Blog | 11 September 2019
Part 1: Confirm that visitors are in the right place
Confirm, reply and move on – user-friendly websites in three steps
Your visitors love websites with clear language, structure and functionality. So do we at Språkkonsulterna. In this blog series, we'll go through our three-step rocket for user-friendly websites: acknowledge, respond, move on.
In this first installment, we'll go over the art of confirmation. Visitors should get confirmation as soon as possible that they are in the right place. Parts 2 and 3 will focus on answering visitors' questions clearly and simply and guiding them to the next step.
Kim wants to become a registrar so that she can marry her sister and her partner. Kim googles " become a registrar " and ends up on the county administrative board's website. There you can find information on how to find a marriage officiant. Kim doesn't see the answer to her questions and therefore goes back to the hit list to search further.
But that was completely unnecessary. If Kim had stayed on the county administrative board's page, he would have seen that there was also information about becoming a registrar, but further down.
Users know what they want – confirm they get it from you
Most people who visit a website do so with a clear objective. Perhaps they are looking for information on becoming a registrar, maybe they want to buy a particular book, or find out if their home insurance is valid when traveling. These targeted visitors need quick confirmation that they have arrived at the right place – otherwise they are likely to leave just as quickly
The main heading tells visitors they're in the right place
The first thing visitors see when they arrive on a web page is the main heading. It confirms that they have arrived at the right place, that the page can answer their questions. So make sure your headline is both independent and unambiguous.
You may have come across headings such as Fees. They may work on a smaller site where there is only one type of fee, but this is rarely the case. If you're looking for fees specifically for childcare, the Fees heading won't be much help. The heading Childcare fees says more – and confirms to visitors that they are on the right page.
A well-worded preamble reinforces
A short and well-worded preamble reinforces the visitor's sense of having arrived at the right place. If the main heading is Civil Marriage, you can make it clear in the preamble that visitors can find information both on where to find an officiant and on how to become an officiant themselves:
Are you getting married in a civil ceremony? Or do you want to become a registrar? Here you can find out how it works, including how to find an officiant, what paperwork is required for the ceremony and how to apply to become an officiant yourself.
Let each page have a clear purpose
Sometimes you may find it difficult to summarize the content of a page with a clear heading or preamble. Perhaps the page is actually aimed at two completely different audiences, as in the example of officiants. In this case, there is a risk that the page will be both long and somewhat disjointed.
If you encounter this problem, it may be a sign that you need to split the page into two instead. Not only will it be difficult for you to write good web content, but your visitors will have a hard time finding their way to the page and understanding its purpose.
Have you confirmed? Then it's time to answer!
By now, we hope you've got a lot of new thoughts and are rushing into your website to evaluate the headlines and file affirmative preambles.
The next part of our blog series is about responding. Once users know they're in the right place, how do you make sure the information is clear and understandable to them, so they can get their questions answered?
