Drawing again from American Idol insights… It’s a fine line between giving your audience what they want and satisfying their need for the unexpected. Too much in one direction or the other and you lose them! AI judges want to hear well trained voices, but also hope for the spark that makes the person unique.
When I work with web clients we have similar challenges—a website that delivers what the visitor is looking for but at the same time shows how unique and “a cut above” the business is.
Is your website delivering what’s expected?
1. Make it Familiar. No one wants to hunt for the button to click to move from page to page, so it may be like other sites to have buttons at the top or down the side, but it satisfies the user’s need for familiarity.
2. Keep it Simple. Do button names and links make it easy for the user to figure out how to move through the site? Is information divided into bullet points and palatable paragraphs?
3. Provide Basic Data. The visitor comes to a website for gain information, so provide it. Don’t miss the basics: address, phone, fax, email contact, business hours, description of services.
When you’ve mastered delivering the expected, you can then move on to deliver the delightfully unexpected: large product selection, more information than your competitors, dramatic design, broader range of services.
Remember Grandma’s old saying: Don’t put the cart before the horse? Well, this season of American Idol teaches “Don’t put the sting bikini before the voice!” – Master what’s expected…FIRST
