Book Review – User Driven Change: Give Them What They Want

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of Visible Technologies, Inc., its owners, management, employees, or associates. I agreed to review this book because I personally know and have worked with Carlos del Rio. Please do not ask me to review your books until after you have had lunch with me at least a few dozen times.

Carlos del Rio, author of the 100 Dollar SEO blog, is a former Visible Technologies, Inc. employee with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working and sharing many theoretical discussions. Carlos is, in my opinion, a top-notch analyst who understands the value of collecting and managing Web site data. I don’t know Jeff Noethen but I don’t hold that against him.

Carlos and Jeff have written a book, User Driven Change: Give Them What They Want, that delves into Web site design concepts from a marketer’s perspective. Web design classes would benefit greatly from this book if only because the art and science of Web design too seldom express any relationship to the needs of the marketer. A lot of material is devoted to leveraging metrics into the design process.

However, User Driven Change: Give Them What They Want is not a book about search engine optimization. It’s really concerned with site flow analysis and design. The writing style is straight-forward and comfortable, not too technical, not too cheesy-schmeesy. Most of the chapters organize their detail in easily scannable lists, although I think the book would have benefitted from including end-of-chapter recaps in bullet point format.

Drawing upon research published by other authors, Carlos and Jeff question the value of many common Web design practices. With respect to enhancing the user experience and building conversions, we do a lot of counter-productive things with our sites today.

They illustrate many of their points by looking at travel and accommodation Web sites, two industries which are renowned in the search engine optimization field for their competitive experiences. When you optimize for expressions like “travel” and “hotels”, most SEOs shudder and start babbling incoherently about “long-tail of search” and “building query spaces” (the authors mention the latter option in passing, btw).

In fact, there are companies that have effectively monetized 1-keyword query spaces, and in the process they have developed Web site designs that support Carlos’ and Jeff’s arguments. At that level of competition you cannot afford to lose visitors because your Web site cares more about being beautiful and less about being useful and helpful.

Nonetheless, even in travel and accommodation there are some lessons that could be learned. The authors take you on a trek through four concepts you rarely hear about in the world of SEO: “All Above The Fold”, “All About Speed”, “All About The Customer”, and “All About Retention”. The book really drills down into the details of Web site conversion theory for transactional conversion-oriented sites.

All Above The Fold looks at how Web sites can be designed to minimize vertical scrolling. These types of page designs maximize the potential user follow-through on calls to action. When your visitors know they can easily pull up a competitive site, you don’t need to dazzle them with B.S. — you need to give them what they are looking for as quickly as possible.

All About Speed explores the complicated world of load times and rendering times without obsessing over engineering tables. There is only one thing missing from this section, and that is an in-depth discussion of browser capabilities. For example, most people in the SEO field use Firefox despite its technical short-comings because they love to install plug-ins. Most consumers, however, use Internet Explorer.

I personally keep four browsers on my desktop: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Google’s Chrome. Although I keep Internet Explorer as my default browser I use Chrome for browsing by choice, switching to one of the other three when Chrome fails (I was disappointed to see that it doesn’t work with TurboTax). Chrome renders pages more quickly and is more stable than all three other browsers but it still doesn’t work with some sites.

Carlos and Jeff point out that most consumers don’t have very fast Internet access, even when they are at work (although there are no reliable statistics on how fast Internet access is for corporate users). The authors make a strong case for build sites that load and render quickly.

All About The Customer leads you through a maze of clashes between customer perspectives and designer initiatives. Things that we think help people actually hinder their progress through powerful sites. The book’s core philosophy, build success through simplicity, resonates well in this section.

You have to build your Web site for the people you are trying to reach. I’ve sat through many a Web design review and planning session where it was painfully obvious to me that the Web site was designed for the marketers. Even I have succumbed to that temptation all too often in my own personal sites.

All About Retention rounds out a solid discussion of customer behaviors, consumer expectations and limitations, and Web site design methods that capitalize on the differences between consumer needs. You’ve seen me talk about demographics — you have to understand the market you’re trying to reach when optimizing for search. But when you’re optimizing a Web site’s flow, you have to understand the psychology of the people who will visit and use your site.

In summation: My conclusion
The authors make a case for designing content that addresses specific consumer mindsets, needs, and capabilities. They pursue the lowest common denominator between marketer goals and consumer needs — advocating a limited tolerance for bells and whistles that are more impressive and less functional.

It’s okay to make a complicated Web site. It’s helpful to create an efficient, beautiful Web site. But most importantly you need to create a Web site that people enjoy visiting and using, that they want to recommend to their friends, and that they’ll come back to again and again.

User Driven Change: Give Them What They Want makes a cogent argument for returning to simple fundamentals without sacrificing the quality of design. In fact, we’ve learned many lessons about Web site design over the past 15 years that really call for a new paradigm. Call it Web Design Optimization — creating the most user value with the resources you have available. Instead of throwing as many resources as possible into the design process, what the authors advocate is getting the most user-oriented value for every resource you utilize.

Learn more and buy the book at User Driven Change.