I’m forever abandoning shopping carts, and often it has nothing to do with friction, but more to do with features and information.
Firstly I need information: The first poster, above, mentions shipping charges. Being in Australia, many times shipping charges are prohibitive but the only way I can view these charges is by starting the checkout process. My online supermarket leaves a ‘shopping cart’ down the right hand side of my screen which shows the contents and current delivery charge if I went to the checkout right now. As I add more items the delivery charge can change.
Secondly, I need features. There are many times I prefer not to shop online (I like talking to people, touching the product etc). Often I will use an online store to create a shopping list that I can then print and take to the store with me. To create this ‘feature’, all that’s needed is the ‘permission’ from the site owner by means of a ‘print’ view of my shopping cart. The problem here is that I’m considered to be an abandonment if I stop at this point. By adding a ‘print’ button to the checkout, I can be counted in some other statistic.
Not every visitor who stops before handing over credit card information is an abandonment. They may have just needed better information earlier, or might be using your site for other purposes.
I think some of you may be missing the point of this article a bit. I have been working with Nick and the rest of the team at MarketingExperiments for some time on this concept and what he is describing actually can (and is) being modeled mathmatically as we speak. The fact is that users on the web behave certain ways and patterns always emerge in large data samples…we can model user behavior the same way we model anything else in engineering. We can view our subscription funnel the same way we view the flow of water through a canal…or the way a model car speeds across the floor after winding it up.
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Phil Stewart-Jones
Here’s the thing. I know what you’re saying about how user trends can be modelled, and I agree that there are elements that can be predicted. It’s accepted that “fewer form pages = better conversion”, and there is a good logical explanation for that.
But it is not the same as modelling flow or friction, where all the elements are known quantities (e.g. canal width and shape, volume and velocity of water etc). Users are unpredictable humans. There’s no formula that can tell you whether your users will respond better to a blue button that says “Continue” or an orange button that says “Next page” (which would be a poor A/B test but then I think we covered that in a previous issue).
That kind of thing can only be determined by testing, and the results are only valid for your users on your site at that time, unless you test the same thing (and get the same results) across a very wide variety of sites and over a long period of time, in which case it’s still only a well-researched observation, not a provable scientific formula.
The canal doesn’t care what time it is. The canal doesn’t get sad or angry or happy. You can’t influence the canal. It’s not the same thing.
But if you apply this thinking throughout your site you will like find places where you can increase the transfer of energy to your readers on the sales or information pages, and reduce the friction on the sign-up, application, or shopping cart pages.
like should be likely, I believe. Good article overall, if a bit abstract.
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Paul Redmond
It seems pathetic to me that ALA readers need an article to spell out EXACTLY how to accomplish something. This article did a great job of facilitating ones own creative ideas, not giving you the “source code” of great ideas.
The best shopping cart experience I had was over at Atomic Park where you can either sign in, sign up, or check out without signing up. Perfect for me, because I did not want to go through the rigorous sign up process I often see on other sites. After my purchase was complete, the site asked if I then wanted to use my billing info to set up an account…perfect. If I really want an account, I can first ensure my purchase is on its way, then sign up.
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John Dunagan
I guess I’m just not used to that at ALA.
When someone, for example, says he can make onion skin boxes with CSS, we don’t just take his word for it. He includes his code, we look at it, and then we have something to talk about.
This comments area only has two types of comments: ‘Show your work’, and ‘Yay, Nick’; hardly a starting point for beneficial exchange of ideas.
Really, though, would it have been so hard to include a couple of screenshots (one before, one after) to demonstrate just once that the author did any work? There’s the link, but if I’ve never been there before, can I really see what he did?
I have to agree that this article could have used some more meat. I’m not asking for a complete tutorial on the topic or a step-by-step walkthrough. However, the article read to me like the following:
1. Capture the attention – check!
2. Make a snappy marketing analogy – check!
3. Explain what you mean by the analogy – check!
4. Describe how it works – umm…anyone?
Overall, a good introduction to the topic and I think the analogy he’s making really does make sense. And, if you take it a few steps further and start thinking about it, you can start to form some ideas. I guess the article just left me wanting more.
Now, there is a new happening that is left out, after people sign up/subscribe and use the service, they are blogging. It is often those blogs that drive additional traffic to online web logs.
I write about this in my post The power of a newbie. I believe that when people sign up for a service and begin using it that they provide valuable (and free) feedback on the user interface and service if developers would pay attention.
This is an excellent blog for programmers and webmasters. It is very helpful to me as I work with about 30 websites as well as my “day job” teaching high school computer science.
I found this a very interesting article, and a useful way of thinking about the design of processes.
