It drives me crazy when Forrest Gump says that “life is like a box of chocolates, because you never know what you’re going to get.” What in life is as knowable and safe as a box of chocolates? You might not know if the filling will be caramel or a goopy cherry, but you know you’re getting BITE-SIZED CHOCOLATES IN ASSORTED FLAVORS, and you can look at each one for many more clues.
When your brain (yes, I am talking to YOU) processes any new piece of information, it asks itself a series of questions…
Can I eat it?
Can it eat me?
Can I mate with it?
Can it mate with me?
Have I seen it?
Have I never seen it?
That’s right…. Have I seen it? Have I never seen it?
This is critical to your website.
In my speeches (you know, the ones I used to do before I got tired of hearing myself talk), I spend a lot of time discussing grocery stores. When you go to Piggly-Wiggly in South Carolina, Hannafords in Maine, Safeway in Seattle, or Kroger in Texas, you know that the milk is going to be near the eggs. You know that the bananas are going to be near the apples. And you know that the ice cream will not be on the shelf in the dog food aisle.
You know this because supermarkets are FAMILIAR. Sure, there are differences in the end-caps and signage, but for the most part, grocery stores are all the same. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all, right?
Why is this important? It’s critical because when your brain recognizes something as familiar, it knows whether or not it’s safe. If you don’t need to evaluate whether or not something poses a danger to you (meaning your brain can skip that entire step), you can start to interact faster.
On the web, faster interactions typically equal greater conversion, more adoption to cart/lead form and thus, more sales/profits.
Companies send us RFP’s all the time for complete redesigns. They’re bored with their websites (or some new VP comes in and wants to mark his territory) and thus automatically think their customers are too. Not only is that NEVER the case but it’s also VERY dangerous to start demolishing everything familiar.
You need to make changes? Refresh. Don’t completely redesign. That way when the user asks himself “Have I seen it?” he’ll be able to say “yes” and move right along to the important things. You know, the ones that make you money.
Amazon is the perfect example of a company that constantly makes little, but VERY significant, changes. Over the years, they’ve added all sorts of bells and whistles to their site. Do you notice at first glance though? Not likely. Why? Because the look and feel is virtually the same as it was the last time you were there. Same colors. Same layout. Same search in the same place. Amazon’s website has changed (for example, the recent addition of the flash cart) but it’s still comfortable… and familiar.
So next time you’re tempted to overhaul your entire website, just rearrange a couple of the chocolates in the box instead. Or as the Southerners say, “Don’t move just because you need to clean house.”
What happens when your site is so bad that you really do need to start from scratch?
That’s an excellent question, Kent!
We do a lot of Website Conversions for folks, like you, and there are times when a site needs to be completely overhauled because, after looking at the statistics, it really is THAT BAD.
When that happens, we try extra hard to keep some of the core graphic elements of the site — the same colors, some of the same pictures, the same logo placement, etc.
Remember, people see things in pictures, not in text, so it’s pretty easy to keep things with a familiar feel even though you are indeed making a lot of changes.
Thanks for the question.
I’ve heard you talk about the eat-you-eat-me thing before. It makes so much sense to me! Where can I read more about it?
So the first time I heard the “eat-you-eat-me” thing was in college from a professor I absolutely despised. (I’d give her credit but I can’t remember her name for the life of me — she was that traumatizing!)
One of the folks who talks about it a lot the ever-brilliant and completely inimitable John Medina from Brain Rules. Look for his book on Amazon. It’s worth a read.
You helped us redesign our site four years ago. It was a complete overhaul because, as you said, our site sucked. The results were outstanding, much better than any of us anticipated. Then a new VP came in and wanted to change it all up. My team tried to fight him and lost. We went back to “our roots” and launched a new “brand” site. Lost over 48% of our sales immediately and it got worse from there. The Board eventually fired him and we slowly went back to the site that your team did for us and it has been performing well enough for us to get our bonuses back. Nobody likes the way it looks but it works.
“Nobody likes the way it looks but it works” is the story of my life.
Thanks for commenting Randy. I love that you boys are kicking ass & making the BIG bucks.
It’s funny that design elegance often triumphs functionality and clarity on websites, because it certainly doesn’t in physical stores. Nobody in their right mind would accept a new floor design that forced customers to walk an extra 50 yards to get to the bestselling products, or that hid the signs for critical store features such as the checkout line, customer service, and the bathrooms. Yet we think nothing of adding colored backgrounds to important copy (thus making it all but unreadable), concealing commonly-sought information (store hours, return policy, etc.) because it’s not sexy, and shoe-horning our products into templates that don’t really do them any favors.
I’m cracking up over Randy’s comments (sad but true, I think it’s funny). As an outside consultant I can’t tell you how many times I have seen a new leader come in with a grand new brand idea and screw things up.
One of my clients recently acquired a new CEO and the changes he made instilled fear (eat-me or my paycheck kinds) and stalled all the efforts the previous fabulous well loved and trusted CEO had created.
That shuts people down. What a pity – whether with a website design or a strategic change in direction there are so many questions that need to be asked before it gets implemented. Like “How will this effect the cusfomer, employee, the community?”
I appreciate the post Amy, I guess this means it’s a good idea for me to use my old press photo on my new site. Whew!
Hi JoAnna –
I bet you see this a lot in the customer care world — every new person who comes in wants to add their spin even though the tried-and-true practices (like the ones you talk about) are the ones that work best.
I don’t think that a lot of people ask (or care for that matter) “How will this effect the customer, employee, the community.” They just want to make it something THEY like. Rather unfortunate.
Thanks for weighing in. When am I going to get some guest posts out of you anyway?
Please tell me it is possible for a site to have beauty and brains (as in smart navigation). We’re in the process of implementing a new design that I hope does not make Amy’s list of “Websites that Suck” when it goes live. In the meantime, we’ll test it with users before we launch the new site.
Hi Kelly —
Yes, there are many sites that have beauty, brains and brawn too!
Testing with users is a good thing. Just remember, when you’re first going out, it should be a mix of YOUR users and users who know jack about your product. (They’ll give you much different, but valuable, feedback.
Good advice! I’ve read this blog post at least 5 times and as I think about how to apply the advice to a new web site design project , it’s finally registering with me that certain key elements need to appear on EACH page of the site and in the same location or with recognizable visual attributes. Then, through testing, I’ll know if I got it right. Thank you!
Consistency with the C- is key. The C is the top, left and bottom navigation. The words don’t necessarily need to remain the same but the look and feel of the C should.