UX London – Designing for Content Rich Sites Workshop

Here’s a dump of tweets i sent during Jared’s workshop.

sitting up the back of @jmspool‘s workshop – Why Good Content Must Suck: Designing For The Scent of Information
Jared is talking about the Scent of Information and why it is more effective than designing for navigation
humans = informavours
Jared says: the best websites have a lot of content
conten sucks the user towards it (this is why your content has to suck… like a vaccuum cleaner)
every link gives off ‘scent’ that users follow. As scent gets stronger, people are more confident they’re headed the right way
we can only tell from users behaviour whether the scent is working or not. If you’re not watching users, you won’t know.
“trigger words” are the words that cause users to act
our eyes go straight to trigger words.
@Suw no videos from #uxlondon as far as I know
Jared says the 3 click rule is ‘complete bullshit’. Tell your boss.
the only time users complain about clicks is when the information scent has gone
good design is like air conditioning. You don’t notice it unless there’s something wrong.
@Suw I’m in the process of posting dumps of my tweets session by session to my blog right now :) www.disambiguity.com
when the user comes to the page they scan for trigger words, if they find one, they click on it. If they don’t, they go to search
the search box is users creating their own links by inputting the trigger words they’re looking for
most of the time BYOL (bring your own link) via search doesn’t work
users don’t like to scroll ‘that’s complete bullshit too’ @jmspool
iceberg syndrome: people assume the most important stuff is at the top. If ‘marketing fluff’ is at the top, don’t bother scrolling
nobody goes to a website without a purpose. except web designers.
information masking:when users look at a page they focus on only the portion of the page that has consistently given them good use
navigation panels are often scentless. Scent is specific, navigation is often not.
short links don’t emit scent
the best links are 7-12 words in length
@atownley 12 words is too long :)
short pages reduce scent. The best pages are *really* long. ref: CNN, Yahoo, Amazon, NYT
things that stop ppl from scrolling 2. Design elements that *look* like the bottom- white space, text that looks like a disclaimer
cute/brand/marketing type links don’t work (mystery meat)
homepages should look more like sitemaps in @jmspool‘s opinion. It’s not clutter. Link rich homepages do better than sparse pages
@jmspool on baseball – it’s 15mins of excitement jammed into 2.5hrs
the only people who care about what ‘section’ of a site something is in is people who manage the site. Users couldn’t care less.
graphics for information = v useful. decorative graphics are less easy to correlate to good user outcomes
the no.1 thing that users base the quality of their experience on is whether or not they complete their task
Navigation Graphics communicate scent. Content Graphics convey information. Ornamental Graphics do something else #uxlondon PRT @Wandster
yes, in case you’re wondering, I’m tweeting a @jmspool workshop at
designing for scent – make sure every click makes the user more confident
what makes users confident – ‘i know where this link is going to take me’
on click show desired content OR even stronger scent = happy user
if you’re not spending time watching people use your site there is no way you’re designing a good site #uxlondon ( )
you need to know – why are users coming to your site? what are their trigger words?
users look for blue & underlines. yes, it’s ugly and hard to see but we’ve trained users to look for that.
Target Content Page = the page the user is looking for to solve their objective. The most important page on the site for that user
you only have to worry about information scent if you have more than one page on your website
Gallery Page = a list of links to content pages. Scent comes from the content page thru the links on the gallery page to the user
@jmspool does research on ecommerce sites because they’re easy – easy to measure if users have achieved their goal.
3 scent failure predictors: use of the back button, pogo-sticking, use of search
wireframing 2.0 #uxlondon goodies http://tr.im/uxlondongoodies (via @solle)
the back button is the button of doom (repeat after @jmspool)
pogosticking = when the user bounces between levels of the information hierarchy seeking their target content page
when people pogo-stick we see a huge reduction in users achieving success on a site
the more users pogo-stick the less likely they are to find the target content. When you see it it, tells you there’s a problem.
you are *much* more likely to find what you’re looking for if you DON’T use search
only if you have Uniquely Identified Content (like Amazon) do you get an exception to the searching = predictor of problems rule
people type very generic terms into search – this is the main reason search fails (behaviour not technology)
your users are telling you every day what trigger words they’re looking for and on what pages. Look at your search logs.
users are telling you every day what is wrong with your site and what you need to do to fix it. Are you paying attention? @jmspool
to stop people pogosticking, you need to put as much information on the gallery page as possible
“Changes in the web donâ€šÃ„Ã´t change the fundamentals of human behaviour” (@jmspool) #uxlondon (via @Paulseys)
alphabetical order is the same as random order in 99% of cases @jmspool
Department Pages = collections of gallery pages. Separates gallery pages into logical groups.
Department pages are for winnowing, gallery pages are for selecting. Users get this.
More on “pogosticking” on UIE: http://bit.ly/NuY6W #uxlondon (via @bashford)
You can always have that much space for your gallery page because you have an infinite page length @jmspool
people do NOT learn the structure of your site by using it. They have no sense of the organisation of your site, nor do they care
When users comparison-shopped using pogosticking techniques:purchase = 11% . Compare to 55% when product lists used. #uxlondon PRT @Wandster
seducible moments – at the end, once users have *achieved* their goal say ‘by the way, would you like to do this?’
Store pages = groups of department pages. Helps users tell the system what they *don’t* want to see (eg. business or sports)
people who choose a ‘Store’ page tend to never choose another ‘Store’ page in the same session.
Do you need store pages? Look to your competitors. If they have them, you probably do. Use the same terms as they are (generic)
Homepage purpose – to get people to other pages, usually to a category page. Divide real estate accordingly
anyone who tells you that your homepage is for brand, to learn about your products/your business etc. They’re wrong @jmspool
the best way to solve arguments is to have everyone watching users actually using the site @jmspool