Know Your Role
As someone who works online all day it’s easy to lose perspective on how pervasive the web actually is. The Internet is a global revolution for sure, but most individual websites do not play a role in day-to-day life.
As a web designer I’m normally online for a large part of the day but this weekend due to moving flat I’ve been disconnected – I know, the humanity! Adjusting to a more normal level of online (or should I say, offline) immersion has led me to think about the different roles a website can play.
What roles does your website play?
A website role defines a specific function or reason for the user to interact with the website. These roles include:
- Entertainment
- Information
- Search
- Service
- Social
The top three websites in the world – Google, Facebook & YouTube – have incredibly clear and focused roles – search, social & entertainment. Performing these roles are paramount to success and despite all these websites offering secondary roles, their main purpose is reflected strongly in their design.
Users choose to visit a website because of the role it plays in relation to their needs. A website’s role dictates how, why, when and for how long a user interacts with it (and consequently, how it is designed).
There is a lot of information we can assert about the user and their current state of mind just by knowing a websites role. If a websites role isn’t clearly defined it is unlikely to attract the interest of any users.
A very common mistake businesses make is to consider advertisement as the main role for their website. A website will not work for this purpose because advertisement is not a role that serves the interest of users. Any website set up around this idea will prove to be a poor investment.
If your business provides an offline service then your websites role is information, not advertisement. Unless you’re a global lifestyle brand, nobody is interesting in sitting through an online “experience”. Information like opening times, customer service numbers, and price lists should be first priority.
Websites are most successful when they understand their role and present a highly usable experience to their users. Websites fail when they try to force something on the user while denying them of what they require.
Only when the main role of a website is understood and achieved can it successfully evolve to perform secondary roles for its audience.
The roles of others
Advertisement may not be a viable role for a website in itself, but other websites do offer a viable platform for this. Therefore it is critical to be able to identify and understand the roles other websites play.
Facebook is a good example where traditional banner advertisement fails. Click through rates are abysmally low with only a few clicks in 10,000 impressions. This is because Facebook plays an entertainment and social role. Facebook users just don’t engage with advertisement. They simple aren’t interested or receptive.
Twitter is another website that provides a social role. Users go there to chat with friends and follow updates from their peers. Many businesses fail at engaging with users on Twitter because they offer little or no incentive for users to change their natural use of the website.
Some businesses do work well on Facebook because they can bridge the gap into the social role. Popular brands like Nike are often a material status symbol in social groups, so Facebook fan pages become popular with users.
Far more business ventures fail online than those that succeed. This is largely due to a misunderstanding of the roles websites play for their users.
Businesses that excel online find opportunity where their engagement is inline with the role users are interested in.
When we design websites at Base Creative we’re most concerned with things like navigation, content structure, and the overall user experience. These things are what we mean when we talk about “usability”. To do this we spend a lot of time understanding the website and what role it will play because different roles dictate different user experience.
photo by Angus MacRae used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0 license.