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Older Internet Users Feel Web Advertising and Content Not Relevant well if you see just the age demographics, you can see so much of a confusion, if you add other demographics such as sex, location, interest and such complains from user will rise exponentially. No matter, how much we complain about privacy and other issues, to deliver relevant ads the advertisers need to know who you are and that can only come when they collect some data about you.
And this is not something new, I really don’t mind if Facebook collects data about me and shows the most appropriate and useful ads. Because, I know Gmail knows much much more about me than any other social network would know about me in the life time. Just think it this way, if someone wanted to blackmail you does he have to attack your Facebook profile or Gmail account.
As a user it’s actually going to help me. I will start seeing more meaningful, useful and relevant ads if the web properties know me and deliver me the ads intelligently. In the free world, the producers needs to know more about the user. It won’t be a win-win situation if I am offering my stuff free and that also to the bunch of anonymous user. So the social networks, portals and search engines who offer you free service, they have a right to know you, because their entire business model depends on the business of user understanding. Remove the understanding part and search engines would be nothing but a dumb collection of links.
It’s like going to a restaurant or a salon which we frequent quite often - the more they know you and know about your preferences and choices the more customized and effecient service you will get from them.
Women are topping up the net usage now. Digital Journal points to the study conducted by Pew Internet which says that 74% of all U.S. women are online and they continue to dominate most elements of content creation and are becoming the most prolific web users:
5 per cent of U.S. teen girls blog, compared to 20 per cent of boys, and 54 per cent of online girls post photos online compared to 40 per cent of online boys. The stats shouldn’t come as a surprise to Net observers who track social engagement among teens, especially girls.
Women and web development: Well guys you need to forget stereotypes and take a wholesome look at the user base and the users that we are developing products for. Their net usage is not just limited to sites on health and home improvement but women also constitute 38% of gamers populations. So just assume one thing - women are everywhere.
Women, content creation & communication: Women will consume the content which is more actual life and need oriented, they won’t only seek content for themselves (health, lifestyle, beauty, fashion) but also for their families (health, home improvement, relationships, education). They are also more expressive than men and it would mean that would drive the expressions and communications tool like blogging, social networks, micro publishing, social book marking and so on. They are also the content creators of tomorrow.
Women as consumer and producer:I have seen that there are more women working now on not just design but also on product development and business management. The growth is not just limited as the consumer but also as the producer. It will be much more interesting to see the impact of their decision making and creative roles on the web. This would also mean more meaning to web as the majority of the current web consumption and creation is around the stereotypes.
I have gathered the real word examples from my own experiences and its looks at what are the various difficulties which your customers may face when they are interacting with you.
Call Centre: Shut them if they do not care for customer care Most of the call centres by businesses are run to benefit the telecom companies. These are the standard replies which any Indian customers would have come across.
Sir for this problem you need to visit to our customer care centre
Sir, our systems are not working right now, please call tomorrow
Sorry Sir !!! I don’t have this information
Sorry Sir !!! My manager is not available right now.
When the customer want’s to pay you, but you simply won’t allow that transaction. Example 1: I wan’t to discontinue my number as I have moved to a new city. I am able to do that for one of my connection, but the other connection is from a different provider. I call them up and they tell me I need to be in the old city to discontinue. I visit their customer care center, wait for 1 hour nobody is there to attend, customer care people are taking 20-30 minutes per customer as if the world is never going to end, I get pissed off, call up the people again, same reply. I write up to their customer care, no reply till date.
Example 2: Somewhere in 2000: I ask my telecom provider to check the bills as they ask me to pay SMS charges for some land line numbers, which was due to some error. I call up call center, they tell me to contact customer care center, go to customer care center and file complain. The cost to me is more than that they asked me to pay. I finally feel disgusted and stop using their connection. They send someone to collect the payment 3-4 times, everytime I ask about the open issue and the persons tells me he will come back with a resolution and never came back finally.
When the customer wan’t to be your customer but you won’t allow I have had this experience with 2 of the banks. The first bank too 30 days to issue a new debit card and other bank took almost 45 days to activate my new account.
1. Non-Standard GUI Controls: What I find true "If Jakob’s Law is "users spend most of their time on other websites," then Jakob’s Second Law is even more critical: "Users have several thousand times more experience with standard GUI controls than with any individual new design.". And its not a good idea to play with user experience and experiment with their behaviour. The other most important more than anything
4. No Feedback: It’s like treating user with dis-respect, no we don’t want to hear from you. User feedback is most important in uderstand the users requirements and most of the times they will end up doing you a big favour by pointing out critical design or business issues which you never even imagined.
Online Journalism Review - User feedback drives five principles for multimedia news on the Web:
1: Avoid an information overload
2: Have users’ expectations concerning interaction functionality in mind
3: Be careful using animation
4: Let users fully control the interaction
5: Involve users in testing your graphics
What are the objectives of user feedback ? SDCN explains the common objectives for any site:
* to learn who their users are;
* to gauge their impressions of the site;
* to understand their needs; and
* to address any problems they encountered with the site.
