Digital Reboot

Twitter: @whitespacers or @duncan__russell

Audience Behaviour

Navigation Content

“Mobile users don’t want to do

everything”

“They typically combine a phone plus some

e-mail capability, plus they say it’s the

Internet – it’s sort of the baby Internet – into

one device.”

—Steve Jobs, 2007

It’s not just about being able to do

everything on mobile.

If your site doesn’t provide a consistent and

enjoyable user experience across all

platforms, users will

• abandon your shopping cart

• fail to complete your forms

• leave your site

• do business with your competitors

“Mobile users don’t want to do

everything”

“Our customers are like us, and

will view the website under the

same conditions”

Public Transport Website, Nov 2012 – Nov 2015

Mobile Tablet Desktop

Then 25% 5% 70%

Now 55% 35% 10%

B2B Website, Nov 2012 – Nov 2015

Mobile Tablet Desktop

Then 5% 5% 90%

Now 7% 7% 86%

1 Chrome 33%

2 Safari 21%

3 Safari (in-app) 20%

4 Android browser 10%

5 Internet Explorer 9%

6 Firefox 5%

7 BlackBerry 0.5%

8 Amazon Silk 0.5%

1 Internet Explorer 50%

2 Chrome 27%

3 Safari 9%

4 Firefox 9%

5 Android Browser 1%

6 Safari (in-app) 0.7%

7 Mozilla 0.5%

8 Opera 0.3%

Transport B2B

Get to know your users

• Putting yourself in their shoes

• Thinking about who they really are

• Researching their needs

• Why they will be using your site

• How they will be viewing your site

• Where they will be

“Our customers are like us, and

will view the website under the

same conditions”

Audience Behaviour

Navigation Content

“People don’t scroll”

Things we don’t care about go

down here

:(

✘ ✔︎

“People don’t scroll”

“People don’t read

webpages”

“People rarely read Web pages word by

word; instead, they scan the page,

picking out individual words and

sentences.”

—Jakob Nielsen (1997)

Short

Short, clear words,

sentences and clearly

grouped ideas are best.

Long, latinate,

sesquipedalian discursive

essays across multiple

topics with no clear

hierarchy are less favoured.

Scannable

Bullet points, clear headings

and short paragraphs make

text easy to follow.

Massive walls of text without

paragraph breaks, headings

or lists are actively difficult to

read.

Straight

Direct, honest language with

a minimum of jargon,

metaphor and ambiguity.

Passive voice, salesy,

complex or ‘slippery’

language obscures meaning

and alienates users.

Short

Short, clear words,

sentences and clearly

grouped ideas are best.

Scannable

Make text easy to follow by

using:

* Bullet points

* Clear headings

* Short paragraphs

Avoid:

* Large amounts of text

Straight

Write clearly, honestly and

directly.

“Simplify, simplify”

—Henry David Thoreau

“One simplify would have sufficed”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We don’t need a copywriter”

Things to remember

• Consider content from the start

• Get a copywriter involved

• Structure pages to the best effect

• Remember: copy’s a bigger task than

it seems

“People don’t read webpages”

Audience Behaviour

Navigation Content

“The homepage is the

most important page”

“If the homepage has been the traditional

‘front page,’ ushering audiences into a brand

and its offerings, now the article is the point

of entry.”

—Dr. Mario García

The Takeaway:

• Consider your content and audience

• Ensure your content pages are as carefully

considered as your homepage

This applies to both the content and visual

design

“The homepage is the

most important page”

“Hamburger menus are

best for mobile”

“The designer […] is (erroneously) assuming

that the user knows what’s in the menu and

that he or she will

actively pursue it.”

—James Archer, Deep Design

Exisweb, May 25, 2014

% of visitors who click

hamburger icon% of visitors who click “Menu”

iOS 0.61% 0.77%

Android 0.25% 0.27%

“Hamburger menus are

best for mobile”

Audience Behaviour

Navigation Content

“Content should be broken

down by audience”

“Role-based [architecture] increases

cognitive effort and user anxiety. Clear

language and mutually exclusive categories

reduce the chance of harming the user

experience”

—Katie Sherwin for Nielsen

The GDS recommends:

• Against labelling by audience type

• Using topical labelling instead

• Address specific audiences at the

content level instead

“Content should be broken down by

audience”

“SEO is for robots”

• Keyword stuffing was bad for user experience.

• Why was keyword stuffing bad for user experience?

• Because keyword stuffing meant that content stuffed with keywords

contained little else but those stuffed keywords.

• It was hard to read the stuff between keywords.

• Because the content was so stuffed with keywords that there wasn't any

room for stuff or words that weren't key.

• Keyword stuffing was bad for user experience.

• Why was keyword stuffing bad for user experience?

• Because keyword stuffing meant that content stuffed with keywords

contained little else but those stuffed keywords.

• It was hard to read the stuff between keywords.

• Because the content was so stuffed with keywords that there wasn't any

room for stuff or words that weren't key.

Keywords stuffing

• Keyword stuffing was bad for user experience.

• Why was keyword stuffing bad for user experience?

• Because keyword stuffing meant that content stuffed with keywords

contained little else but those stuffed keywords.

• It was hard to read the stuff between keywords.

• Because the content was so stuffed with keywords that there wasn't any

room for stuff or words that weren't key.

Keywords stuffing

“SEO is for robots”

So how did we do?

Audience

“Mobile users don’t want to do

everything

“Our customers are like us, and

will view the website under the

same conditions”

Your mobile site should

allow your users to do

everything

Your customers might not

be like you

Behaviour

“People don’t scroll”

“People don’t read webpages”

You don’t need to cram all

the content at the top

Create appropriate content for

your audience’s needs

Navigation

“The homepage is the most

important page”

“Hamburger menus are best for

mobile”

Put as much effort into every

page

Make sure the most important

navigation is always available

Content

“Content should be broken

down by audience”

“SEO is for robots”

Not in navigation, but within

content can be acceptable

Write for humans, and the

robots will follow