What makes a good website? Can you have a clunky interface yet give people a good user experience? Jon Setzen of Media Temple, a guest speaker at this year’s South by South West Interactive festival, defines content as anything that adds value to a reader’s life. Good content makes them laugh, take action, feel something. This short video covers off some of the highlights of his presentation and tips for creating a more compelling home page. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZw6Z5tR7tI This video explores:
- The content experience vs your home pageGood content makes us part of something. Our interest is piqued. We do a lot for the content we want. We want to experience ‘what is inside’. We’ll deal with annoyance to get the content, especially online.
- Can you make your user experience and interface more enjoyalble?User experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) can make content more enjoyable.
- Great home pages solve problemsYou can have a terrible UI and still have a good user experience if your site satisfies what the person is looking for. Jetzen sited the square website (www.square.com) as an example of a site that quickly communicates the problem it solves. For example: Problem: I need to be able to easily accept a credit card. Solution: Square The answer to my problem is solved IMMEDIATELY in the Square home page imagery.
Jetzen invited us to step outside of making products and instead to think of user experience. What are the problems and how are people getting solutions through your site? Creating an experience for your website visitors is about focusing on the ‘why’ and not the ‘how’. Tell them why you have the solution they are looking for.
“One of the key takeaways for me is that your best content may already exist. You may be sitting on a treasure trove of content that you can be using. So, dig into what you have that you can repackage to tell the stories that answer customer questions.” – Suzi Dafnis