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 Boring Is
Beautiful
(April 06, 2001) Boring is beautiful on the Internet, because the
Internet is a very functional place. Because of low bandwidth and time
pressure, it works best when it is designed using a "bare bones" rather
than "bells and whistles" approach.
Quality Internet design should be about functionality and
simplicity. It should be all about helping the reader carry out a task in
the simplest, fastest possible manner. If keeping it simple and fast means
that the Web page doesn't look that graphically appealing, then so be it.
If keeping it simple and fast means using standard rather than 'cutting
edge' technology, then so be it.
The reader (consumer) wants simplicity. The reader wants speed. The
reader wants convenience. The reader comes to your website to find out
something. Having done that they may want to carry out an action
(purchase). Make life easy for them. They will thank you with their
business.
A great many websites are making life hard for the reader. Consider
the following:
A 2000 worldwide Ernst & Young online consumer study found
that three out of four respondents had started but not completed an
online purchase in the past year. The study stated that, "many consumers
complained bitterly about long waits, clunky screens, complicated
processes, missing or hard-to-find information, nonexistent telephone
support, impossible return processes." A key conclusion of the study was
that the online experience, "is decidedly not about entertainment, which
didn't even make the top-15 list of consumer preferences."
Four out of five consumers in a 2000 AT Kearney abandoned
attempts to purchase products online due to poor website design and
functionality. Over half (52 percent) of those surveyed said that being
asked for too much information was their primary reason for failing to
complete a purchase online. In addition, 40 percent abandoned their
shopping carts due to website malfunctions. Abandoned shopping carts are
estimated to cost etailers USD3.8 billion in lost sales.
Almost half of all consumers trying to purchase online during
the Christmas 2000 period left websites without placing an order,
according to a Creative Good report. Reasons for abandoning the
purchasing process included slow-loading pages and difficulty in finding
products.
"While online retailers offer a variety of site features, most
of these features (the "bells and whistles"), with the exception of
search capabilities and "close-up" product views, are never used by the
majority of online shoppers," according to a 2000 study from
PricewaterhouseCoopers. The boring are inheriting the Internet, with
America Online being a case in point. Wired magazine reluctantly described
America Online as "unsexy and unstoppable". According to a Business Week
article in March 2001, "At every turn in the emergence of the Internet,
America Online has been an object of scorn. Silicon Valley geeks sneered
at its cheery user- friendliness and derisively dubbed it "America on
training wheels."
America Online has always understood the need to keep it simple. It
is the master of understanding its customer and using the Internet for
what it can do today, not what we all would like it to be able to do.
Boring is beautiful as long as it drives the bottom line. Just ask America
Online.
Gerry McGovern
<mailto:gerry@gerrymcgovern.com>
Gerry is an Irishman who writes a regular column on internet issues
called "New Thinking". You can obtain a subscription by sending an email
to newthinking-request@lists.nua.ie
with the word "subscribe" in the body of the note. An automatic response
will be returned.
- John Sumser
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