Usage Modes that Work Together
By Joshua A. Fruhlinger
Users come to the Internet with a particular goal in mind, rather than to follow random links. These goals, or usage modes—to chat with a friend, to buy something, to look something up—are often mutually exclusive, in that users who want to chat with a friend don't want to buy something at that time, and vice versa.
What happens, then, when a company fails to understand its users' usage modes? An e-commerce site that includes interactive, fun, value-added features may entertain its users, but will it convert those users into profitable sales? What assumptions should you, the Web site developer, make about your users, and how should you approach additional site features and content that may be outside the realm of your site's primary mission?
In 1999, I was a user experience director at a major consultancy that built e-commerce sites for startups. One of our clients was funded for an e-commerce product that focused on sales of exclusive live concert videos. Like a lot of people trying to create sticky experiences, we were hot on the idea of value-added content. We built a site that included artist interviews and concert calendars alongside the site's items for sale. We figured that by providing users with what seemed to be relevant content, we could create an experience that would keep users coming back for more.
After the site's launch, sales numbers were respectable, but nowhere near what they could have been based on site traffic numbers. People were coming to the site in droves. They were reading all of the great content that cost the company a good deal of cash, but they weren't buying videos.
