Be more persuasive

By Lynda Rathbone

You’ve re-launched the web site, revised the content until it’s perfect, updated the content management system (CMS), bought a new search engine – and the website still isn’t working as well as you would like.

Perhaps users are still having trouble finding what they came for, or maybe they just aren’t following through with the intended action, from filling out an application form to making a purchase. So what’s the problem?

There may be a number of answers to that question, depending on the site. But one way to tackle it is to check that the site has been set up in such a way that users feel comfortable making decisions online. In my experience, just because users can perform a function online, that doesn’t mean that they will.

This is where ‘persuasive design’ comes into play. While there is no hard and fast definition of persuasive design, many website creators and operators are in broad agreement with the statement made by Andrew Chak, author of Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites, in the introduction to his book: “The goal of persuasive design is to get users to make the right decision.”

If you think about it, the hard work is actually done – most people today will think about using your website first. It’s become an accepted convention to perform many tasks online, such as banking, shopping, making charity donations, booking holidays and finding the answers to general questions. It’s easier for users and it’s easier for your organisation to serve them in this way.

But just because so many people are online now and open to a variety of interfaces, designs, content and so on, we website creators are at risk of becoming complacent the moment we have ticked all the boxes that say that the site is usable and accessible.

Making something usable doesn’t necessarily mean it will be successful. Yes, people can find things, but what will get them to transact?

A good example comes from a client I’ve been working with recently where the ‘calls to action’ throughout the site will be a mixture of straightforward instructional and usable text, such as ‘Search’, ‘Submit’ and ‘Go’, as appropriate. These are all accepted conventions and shouldn’t really be tinkered with.

But take, for example, calls to action around content that you want people to discover, consume and act upon. The client in question is a charity and, as is the case with most charities, it is seeking donations. But simply sticking a ‘Donate’ button on each page isn’t persuasive. Yes, it’s functional, but does it inspire the user to understand what difference their donation will make? Would a user be more persuaded to give a donation after they’ve read case studies and seen the impact past contributions have made? Of course they would.

The use of persuasive design in order to get users to follow a specific path is going to be critical in overall site architecture and design. We are even thinking of using persuasive navigational text such as ‘I want to help’ and ‘Make a difference’ instead of the conventional ‘Donate’ or ‘Give now’.

The same thinking around persuasive design can be applied to content. Why not re-work your content to be actionable and persuasive in tone rather than simply informative or instructional? While there is a risk of going over the top with persuasion, most sites still suffer from boring, over-long textual paragraphs (or pages) that lead the user to few actions or conclusions. Using persuasive text should be centred upon leading the user to a series of conclusions, from which they can select the option that’s right for them, without having to hunt around for more information.

Another example of persuasive design comes from a client I’m working with who has to issue licences to businesses and individuals. These licences can get complicated and a user wants to feel reassured that: a) they need the licence; and, b) they can safely either apply for and/or purchase it online.

In order to help the user reach these conclusions, we came up with both a task and an audience-led approach to the site and content that relies on persuasive design so a user reaches the content in the way they feel is most comfortable.

In addition, we are using persuasive navigational techniques to ensure the user follows through the process of understanding why it’s important to get a licence, what the terms of the licence mean and then finally, applying for that licence online instead of phoning the organisation. The content around these steps will be designed in short, usable chunks that will provide a persuasive call to action for the user to take to the next step, with the ultimate goal being the purchase of a licence online.

While there has been some debate over the years about the ethics of persuasive design, it’s important to understand that persuasion is not deception. It would be wrong to persuade people to purchase a faulty product or to sign up for a dodgy scheme of some kind. Persuasive design can be very useful and should be focused on helping users complete the task they came to the site to complete – not to talk them into spending money on products and services they do not need.

As always, I would be interested to hear your opinions or experience with persuasive design, so please feel free to drop me a note at: lynda@foursquaremedia.net.

Further reading

Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites, by Andrew Chak (with John Finnerty) is available from both Amazon.com ($23.80) and Amazon.co.uk (£18.35), among other web sites.

Unlike many books on web design, Submit Now remains firmly grounded in the reality of why organisations establish a web presence – to turn website visitors into customers, either online via that website or in a High Street store, or to promote a positive corporate message.

Chak, therefore, does not get taken over by the latest, whizziest technologies and how to implement them, he remains firmly focused on the ends, not the means. He divides website users into ‘browsers’, ‘evaluators’, ‘transactors’ and ‘customers’, and explains how a site can be designed to satisfy each of those groups.

The book should appeal to managers as much as designers, given its easy-going writing style and the way that Chak links his ideas to persuasion techniques explored by social psychologist Robert Cialdini in his popular work, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

The book is not without its detractors, but the most serious criticism is simply its age. Published in 2002, critics say that many of the examples cited by the author are simply out of date. Nevertheless, they concede, it remains a must-read for anyone involved in corporate website and e-commerce site design.