Your Web Site and "Contingency Design"
Turn Customer Mistakes into Revenue
Mishawaka, IN. There's one more buzzword to add to your
web site checklist: "contingency design". Contingency
design is, in essence, making sure that when your customers
do something wrong, they are presented with something that is
as positive and useful as possible.
The September issue of New Architect talks about using contingency
design to increase revenue of e-commerce web sites. The article
had some great side-by-side screenshots:
1) A "404 Not Found" generic page vs. a nicely formatted
"Our apologies" page with additional product search
and navigation options.
2) A "couldn't find what you searched for" page (bluelight.com)
vs. one that presents some near-matches products to what the
customer searched for (walmart.com).
3) A page that merely identifies the form item the customer
forgot to fill in (ticketmaster.com) vs. one that actually re-displays
the form, identifying the missing fields clearly at the top
of the page and also flagging the actual boxes (victoriassecret.com).
Additional suggestions included identifying common misspellings
and building them into searches, being BRIEF and CLEAR if the
customer needs to do something, avoiding back and forth error
pages (which doesn't let the customer correct the error while
seeing the explanation of what is wrong), not breaking the Back
button, highlighting problems/errors using color, icons, etc.
Most of those who use the web have had frustrating experiences
that could have been avoided by better site design. Many of
the issues surrounding contingency design are common sense,
but it seems like a good concept to build into the review process
of any new or existing web site. At the simplest level, sites
should never default to the browser's "page not found" error
- a friendly error page (that offers the visitor assistance
and options) takes only minutes to implement. Beyond simple
steps like that, one must determine how much effort should be
applied in enhancing the search function, for example, or improving
form handling.
Estimating the return on investment for more costly activities
should take into account the overall web site traffic volume
and the frequency of visitor error. A literature request form
that is rarely used probably doesn't need hours of coding to
make it user-friendly. On the other hand, an e-commerce site's
order form is probably well worth a significant effort. If even
one or two orders a day can be saved by eliminating customer
confusion, the payback will be rapid.
Recommendation for IT Indiana readers: Check your own web site's
error handling by requesting a page that doesn't exist, or filling
in a form but skipping a required field. If what you see is
something your customers will find confusing or frustrating,
it's time to invest in contingency design.
Useful Resources:
Design
Not Found - The Best and Worst of Contingency Design
New Architect Magazine
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CompStar Technologies is a leading Indiana-based provider of networking, technology, and communications services. With offices in Mishawaka (serving South Bend, Elkhart, Warsaw, Michigan City, Fort Wayne, Niles, St. Joseph, and Benton Harbor, Michigan) and Indianapolis, CompStar provides network design / support, network security, wireless networking, business telephone systems, VoIP (voice over IP), and cctv / video surveillance systems. CompStar is the Technology Division of Direct Line Communications, headquartered in Mishawaka, Indiana.
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