When developing a web application, or indeed any web presence for a client, it’s easy to forget that perceptions of the overall experience count. All too often, we deliver on the website goals, but forget about the feelings and emotions that it will leave the user with, both from a visual perspective, and from the messages they receive from the application during the experience.
This added polish – I like to call the website’s persona or its personal voice. It’s how alive it feels, and how endeared I am to it when using it. If you can breath life into your application, and add the personal touch you stand a good chance of leaving the feel good factor with it’s users, and ultimately them returning to you.
This post examines how some companies have successfully provoked these warm and fuzzy feelings within their audience, through their site – and highlights some of the methods you can use to do the same.
Personal Introductions
Feedburner, prior to being taken over by Google, had a great persona. They were a small company, and the message they lead with on their homepage was “Our name is Feedburner”. A bold declartive statement of the Brand, which had a “sit up and take notice of us” feel to it. Google have still kept this “branding” even after aquiring the company some time ago. It lets you know who they are, and what they do with no messing about. The impression of being rock solid is left in the consumers mind.
After logging in you were presented with something similar to the below:
It’s a cute little message which helps to humanise, and endear the audience to the service. This rotate, offering other random messages as you revisit. I find myself wondering “I wonder how feedburner is feeling today” – and I make a point of reading the latest message when I log in. This subtle part of the interface subliminally encourages repeat visits.
Friendly Error Messages
Errors will happen, and few bits of software if any can claim to be 100% bug free. How you handle and deal with these occurrences when they happen, is crucial to the experience and theimpression you leave visitors with. Good applications think about every type of error as they occur, right through from 404 (missing pages) to 500 (application server errors) – and the user errors which occur in between.
This 404 page from Real-Mac-Software gives a friendly “oh no, it’s our fault” kind of message, which both reassures the user that nothing is wrong, and that they can safely navigate to another page on the site.
Blippr – provide the following friendly message which lets me know – “ok hang in there” – we’ll be back.
Custom 404 are great at preventing a user from visiting, then immediately bouncing because you’ve changed a link, or your site architecture. They are an absolutely necessity on a site, as finding missing pages on a website can happen not just through the fault of the webmaster in charge, but because website visitors can also make typos around the web. Don’t think that you are immune just because you’ve tested your site.
Twitter’s server error – known as the “fail whale page” has actually become an intrical part of their brand – with user loyalty remaining extremely high during down time, its almost become acceptable to see. Twitter users the world over recognise the fail whale, and its made its way onto numerous items of clothing. It is synonymous with the community loyalty to the brand, with each of the birds (the users) helping the whale (the service) – to remain afloat.
Great Website Copy
Well written, and clear copy goes without saying. But language and the way you express yourself online, is as big a part of your brand as anything else. You can choose to be corporate boring, and not deviate from anything other than stiff, straight, professional language – or you can recognise that you don’t really speak like that in real life, and inject some parts of yourself into your copy.
I read a great article recently over at Small Bear Software, which highlighted the need for companies to stop skirting the issue of their size. Some try to hide the fact at every opportunity that they are small, puffing their chests with corporate lingo in case anyone notices.
Stop it. Embrace the fact that you are small. You are nimble. You can provide higher quality, and a much more personal service than the big boys. Expressing yourself freely on your website in a more natural way is a much better way for people to hear and understand what your company is all about. It sure beats corporate jargon.
I couldn’t have done this better than local Northern Ireland firm the Good little company – everything about their site screams small but beautiful. The ethos and personality of the brand is perfectly illustrated with both visuals, and with friendly copywriting.
Creative About Pages
Your about page is your opportunity to portray your company ethos and brand values. In my opinion a really great about us page lets personality shine through, and gives insight into the people behind the business. It also provides a great opportunity to tell your story.
I’ve seen a couple of places online where companies have abandoned the corporate “We were founded in x” or “We acquired z company in y” – and actually used the personalities traits of their workforce to define themselves. I’ve also seen a couple that thought outside the box!
About us pages are important in building brand trust, so can’t always be quirky – but they should let the audience know that they are dealing with people – and not a machine. Smashing magazine has a great list of about us pages that are well worth a look at in deciding what to say, and how to say it.
In summary, all of these help in defining you or a client’s personality online, and are important in making the business memorable, and a positive experience for the user. What ways have you guys added the personal touch to your work?
posted:November 19, 2009 7:43 pm
Interesting list, i do think friendly error message are a really nice touch but i rarely get a project where the client is wanting to pay for such things.
Shane