quickly. The satisfaction of consistently generating leads for a business goes on and on.
For us, it’s a pretty easy choice. Like Gerry McGovern says:
Focus on reducing your customers’ impatience. And remember, you get paid to be bored.
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