People move around the web using a range of characteristic styles. When you are creating websites you need to ensure your site accommodates all these styles. Jakob Neilson tells us people who visit websites are often:
- Clickers,
- Scanners,
- Printers, or
- Multiple-window users
Each of these has their own needs
Clickers click rapidly through websites
Creating websites that are clicker-friendly means having:
- Highly relevant content visible immediately
- Conventional navigation tools
Clickers click rapidly through websites looking for relevant information. They rely heavily on what they see first on the screen to decide whether to stay or move on. Clickers seldom scroll down and are unlikely to stay on your page unless they immediately see something they are looking for.
Create your top screen to contain headlines, highlighted text or an image that is relevant and interesting. This should not be in the form of a graphic banner at the top of the screen as research has shown that people ignore these as advertisements. As clickers move rapidly from page to page they need conventional navigational tools. Remember that they will spend more time on web sites other than yours and will not want to learn a new system in the short time they are on your site.
Scanners scan headlines
Creating websites that are scanner-friendly means having:
- Meaningful headlines
- Concise summaries
Scanners scan through the information on a page but rarely spend more than 10 seconds on any one page. They may scroll down but will focus on headlines, summaries, topic sentences and other short pieces of information.
You need to use headlines and summaries which are informative and concise. Avoid headlines the meaning of which only becomes apparent when the visitor reads the underlying text.
Printers print to read later
Creating websites that are printer-friendly means having:
- Printer-friendly page options
Reading from a computer monitor is much slower than from paper and monitors are not easy to read for long periods. This is related to screen contrast and the 72 dots per inch display that monitors use.
People often print articles for offline reading. This is particularly likely to happen when pages contain complex but relevant information, a visitor only has intermittent access to the Internet or prefers to read curled up in bed.
Printing out web pages can be frustrating. Often it produces reams of paper pages each of which is cluttered by logos and navigational tools. If the designer has chosen a fixed rather than liquid design for the web pages parts of them may not even appear on the printed version.
Make a printer-friendly version available
There are two options to making a printer-friendly version available.
- Duplicate every page as a printer-friendly version, or
- Use a print media cascading style sheet.
Duplicating every page as a printer-friendly version as a re-worked html page, a pdf file or an rtf file is hard work. The screen version and print version must be kept synchronised and if one is changed the other must also be changed. You are in effect creating two websites.
On this site I use a print style sheet, which is only called into action when the page is printed. I have put an icon into the top right of each page to make this apparent. It is surprisingly easy to do. However, even when your visitors print the page using their browsers’ print function, they will get the print version. This may be seen as a disadvantage for people who want to print out the web page complete with advertising banners, navigation bars etc..
Multiple window users
Creating websites that are multiple window user-friendly means having:
- A consistent page layout
- Meaningful meta-tag page titles
Some users alternate between multiple sites using multiple open windows (interlaced browsing)or multiple tabs. The implication of this is that you have to accommodate for users who leave and return frequently.
You can help these users to orient themselves by having a consistent layout and using simple headlines so that they know when they are back on your site. Use meaningful meta-tag page titles that will be visible in the Windows task bar or tab title when your site is minimized.
Creating a website for general styles is not enough
Creating websites that suit all of these characteristics is a great start, but not enough. You need to know the style and characteristics of your particular target audience. Only then can you produce good audience dynamics that encourage your visitors to stay longer on your site, and then to come back for more.
Are you clicking off to the next page or opening a new tab?
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