However I would echo an earlier commenter, who said that by mixing up the results of design with incentives, you’re not making it clear how much of the improvement was down to design. I would have liked to see some more objective testing – direct comparison with no other factors.
This article seems to have got me thinking. It has brought forth a sleeping thought and although it isn’t too comprehensive … it gives a fair idea about what lines to think along …
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Derek Pennycuff
For me, personally, the last thing I want from a site is a bunch of marketing fluff about how great their service or product is, especially if it stands between me and the action I’m trying to make. If I’m on the fence, then fine, give me your whole spiel. But if I show up credit card in hand, ready to purchase, just get the hell out of my way.
Back end incentives can also do this. I don’t want up selling, I don’t want special offers from your strategic business partners, I don’t want to hear about your customer loyalty program, I just want my order confirmation number and a tracking number.
It boils down to using smart design to assist the user as unobtrusively as possible. I think at the heart that’s what this article is suggesting.
However, if some of the marketing types I’ve dealt with in the past caught me reading this, they’d latch on to some of the language as an excuse to mislead and manipulate site visitors into clicking that buy button rather than assisting them in making an informed decision to do so. In that situation, the percentage of visitors who begin the check out process would likely go up. However, the percentage of abandoned shopping carts would likely to up as well, removing all possible gains. And since it’s a problem on the web site, who gets the blame, the marketing team or the web team?
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John Smith
As well as watching friction, it also helps to keep an eye on the amount of commitment required from the user; would you talk about marriage on a first date? Half far are you expected to go? Although every site is different a useful template to keep to the rule of physiological thirds.
Your output:
Graphic
A couple of brief statements
Details (if you looking for input try to incorporate this into you first input page).
Your input:
Never more than 3 pages with the amount of input increasing by about a third:
Percentage questions:- 25%, 33%, 42%.
Input type:- Tick boxes, drop downs, typing.
Personal data:- general, preferences, personal details.
If it looks like you need a fourth page break it down into a two stage process sign up (confirmation email and then log in) than a couple of more questions when they log in.
If you can target at getting the user to the end of page two, odds are they will feel a sense of obligation to third.
One thing I find nice about the article is I’ve never heard the idea of kinetic energy during web surfing. I suppose I would generally use terms like flow and momentum, but this idea is definetly going to be added to my list of topics to bring up with clients.
It’s unfair that people are calling this a plug for the author’s link. If they write an article about a design idea, they too can use their project as an example.
If Smartbrief.com is really a partner, you should talk to them about redoing their site. They could really use some help going from so graphic heavy to something more usable.
I’d just like to express my enthusiasm for ALA moving into topics outside “hardcore” design, like marketing. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the best article for it.
I was confused by the abstractness, and the need for a complicated metaphor like a “flywheel” when “a good push” would have been good enough, but there were some good ideas in there and it left me thinking.
I think it would have played much better to the ALA audience if the author didn’t include marketing language like “conversion rates” and “incentives”, and more solid examples would have moved it into the real world instead of an imaginary abstract blur of cars, flywheels, pathways, and funnels.
While I understand the analogy being made, I’d argue that the term ‘energy’ is not accurate. A good website doesn’t transfer energy to the user, it empowers a user with choice and control. The term ‘friction’ is a good one, however “˜reducing obstacles’ more accurately describes the goal of effective web design and usability. I see no point in making up new terms, as they merely muddy the waters and dilute understanding.
For those looking for concrete examples of reducing “friction”, here’s but one:
Please don’t make me register before I can make a purchase. Some of us detest dealing with passwords, etc. I’ve abandoned more than one cart myself, just because I didn’t want to go through the registration process.
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Weixi Yen
Basically, this article said to build your page to be conductive to selling a single item and make checkout pages shorter. In return, conversion rates will be better. Also, add incentives or free giveaways to users to increase registrations.
If the kinetic energy analogy and new flywheel buzzword were not used, this article would probably not be accepted by ALA standards. It’s just content about things that are pretty obvious. Show us something we don’t know, and if you want to show us something we already know, go into it in detail as we’ve never gone before.
Copy & paste the code below to embed this comment.
Weixi Yen
Basically, this article said to build your page to be conductive to selling a single item and make checkout pages shorter. In return, conversion rates will be better. Also, add incentives or free giveaways to users to increase registrations.
If the kinetic energy analogy and new flywheel buzzword were not used, this article would probably not be accepted by ALA standards. It’s just content about things that are pretty obvious. Show us something we don’t know, and if you want to show us something we already know, go into it in detail as we’ve never gone before.
32 Reader Comments
Back to the ArticleCoMagz founder
Would be interesting to form a list of the most important aspects of perfecting website usablity and rank them for importance.
