Building Web Sites With Depth
By Jakob Nielsen and Marie Tahir
Is the Web really the ultimate customer-empowering environment? The Web as a whole is empowering, because users have the option to click over to the competition at the slightest whim. So why do sites so often leave users feeling powerless? The Web increases accessibility and defies geographical barriers. But e-commerce sites often decrease accessibility and erect more barriers than you'd walk past in a store.
The Web is all about choice; the range of places available for users to transact business is astounding, the options almost endless. Individual Web sites, on the other hand, often don't give customers the flexibility that a physical store provides. Customers in physical stores have more power than customers on e-commerce Web sites. Customers in physical stores can approach an expert—either a salesperson or a fellow shopper—and ask questions, explain their problems, and get recommendations. If the customer wants to compare similar items that the store offers, the customer can view the items side-by-side (size permitting).
One of the oldest guidelines for usable interaction design is to increase the user's sense of control and freedom. It feels good to be in control. It feels bad to be dominated by a machine. There are exceptions to this rule, such as operations that you need to perform only once and where it may be better to abandon responsibility and let the system take over. The wizard used to install Microsoft Office is an example of an oppressive interface that's probably acceptable to most customers.
Viewed overall, the Web encourages unparalleled user freedom with millions of sites to choose from.