They further explain how to seek feedback, organizing incoming user information, responding to users and how to utilize feedback. You can start from here
How to listen to your user’s feedabck : On the other hand Jeff Atwood tells not to listen to your users. If you listen to your users on all things, you may not get the right picture. There is a way to do it and Jeff evaluates the pros and cons. I also believe that you need to filter the user feedback, judge it, evaluate it and then decide to apply. Most of the stuff you may not apply, as it may be a personal view, wrong observation, misunderstanding by a user or just a plain false statement. Will Kern also shares some such similar views on how to take user feedback with a grain of salt
Evolving with user feedback: Imaginginfo explains on how Nikons new website is planning to evolve with user feedback. Ground Report has some quick comments from various participatory media sites
I had previously pointed to the recent study by comScore which said 75% of total American internet users. Now blinks, a video search engine announced the results of a new survey on television and online video viewing with these results:
Media Multitasking, Typers Vs Talkers & Duouble Dippers - The habits that new web & TV users are forming
When it comes to TV & Web, its not either/or its both , the multitasking users- 78% U.S. adults go online while watching TV, and more than a third of them do so always or often. Then there are double dippers who are adults who enjoy surfing the Internet while watching television. Talkers are the guys who discuss the TV & web with others and then there are the true online types Typers who do more of a participation by actually voting on things, joining a forum and discussing in online.
Some more highlights - 78% of adults who watch television use the web while doing so - 35% report doing so often or always - 62% of double-dippers surf for content related to what they’re watching - 40% of them look for products/services that appeared in or were advertised during the program they’re watching - 39% of them look for upcoming/related events - When it comes to watching video or television content online, twice as many online adults typically watch full-length television shows, movies, or sporting events, as compared to user-generated ontent (25% vs. 13%, respectively). - When it comes to finding Internet video content, consumer behavior is almost equally divided between search engines and users going directly to content owner Web sites
New consumption from Newspapers to TV to web
Earlier to web when we used to read the newspaper we always carried our discussion forward with friends and families. But there was a latency, now people immediately see something on the web or TV and they have their own judgement to pass on the situation and to have a discussion with people around, in office or at home.
I Type, We the media and the power of mouse and keyboard
Now the users decide for themselves what they like, dislike and what they want to circulate and make popular. For example, on Digg at this very moment there is a story on "How *not* to fire bomb a night club" and "Physics lab completes world’s largest jigsaw puzzle". These types of stories would never become popular on a mainstream news sites. These UGC sites have now became the part of the culture and the news has become more about that culture. News for geeks, news for health freaks and the news for travelers. These kind of affinity ignites much more responses be it original or just the forwards but now I as the user can control what I know and what I want others to know and that also not from one source but thousands of them.
# 8% of Americans are deep users of the participatory Web and mobile applications
# 23% are heavy, pragmatic tech adopters – they use gadgets to keep up with social networks or be productive at work
#10% rely on mobile devices for voice, texting, or entertainment #10% use information gadgets, but find it a hassle
# 49% of Americans only occasionally use modern gadgetry and many others bristle at electronic connectivity
How does this web user classification / typology help you : This can help you decide how should you meet the expectations of your users. Most importantly if would also tell you what to expect from your users. If you think you will launch a UGC site and all of your users will start contributing, it doesn’t happen at all. Only 2% of your users will actually post the content that you want, may be the Omnivores ones. Connectors would make your content popular and the Productivity Enhancers will pull that content from subscriptions. So you need to have tools and features that target these users. You don’t need to actually get into the minds of these users, you need to have features and tools that makes it all easier for you users to do what they want.
Kathy Sierra is my most favorite blogger so far. Infact, my blog is kind of inspired by her blog creation passionate users. Inspired by the name, I created my blog ‘how to make users happy‘. Unfortunately, she doesn’t blog now due to some reasons. But I am still under the awe of her brilliant content and her passion towards creating passionate users.
I have managed products which had user base of millions and I know what passion means to handle such products as the creator and what does it mean to your users who have passion towards your users. It was my after-discovery, at the time of creating the product I was just thinking about the usefulness and not the users and even that worked for my users. It changed my approach and I started thinking product management in terms of users, user benefits, personal benefits and the social benefit.
It made me realize that I am not the owner of these properties, they are and that has only happened because we were offering something which was so wonderful that users become passionate about it. In the cut-throat competitive scenario you can only lead, if you have the passionate users backing you up. But this drive has to come within and should be culture not a profit driven initiative. Don’t think dollars, think customers, think humans.
Here is the video of Kathy Sierra found n Tim O’Reilly’s blog. Tim had interviewed Kathy at TOC (Tools of Change for Publishing) conference. Please follow Tim’s blog for the fully story and update.
Do you know that you loose a very high proportion of users just at the time of registration itself ? And I am sure, you must be aware about the conversion rate - site visitor wanting to become a registered user. So when the user has decided to register on your site, do yourself a favour and don’t kick out the guest, whom you youself had invited and is really precious for you.