Rick Measham
I’m forever abandoning shopping carts, and often it has nothing to do with friction, but more to do with features and information.
Firstly I need information: The first poster, above, mentions shipping charges. Being in Australia, many times shipping charges are prohibitive but the only way I can view these charges is by starting the checkout process. My online supermarket leaves a ‘shopping cart’ down the right hand side of my screen which shows the contents and current delivery charge if I went to the checkout right now. As I add more items the delivery charge can change.
Secondly, I need features. There are many times I prefer not to shop online (I like talking to people, touching the product etc). Often I will use an online store to create a shopping list that I can then print and take to the store with me. To create this ‘feature’, all that’s needed is the ‘permission’ from the site owner by means of a ‘print’ view of my shopping cart. The problem here is that I’m considered to be an abandonment if I stop at this point. By adding a ‘print’ button to the checkout, I can be counted in some other statistic.
Not every visitor who stops before handing over credit card information is an abandonment. They may have just needed better information earlier, or might be using your site for other purposes.
Cheers!
Rick Measham
Jalali Hartman
I think some of you may be missing the point of this article a bit. I have been working with Nick and the rest of the team at MarketingExperiments for some time on this concept and what he is describing actually can (and is) being modeled mathmatically as we speak. The fact is that users on the web behave certain ways and patterns always emerge in large data samples…we can model user behavior the same way we model anything else in engineering. We can view our subscription funnel the same way we view the flow of water through a canal…or the way a model car speeds across the floor after winding it up.
Phil Stewart-Jones
Here’s the thing. I know what you’re saying about how user trends can be modelled, and I agree that there are elements that can be predicted. It’s accepted that “fewer form pages = better conversion”, and there is a good logical explanation for that.
But it is not the same as modelling flow or friction, where all the elements are known quantities (e.g. canal width and shape, volume and velocity of water etc). Users are unpredictable humans. There’s no formula that can tell you whether your users will respond better to a blue button that says “Continue” or an orange button that says “Next page” (which would be a poor A/B test but then I think we covered that in a previous issue).
That kind of thing can only be determined by testing, and the results are only valid for your users on your site at that time, unless you test the same thing (and get the same results) across a very wide variety of sites and over a long period of time, in which case it’s still only a well-researched observation, not a provable scientific formula.
The canal doesn’t care what time it is. The canal doesn’t get sad or angry or happy. You can’t influence the canal. It’s not the same thing.
Tyler Smith
like should be likely, I believe. Good article overall, if a bit abstract.
Paul Redmond
It seems pathetic to me that ALA readers need an article to spell out EXACTLY how to accomplish something. This article did a great job of facilitating ones own creative ideas, not giving you the “source code” of great ideas.
The best shopping cart experience I had was over at Atomic Park where you can either sign in, sign up, or check out without signing up. Perfect for me, because I did not want to go through the rigorous sign up process I often see on other sites. After my purchase was complete, the site asked if I then wanted to use my billing info to set up an account…perfect. If I really want an account, I can first ensure my purchase is on its way, then sign up.
John Dunagan
I guess I’m just not used to that at ALA.
When someone, for example, says he can make onion skin boxes with CSS, we don’t just take his word for it. He includes his code, we look at it, and then we have something to talk about.
This comments area only has two types of comments: ‘Show your work’, and ‘Yay, Nick’; hardly a starting point for beneficial exchange of ideas.
Really, though, would it have been so hard to include a couple of screenshots (one before, one after) to demonstrate just once that the author did any work? There’s the link, but if I’ve never been there before, can I really see what he did?
Brian Crescimanno
I have to agree that this article could have used some more meat. I’m not asking for a complete tutorial on the topic or a step-by-step walkthrough. However, the article read to me like the following:
1. Capture the attention – check!
2. Make a snappy marketing analogy – check!
3. Explain what you mean by the analogy – check!
4. Describe how it works – umm…anyone?
Overall, a good introduction to the topic and I think the analogy he’s making really does make sense. And, if you take it a few steps further and start thinking about it, you can start to form some ideas. I guess the article just left me wanting more.
Victoria Davis
Now, there is a new happening that is left out, after people sign up/subscribe and use the service, they are blogging. It is often those blogs that drive additional traffic to online web logs.
I write about this in my post The power of a newbie. I believe that when people sign up for a service and begin using it that they provide valuable (and free) feedback on the user interface and service if developers would pay attention.
This is an excellent blog for programmers and webmasters. It is very helpful to me as I work with about 30 websites as well as my “day job” teaching high school computer science.
James Edwards
I found this a very interesting article, and a useful way of thinking about the design of processes.
However I would echo an earlier commenter, who said that by mixing up the results of design with incentives, you’re not making it clear how much of the improvement was down to design. I would have liked to see some more objective testing – direct comparison with no other factors.
