Your users' goals

Your users' goals Once you've got a statement of purpose you're halfway to being ready to design.

The next step is to understand who'll be looking at the page, and why.

The best-designed web sites are sensitive to the needs of the users.

They're designed to anticipate what real people are trying to achieve, and then to help them do it with the minimum fuss.

No-one uses software for its own sake

We're all looking to get something out of it. In other words - users have goals. Whoever is using your web page is there for a reason.

Common goals for me include:

to be Relaxed, knowing there's nothing urgent to do
to be Chilled out while I work
to receive Money
to be Entertained

Note that none of these goals mentions 'using software', but they all happen to involve my interacting with software in order to achieve them.

to Relax, I deal with any urgent issues (by finding out if I have any email)
to Chill out while I work, I listen to music on my laptop
to Earn money I create web pages or graphic designs as easily as possible
one way I Entertain myself is by finding out what's happening in the world

Using software is a means to an end. Interaction design guru Alan Cooper wrote an illuminating book all about software and goals, in which he describes his goal-oriented approach to software design. I recommend everyone who's involved in designing software to read "The Inmates are Running the Asylum".

Why is someone using your web page?

Follow these simple steps to understanding why someone is using your web page:

Write down the different types of users who will likely use your web page
For each type of user, try to picture what they look like, then write down what they are trying to achieve. Consider carefully and imaginatively the environment they may be in. What speed of internet connection do they have? Are they at work or at home? How much time do they have? What are their priorities? What kind of thing would insult, annoy or upset them?
Narrow down on those things that it's your duty as a designer to help your users to achieve (or avoid). These become your success criteria. For example:
- The home page should load within 10 seconds over a dial-up connection
- The page should remember the visitor's preference, and prioritise the content list wherever they go in the site, and when they return
- The site should not require the visitor to type in the same piece of information more than once
- The site should ensure that all visitors re-type their password for security

Designing to achieve your success criteria will help your guests to get what they want as quickly and effectively as possible. In many cases, what they want is also what you want, i.e. your goal is for them to achieve theirs.

Sometimes, your purpose includes results that are different from what your visitor knows they want for themselves (such as their being made aware of new ways to spend their money, or starting to understand what differentiates company A from competitor company B).

If you find you have personal or commercial imperatives, these will be additional success criteria. You may realise that your users' goals are at odds with your goals. This is a situation that needs to be resolved carefully. If you prioritise their goals completely, can your site still succeed? But if your users can't achieve their goals, why should they use you? They might decide to use a competitor instead.

Simple Design
Simple web design delivers huge benefits to designer, client and user. When a design doesnt seem to work, ask what should be taken away before asking whats missing.
Designing for the web
The purpose of design is to facilitate communication between user and content. Designing for the web means designing sympathetically with the way people actually use the web, not how we think they should. People approach web sites in very different ways to how we design them...
Developing Your Winning Web Site Strategy
Your web site is the key to your success on the Internet. You can use your web site to build your brand, increase sales, generate more leads, slash costs, and much more. In fact, you probably have very specific goals that your web site is helping you to achieve for your company...
The purpose of design
Now you have a good idea what goals you want to achieve. There is another type of goal, which is the goal of the design process itself. What is design for? At the highest level, the purpose of design is: To enable communication between the consumer and the content Of course, the goal...
Is It Wrong To Have A Goal-Oriented Home Page?
Not too long ago, a client asked me to create a new design for his companys home page. As I was getting ready to work on the design, I asked my client what the homepage needed to accomplish. In other words, what were the pages primary goals? What did the company want clients to do when they got .....
Content step-by-step
Discovering just what you want to say with your website is half the battle of creating it. Beyond that, you need only impose some sort of hierarchy on your thoughts.
Your goals
Web pages can serve to do a wide range of jobs, from providing information, or giving people access to rich interactive applications, games or digital art...
Selling To Your Affiliates
While success with any internet marketing program falls on the head of the marketer, what the program offers in pay outs and products plays a big roll.
Top SEO Tips
It is a fact that search engine optimization is very important. We all know that the internet is a changing arena, since it can get more and more competitive everyday.
Information architecture
Architecting web sites is similar to architecting buildings. They are complex disciplines, which impact several areas including visual design, user experience, navigation, visitor flow, accessibility, construction cost, and maintenance costs...