Children around the age of four have a hard time seeing a button and suppressing the powerful urge to push it. At that age children have learned about action, cause and consequence. A child knows that some things do certain things by the push of a button.
This is something a human being learns once, and it will never forget it. It goes so deep down in our evolutionary roots, that even some of the less intelligent animals can learn this pattern of cause and consequence. This is right down to the bottom line of usability. It’s about sensing something, being able to touch or pick it up and applying it for a certain purpose.
The same is happening to us when we’re surfing the web. Every day, every moment when we look at a website, every time we use the keyboard or mouse to type and click something, we are following the same natural behavior.
The web isn’t the first media demanding those usability qualities.
Books have a great usability factor because they are all working the same way: books start with a cover, and in western culture, you’re reading from left to right, turning pages in a linear left-to-right pattern. You can also go back and forward, or jump right in between chapters. And when you find an empty page, you’re able to turn that page to get to one with content you were looking for. This is a given for usability. Something so profound and basic, you don’t even think about it. But you’ll be surprised how many websites fail with this simple standard of usability. On many sites, when you come to a dead end, there’s no way out of it, except with your back button.
Most websites are drawing attention completely away from basic browser navigation tools. You forget about that back button on top of your browser window. I once talked to someone on the phone to help her find a certain link. She didn’t know how to go back until I specifically pointed out the back button. It’s not such a rare case that people forget about this button, given the sophisticated navigation systems websites are using nowadays.
People behave naturally. They are simply users who want to use your website for their purpose, not yours. When they come to your website for the first time, you teach them a certain navigation system. From the first page on, a user will expect the same behavior pattern of your navigation throughout your site.
This is another given in usability: What you experience once, you will expect to happen in the same way the next time you’re using a similar trigger.
If your navigation is inconsistent and uses different terms, various colors and indicators for links, you’re confusing your website users. If your navigation is showing up on different spots and in various areas of a page, it is confusing your users as well. It’s even worse if they’re running into a dead end.
You’d be surprised to learn how many websites, even of big companies, don’t get this. You’ll run into 401 errors, see missing-page announcements, discover Apache server notifications, and in some cases you will be told to contact the web admin. This is just like you turn on your TV, zap to a different channel and all of a sudden you’re informed you did something wrong and you’ll have to call the cable guy.
From a user experience point of view, this is bad. This is really, really bad. Consider this: Your users are not only visitors of your site, they are potential customers. And believe it or not, but they are judging your site based on their user experience. They will challenge your site, stroll in various places, try finding out if you’re genuine and deliver real quality. In short, they will judge your brand by browsing your website. And if they find holes, or dead ends, or doors with a lock and no explanation, it will add to their negative user experience.
Doing it right on the other hand is not that hard. Just think about what you would like to see and read if you were a user visiting your company’s website. Imagine yourself in this role: You’ve just entered a bad URL. Now you’re on a dead end page.
- What should this page look like?
- What should it tell me?
- How can I get out of here?
The best you can do is provide help. Give them a way out. Show them alternative ways to browse your site. Give them links to other places. Be nice and gentle. Your users haven’t done anything wrong, you did. Ask them what they were looking for. From “Sorry, please try this.” (where this is a link to your index page) to a comprehensive site map—anything is better than“405 - Page could not be found.”
If you show your website users your effort to help them out, you are actually there for them when they need you, you’re adding to their positive brand experience. And that will always translate back into business.
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