Harshit Sekhon
This article seems to have got me thinking. It has brought forth a sleeping thought and although it isn’t too comprehensive … it gives a fair idea about what lines to think along …
Derek Pennycuff
For me, personally, the last thing I want from a site is a bunch of marketing fluff about how great their service or product is, especially if it stands between me and the action I’m trying to make. If I’m on the fence, then fine, give me your whole spiel. But if I show up credit card in hand, ready to purchase, just get the hell out of my way.
Back end incentives can also do this. I don’t want up selling, I don’t want special offers from your strategic business partners, I don’t want to hear about your customer loyalty program, I just want my order confirmation number and a tracking number.
It boils down to using smart design to assist the user as unobtrusively as possible. I think at the heart that’s what this article is suggesting.
However, if some of the marketing types I’ve dealt with in the past caught me reading this, they’d latch on to some of the language as an excuse to mislead and manipulate site visitors into clicking that buy button rather than assisting them in making an informed decision to do so. In that situation, the percentage of visitors who begin the check out process would likely go up. However, the percentage of abandoned shopping carts would likely to up as well, removing all possible gains. And since it’s a problem on the web site, who gets the blame, the marketing team or the web team?
John Smith
As well as watching friction, it also helps to keep an eye on the amount of commitment required from the user; would you talk about marriage on a first date? Half far are you expected to go? Although every site is different a useful template to keep to the rule of physiological thirds.
Your output:
Graphic
A couple of brief statements
Details (if you looking for input try to incorporate this into you first input page).
Your input:
Never more than 3 pages with the amount of input increasing by about a third:
Percentage questions:- 25%, 33%, 42%.
Input type:- Tick boxes, drop downs, typing.
Personal data:- general, preferences, personal details.
If it looks like you need a fourth page break it down into a two stage process sign up (confirmation email and then log in) than a couple of more questions when they log in.
If you can target at getting the user to the end of page two, odds are they will feel a sense of obligation to third.
bugmenot bugmenot
Where are techniques? Where are tips?
I’ve looked at the ad… um… example site, but I don’t see how their signup is revolutionary. Aren’t they just getting 500% more ALA readers signing up?
kris meister
One thing I find nice about the article is I’ve never heard the idea of kinetic energy during web surfing. I suppose I would generally use terms like flow and momentum, but this idea is definetly going to be added to my list of topics to bring up with clients.
It’s unfair that people are calling this a plug for the author’s link. If they write an article about a design idea, they too can use their project as an example.
mike white
If Smartbrief.com is really a partner, you should talk to them about redoing their site. They could really use some help going from so graphic heavy to something more usable.
michael moncur
I’d just like to express my enthusiasm for ALA moving into topics outside “hardcore” design, like marketing. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the best article for it.
I was confused by the abstractness, and the need for a complicated metaphor like a “flywheel” when “a good push” would have been good enough, but there were some good ideas in there and it left me thinking.
I think it would have played much better to the ALA audience if the author didn’t include marketing language like “conversion rates” and “incentives”, and more solid examples would have moved it into the real world instead of an imaginary abstract blur of cars, flywheels, pathways, and funnels.
Stuart Matthews
While I understand the analogy being made, I’d argue that the term ‘energy’ is not accurate. A good website doesn’t transfer energy to the user, it empowers a user with choice and control. The term ‘friction’ is a good one, however “˜reducing obstacles’ more accurately describes the goal of effective web design and usability. I see no point in making up new terms, as they merely muddy the waters and dilute understanding.
Michael Straker
For those looking for concrete examples of reducing “friction”, here’s but one:
Please don’t make me register before I can make a purchase. Some of us detest dealing with passwords, etc. I’ve abandoned more than one cart myself, just because I didn’t want to go through the registration process.
Weixi Yen
Basically, this article said to build your page to be conductive to selling a single item and make checkout pages shorter. In return, conversion rates will be better. Also, add incentives or free giveaways to users to increase registrations.
If the kinetic energy analogy and new flywheel buzzword were not used, this article would probably not be accepted by ALA standards. It’s just content about things that are pretty obvious. Show us something we don’t know, and if you want to show us something we already know, go into it in detail as we’ve never gone before.
Weixi Yen
Basically, this article said to build your page to be conductive to selling a single item and make checkout pages shorter. In return, conversion rates will be better. Also, add incentives or free giveaways to users to increase registrations.
If the kinetic energy analogy and new flywheel buzzword were not used, this article would probably not be accepted by ALA standards. It’s just content about things that are pretty obvious. Show us something we don’t know, and if you want to show us something we already know, go into it in detail as we’ve never gone before.
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