What the top like items that you should consider at the time of registration.
- Keep registration very simple, clean and neat - Don’t ask too much of information - Ask information which is MUST for a user to start using your site. - Don’t have any fields that won’t be used immediately post registration. Ask it later
Let’s have a look at it one by one
Product Proposition Make it very clear to the user what’s your site is all about and what benefits you users will get as a registered user. If the product and its benefit should be ‘painfully clear’ to the user. So that he knows what to expect and what to do post login. Post login, he will actively seek out click those items and begin his journey as a user. However, this communication should be sort of benefits and action items
Login ID = Email ID You can ask the user to create a unique user ID if it is a must for you, but always have you login ID as the Email ID. Users register at so many places, it is easier for them to remember their email ID and not the unique user ID that they create on your site, unless they are using it daily. I completely agree with Guy Kawasaki on this, I have suffered this most as a user
Scenario: I come to a site and I am asked to create a user ID, I try to register and on every attempt I am told that this ID is already taken up. Post 100 permutations and combinations I come up SK123PQR - which is only available. Do you think I am going to remember this randomly generated ID next time when I try to login to your site.
The bare minimum you will need Most of the sites can manage their registration just with Username, Email ID, Password, Confirm Password and Simple Captcha field. Anything beyond this, think if it is really necessary
Confirmation Mail Confirmation mail is the mail you send to the user to validate the email ID. Don’t depend on this, you should keep a check on your mail servers and have a proper MIS so that you know it is working. Otherwise, by the time you will know it is not working, you must have lost 100s and 1000s of users.
Also keep the communication simple in this mail. Keep the mail in plain text and don’t make it heavy with links, communication and other promo. You should also know how to maintain your mails and servers so that they are not marked as spammers.
Welcome Mail. I don’t find it necessary, I haven’t gone through any confirmation mails in my life. It may be useful for some people who properly go through all their mails but not for majority of the users like me, who use 100s of sites and the delete is the most used button in the mail program. But if you want to keep it limited to top 2-3 things that you have to offer and not to overwhelm the user with plethora of choices. Keep it simple and the make the call to action very clear - ‘now what should I do’ - answer this questions for the new user.
Welcome and Handholding The first screen for the fresh user should properly guide him - what all is available and what all things he can do. Don’t confuse him with everything that you have, be selective and guide him towards the best of the things that you have and the most logical place where he should begin with.
Never ask any information for the future. At the time of registration, resist asking any information which is not relevant to the user, but you want it because in future you may come up with certain killer feature / module. User will find it utterly useless and you will get this data 111111 qweqewqwe, which is anyways not useful to you for your now or for your feature. If the user doesn’t find the benefit he will become a keyboard jockey out of frustration.
Divide & rule. It at all you require multiple information from the user at the time of registration, breakup into sections and clearly communicate to the user why you are asking that information in tone "this will help you to". Again, if the information can be skipped, skip it.
Communication while registration The communication at the time of registration should be very simple and very relevant to the stage of registration. Don’t pack in information which is not relevant to the process, the registration page cannot be the marketing page - it should only be about the benefits to the user in relation to the registration information that you are asking for.
What is user satisfaction ? The satisfaction of your users, the contentment that your users feel when they are using your product and services or interacting with your brand in anyway - The feeling that they have done right, that their choice is right, that they got the best, that they have paid the right cost, that they are with a good company.
Why do you need to evaluate user satisfaction ? If you don’t know how satisfied your users are and it they are getting any kind of satisfaction at all - these people will be immediately snatched by your competitors who know what do you offer and what you do not offer. So knowing the user satisfaction is important to retain the users, bring continual improvement, compete with other brands, keep up with user demands and drive the growth of you and your users.
What can give you false idea about user satisfaction ? The confusing internal and external surveys, improper interviews, focussed groups and other evaluation methods. Just ask yourself by doing this do you know your customers better now or you have just added one more statistical slide to your presentation. Don’t believe in anything, just because it is done professionally - before you do that - understand first what you need to know and what would be the use of that outcome. The aim of any such surveys would be to include it in our roadmap, strategy and implementations.
What is the right way of judging user satisfaction ? Forget, user satisfaction. Any business would just think about that with the same concept in mind and would get the same results. You would always be in competition with similar set of people and play up in the quarterly rat race. Make your users happy, take a big leap and become the leaders.
How & Why to know if you are making your users happy ? Can you have 10 real testimonials per customer or user interaction points. 10 people each where they were extra satisfied and happy to know your front sales executive, call centre guys, management, partners, other customers. Just try doing that and you will know how difficult it is to get these 10 customers testimonials at every phase of user interaction. How easy is to ask 10 questions and get yes/no answers and how difficult is to get compelling stories. The idea thus should be to make customers happy and not just satisfy them - I can be just satisfied b’cos it was convinient for me to do so, but has the brand met my all expectations or done anything beyond my expecations level. That extra makes me the fan, makes me the evangelist and gives that company a extra kick in the pants.
Read user satisfaction = customer satisfcation = consumer satisfaction
