Understanding Online Behaviour

When it comes to making a success of your business website, it is important that you understand the behaviour of your users to be able to make your site as effective as possible.

It is impossible to make anything effective without understanding the ins and outs of it in the first place. It is impossible, for example, to make a cake without understanding the ingredients that you are going to add, and how to put them together – and cook them – first. So when it comes to having a useful and effective website, it is also important to understand your specific users’ online behaviour.

There are a number of techniques that can by engaged to help with understanding online behaviour as for each company or website, their user demographics are slightly different as well as their situations and this is why it is important that user online behaviour research is carried out on an individual website basis.

Observational

Observational research methods involve observing the activity of a particular user whilst using the website. If for example you are selling cars you will be able to see what cars are being looked at as well as what information and when. Observation techniques involve either an online/offline experiment where users are accessing the website, whilst also being asked questions over the telephone, or all online with eye tracking devices – of course with the user’s consent - which can give quantitive data about what the user is looking at and when.

Task Analysis

Online task analysis involves the breaking down of each customer task, to be able to understand completely the process that each user goes though. This means that you can then make important design decisions helping the user get to where they want and to make your website more effective for you.

Feedback Gathering

Another good way of understanding customer behaviour online is by gathering feedback. You can use surveys or simply ask for feedback from your customers. This can be written into the design of your website, or you can use specific tools for gathering feedback.

Mobile and Desktop User Behaviour

We know that most people interact with the internet in today’s world through either a desktop or a device such as a smartphone. We also know that having a website that is responsive to both types of access is necessary today. However, it is important to know the differences between the ways that people behave, depending on whether they are using a desktop or mobile device.

When looking at mobile user behaviour, it is becoming quite clear that people are increasingly using apps to conduct their business online. This doesn’t mean, however that websites need to be forgotten.

Research shows that whilst the use of smartphones is increasing, people like to use different devices for different stages of a buying process, for example. It seems that people like to browse, research and compare on their desktop device, but will actually go back and buy a product on their mobile device.

We have also seen that, due to smaller screen and keyboard sizes, the search words used are more limited and the top results in search queries even more important in mobile phone use. It is important for us that we are able to find information quickly, and this involves navigating through websites. The more navigation (and effectively brain capacity) that we need, or memory on how to find something again, the less likely we are to buy something. And this effect is multiplied in mobile phone use. Probably due to the screen size, it can be a little more difficult to navigate and therefore more off-putting to potential customers. So this is why navigation is very important especially with mobile phone use.

Attention Tracking

Another technique to understanding online behavioural patterns and the effectiveness of your website is through attention tracking – understanding which areas of your website are being paid attention to – or not. In the research, users are required to use a mouse to click when their eye takes them and this information is then used to understand where and when users are looking at different parts of the screen.

Page Scrolling

It is good to know how much of your content is being read by users, as this is a good indication of how useful your information is. An excellent way to get this information is to know whether pages are being scrolled all the way down. This helps you to understand whether your content is relevant, and also helps you in positioning a call to action that you may want to add.

Call to Action

It is generally accepted that a call to action is important when you are looking for a user to do a specific task. However, knowing what to write and where to put a call to action often require a little research. A call to action is usually a button on your website which will direct the user to another page where they can ‘buy now’, or ‘sign up today’, for example. The best way to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of your call to action is through A/B testing.

In A/B testing you try one way, record the number of clicks or conversions, then change one variable and compare the data. You then go to the most effective and go again with another one variable changed. This way, you can see the effectiveness of each change and keep on improving on it.

Gathering information about your user’s behaviour is central to being able to design and maintain a really effective website for a business. By employing some of these techniques you can create and adapt a website so that is beneficial to your user as it gives them what they want, when they want it, and as a result, make them more likely to use your business – obviously making it beneficial to you.

If you have any questions about understanding user behaviour, research techniques, and applying it to your business and website, get in touch with Studioworx either via email (info@studioworx.co.uk), telephone +44 (0)1482 659362 or the website (https://www.studioworx.co.uk).