29

Get Out of The Way of Your Customer!

This is a true story about a $300 million dollar button on a website. User Interface Engineering, which does usability studies on e-commerce sites, recently had a report about a client who they did some usability studies on. A major e-commerce retailer, this online store had the idea of installing a login feature just before the final step in the checkout process. After  you selected items from their store and went to checkout, you were prompted to either log into the site or register for a free account. The concept was that with an account, you could track your previous orders and make future buying easier. The web designers assumed that past customers returning to the site would know their login information, and the new users wouldn’t mind the extra steps of signing up an account, since they’d probably be returning to buy again in the future. These are very simple assumptions but wound up causing an extremely expensive mistake.

The study concluded that a substantial amount of people right on the cusp of purchasing a product declined to do so because of the registration process. In addition, many past customers had difficulty logging in as they did not remember their user names or passwords and didn’t want to wait for a response from the website telling them what it was. 45% of past customers actually had multiple logins with different passwords. While these factors were not a huge percentage of customers, it was enough to show a significant dent in the loss of business it created. For a company worth $25 billion, even a small dent in their revenues did amount to a significant amount of money? How significant? How about $300 million annually.

After doing this study, the UIE suggested replacing the mandatory registration portion of the checkout with a simple “Continue” button. They also changed the text to reflect that registration was not required but was a helpful option if you planned on returning to the site again in the future. The result? Sales went up by 45% immediately - $15 million in just the first month and $300 million in the first year, simply by adding a “continue” button.

So the lesson here is that so many times when it comes to website design we think about how it makes things more convenient for the designers and not so much for the customers. A great way around this is to have people beta test the website more effectively before having such a feature go live. I remember building a website about seven years ago. The client wanted to have the “buy now” button flash in red and yellow everywhere it appeared on the website. The thought was it would stand out and the customer would never be lost when it came time to place an order. When we beta tested the website, the testers all stated that the button was annoying and distracting when they were trying to read the product description adjacent to the flashing button. As such, they found it motivation enough to stop reading and click off the site. So a feature that was intended to get people to buy more frequently actually wound up driving them away.

So whenever working on your own website, be aware of the experience you have building it may not be the same experience your visitor has when they are on it. Sometimes we have to take off the “Designer” hat and put on the “Customer” hat when it comes to our own e-commerce website. Doing so may result in a much more positive result than you might think.

11

Fun Few Weeks for Photography

It’s been an interesting month for taking photos. I finally made the decision to upgrade my Nikon D50 to a Nikon D200…not the top-of-the-line but it’s a damn fine camera nonetheless. I knew upgrading would be a huge improvement in having a tool to be able to do things more creatively and I am even more surprised now that I own it as to how accurate I was in that assessment. While my wife still thinks of it as a “new toy” (and there probably is some truth to that) it actually is just a more powerful tool to push the levels of creativity in photography farther. I think of it as a better brush to the painter. The artist never changed, just the tool to deliver the artistry became more effective.

So, of course, with the new camera in the bag I decided I needed to start shooting as much as possible last week to get the feel for it. The weekend started quick with another shoot for TheDirty.com. They are always a lot of fun to work with. I did two night’s of shooting with them…one on Halloween and again the night after, both at the Prive’ nightclub at Planet Hollywood. I knew it would bring out the craziest Las Vegas tourists had to offer and I got some awesome photos there.

Three days later, I had the privilege of shooting a young model from Denver, Colorado, Lauren Travis. I was looking at doing an artistic nude shoot with someone and after interviewing about half-a-dozen, she had the exact look I was seeking. She hadn’t done many shoots before and she was comfortable with the type of shoot I was looking for so we chose Red Rock (just moments outside of Las Vegas) and she worked out better than expected. We did a bunch of great head-shots for her out in Calico Basin and in some hidden locations around the Scenic Loop we did the other shots.

Fast forward to mid-week. SEMA was in town, the huge automotive industry trade show. Anyone that knows me knows I LOVE exotic cars. Having driven many of them, I have a passion for Ferraris and I thought no better place would be to photograph some. Aside from all the classic cars, hot rods, and Japanese import street racers, there were a few exotics there for sure. Not as many as I was hoping for but there were a few. I saw a few Ferraris, several Lambos, some Ford GTs, and even a Mosler. I was really hoping to see a Bugatti, Pagani Zonda, or a Koenigsegg and was let-down to see neither. Still though, it was a fun place to get some great photos (special thanks to Vanessa with Mariott Resorts for helping me out with the pass!).

It got me thinking though, with such an insane week of shooting, Vegas really is an incredible place to live from a photographer’s point of view. Not only do we have the coolest trade shows, awesome nature areas, amazing skyline, and a 24/7 party mentality, it really is one of of the greatest cities in the world! To have the ability to capture the moments digitally of such beauty is a real privilege, in my opionion and I am looking forward to getting back to my photographic roots, so to speak, and taking more advantage of all the beautiful imagery this city has to offer.

Recently I interviewed with Christie’s Photography here in Las Vegas. They are one of the top photography houses in Las Vegas and Orlando with such notable clients as Lowes, Harrahs, MGM Grand, and more. They had a need for a few more freelance photographers to add to their very reputable crew and I was selected along with two others out of the 50+ people that interviewed with them. When I was speaking with their regional manager in the interview, the topic of what my opion of photography was…whether it was an artform or not. I’m a HUGE believer that it is. Mid-Month we all had an orientation with one of the executives from the organization along with our regional manager and it was extremely informative. There is a lot to be said about being on a team of people who actually REALLY know what they are talking about.

Earlier in the week, I grabbed my camera and with my wife and in-laws we decided to play “tourist” on the Strip and Downtown for a few hours. I’ve been wanting to do that for quite some time and it was fun to finally get around to that. I’ll have those photos up on the site soon. So be sure to look for them on my new URL at www.shotbyadam.com.