Finding out what makes customers click.

Finding out what makes customers click

Usability expert Mona Patel discusses the role psychology can play in web site design

Phil Muncaster

Mona Patel has over a decade of experience in the evaluation and design of web sites, and for the past six years has been helping usability consultancy Human Factors International (HFI) develop and implement new technologies for testing and improving a wide variety of organisations' sites. The discipline required to improve sites is somewhere between engineering and psychology, according to Patel, which is why HFI employs several practitioners who have degrees in cognitive psychology.

One of the firm's primary aims is to help customers get to the bottom of any issue they might be having with their web presence. For example, the consultancy could help a firm figure out why its site is attracting thousands of visitors to the checkout stage but only 10 per cent convert.

HFI's customers include a host of well-known retail companies, as well as banks, manufacturers, telecoms firms and government bodies. One of the company's biggest successes in the area of web site usability involved office supplies specialist Staples. The two firms spent hundreds of hours evaluating users' work environments, decision-support needs and tendencies when browsing and buying office products and small business services through the web. The research resulted in a host of web site enhancements, including more intuitive searching capabilities, personalised shopping lists for frequently purchased items and comparison charts. The result was a 67 per cent increase in repeat customers, said Patel, and a 42 per cent reduction in drop-off rates.

"After research we turn the principles into the design," said Patel. "We also have strategic guidelines to offer executives guidance on how to build usability programmes into their firms: it's not about doing projects but creating a programme, so usability is built into the development process."