Designing Your E-Commerce Site for Service
September 15, 1999
The word ''interactivity'' means many things these days, but let''s work with
this meaning: interactivity is a function of a website which (apparently to the
user) reacts to user activity.
Interactivity
Interactivity turns your ''reader'' into a ''visitor'' (and eventually a ''purchaser'').
The old gadgets, such as guestbooks, enquiry forms, and email links, are often quite
effective, but visitors have seen them before and will not necessarily be engaged
by them. Something more is needed.
Here are a few techniques which we''ve found useful in enhancing interactivity:
Time-based Change -
Placing newly updated content in prominent positions (usually as headlines and links
to complete pages) gives the visitor the impression that things have changed since
her last visit.
Visitor Memory involves remembering a visitor''s previous
interactions, and placing her back at the point where she last
interacted wih the system.
Inline Personalization is the embedding of visitor-specific
information in the pages you present. Shopping baskets are a typical example,
but they need to appear within the page to give your content that personalized
feel.
Per-Visitor Display Preferences are settings which visitors can
set according to need and preference. Good examples are: text-only display,
abbreviated (or advanced) searching queries, personal information recall (visitor
specifies that her mailing address is retained for future use).
A few points to remember about interaction design:
Reliability is of utmost importance. Visitors who take the time to
interact with your site should never hit a dead end or an error report page.
Undoability is the ability of a visitor to undo actions, go backwards and
forwards through an interaction, and escape predictably from the middle of an interaction.
Gives visitors the impression that they can trust the site.
Clarity is important in helping your visitor to understand the
effect and consequences of decisions. Visitors will confidently move through
a necessary interaction if it is clear what to do next at each step.
Interaction design is a whole science in itself. It''s a very, very good
idea to check out a few dozen examples of interaction design by others,
both good and bad, before attempting it yourself. If your site revenue depends
on a few critical interactions, it''s worth spending money on expert help (and then expect to
spend more as you refine things).
Of course, no matter how good-looking, well-designed and fun-to-use your
visitor finds your site, you''ve got to back it all up with a hard-nosed,
well-oiled and fighting fit operation:
the back office.
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