Web presences - where is the groove?
Rationality shapes the development process of websites and applications. As a result of this overly intellectual approach, visitor requirements are certainly met, but the website remains lifeless and lacking in flair.
The emotional differentiation of websites from the competition is missing, the offer is lost in the masses. There is another way without changing the process: User-centered and interaction design shape the content and messages of websites; templates, flat design and the responsive grid influence the look. Rational thinking in website development uncovers the customer's needs in order to lead them directly to the information they are looking for and thus to a point of interaction. All the work is aimed at getting the visitor to send an inquiry, register with a network, order a product or download a brochure. With so much ratio, the emotional differentiation points are often forgotten and the websites and applications lack that certain something. Kevin Hale documents how easy it is to elicit a smile from website visitors during interactions in a worthwhile episode of Standford University's Start-up Lectures: Startupclass. samaltman.com/courses/lec07/.
Winning sympathy
Kevin Hale shows how visitors' sympathy can be won with simple means without overturning the requirements of substantial user-centered and interaction design: Tool tips surprise the visitor, witty additional information fades the boredom of completing a form, or asking about the customer's state of mind takes the wind out of the sails of frustration in a support request. This chapter also includes an examination of the Magic Moment: when developing websites and applications, the following questions are rarely asked: What does the visitor experience when they start a software or app for the first time, have placed an order or join a network? Boredom or a magic moment? Take Amazon, for example, where a book excerpt is made available to me online after completing a book order so that I can bridge the time until the book arrives.
Kevin Hale's examples show, among other things, how simple means can create points of sympathy that also support the relationship between the company and the visitor on an emotional level. In order to create a differentiated brand image, the development of websites and applications should not focus solely on rationality and technology. Emotions, which build on the rational foundation, become points of differentiation that help shape the brand image.
Imre Sinka
