Imagine arriving at a website. It’s old looking and disorganized. It’s difficult to find what you are looking for and you begin wondering if they can really help you.
Imagine arriving at a website. It looks new, well designed and organized. You can easily find what you are looking for and you feel they can help you.
Each website has a purpose. Yet, is the purpose the one the owner intended?
If you want your website to be a place where your customers feel comfortable, you need to design it for that purpose. You need to consider your customers’ perspective when they arrive at your site. What do they want? Can they find what they want easily? Does your website clearly depict what you do?
Here at Smitten, we don’t just design websites. We design them with a purpose. Our websites are more than good looking; they are designed with purpose.
A purpose driven website requires deep thought, experience, and the skill of asking the right questions. There is a lot of unseen craftsmanship that goes into creating a purpose driven website. Sometimes the difference is subtle but it can make a huge difference.
Let me illustrate this with the following story. It was 1982 in Tempe, Arizona and cable TV was still unfamiliar to most people. About a month before cable came to Tempe, a group of psychologists ran an experiment. They developed two paragraphs each slightly different that would introduce the benefits of cable TV. The goal was to see which version produced better results.*
Here are the two versions of the introductory information provided to homeowners:
1. CATV will provide a broader entertainment and informational service to its subscribers. Used properly, a person can plan in advance to enjoy events offered. Instead of spending money on the babysitter and gas, and putting up with the hassles of going out, more time can be spent at home with the family, alone, or with friends.
2. Take a moment and imagine how CATV will provide you with a broader entertainment and informational service. When you use it properly, you will be able to plan in advance which of the events offered you with to enjoy. Take a moment and think of how, instead of spending money on the babysitter and gas, and then having to put up with the hassles of going out, you will be able to spend your time at home, with your family, alone, or with your friends.
When reading these two statements, many people have said they didn’t see any differences between the appeals. Do you see the difference?
While the difference is subtle, when cable came to the area, those that had been presented with the first paragraph signed up at a rate of 20%. That’s pretty good until you consider the second group. Those that were presented with the second paragraph signed up at a rate of 47%!
Design that is both purposeful and intentional will craft a website that looks new, well-designed, organized and that encourages your customers to take action. The differences may be subtle, but the final outcome can be significantly different.
Is your website purpose driven?
* “Self-Relevant Scenarios as Mediators of Likelihood Estimates and Compliance: Does Imagining Make It So?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 43 (1982): 89–99.”