Me & My Big Ideas

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Friction

by Kathi Sheridan

Have you experienced any friction in your life recently? I know I have and it has a tendency to raise my stress level a bit. However, sometimes the outcome is not all negative. There are times that a positive outcome will result.

The same can be true for your website.

I recently attended a webinar presented by MarketingExperiments which talked about the quality and quanity of friction on websites. These guys are human factor psychologists so being the geeky girl I am, I naturally felt that I was in my element. Friction on a page...hmmm, something new to consider in this web world. Friction can be as simple as making someone give personal information to be on your email list) Immediately my first thought was that any friction on a page would be a detractor to a potential conversion. However, the words of my father came to mind, "everything in moderation." This seems to prove true in this case too.

So guys and gals this is what I learned. A little friction on your website can be good. Just make sure you have it in the right place and don't overdue it. Get rid of extra steps between the call for action and the end result. Make sure you use clear and simple instructions. The "kiss" rule applies here (keep it simple stupid.) Just remember that you want to make process as easy and natural as possible for your clients to get to and complete the action. Sales and leads are the goal.

Three more tips to keep in mind for your website. Make sure your client can quickly answer the following questions:

1. Where am I?
2. What can I do here?
3. Why should I do it?

These three questions will help keep your website sequence more client friendly.
Friction can always be an inhibitor, but that does not mean that it has to be destructive. Use a little friction to your advantage. The ultimate goal is to optomize the thought process of your client, not the landing page.

My first blog is now completed. Thanks for reading and I will try to keep the "geek" down in the future. I'm new to blogging and the internet. I just received my degree in Psychology with an emphasis in human factors psychology. I spent several hundred hours in an human factor lab and know my way around a hypothesis, methodology, running experiments and analyzing stats. I also have a graphic design background. Internet websites should incorporate both areas of knowledge and I find it intriguing and exciting as I begin to find my way around in this new world of technology.

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Guest Blogger: Kathi Sheridan
Kathi has recently graduated from Wichita State with a degree in Psychology, emphasis in Human Factors.
Kathi uses psychology and human/computer interaction to design websites with better conversions.

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