Digital technologies have rapidly become a key part of modern life- but the pace of change has left many consumers struggling to adapt. In a new series of articles, Bearing Point has identified five key ‘paradoxes’ to the way in which digital consumers should be handled. In this second article in the series, Sarah-Jayne Williams, Director at consultancy BearingPoint, looks at form versus function, and how an online shopping experience should meet the shoppers’ needs depending on their frame of mind.
“I wanted a ticket but all I got was a shopping experience”- How digital channels create incompatible consumer goals
This is the second of our series of Digital Paradoxes. Despite rapid digital advances, the customer mass market of digital is actually less than 15 years old impacting the way customers transact with, relate to and experience brands. However, human psychology lags behind. We seem to want incompatible goals: “I want to transact quickly…but I also want to enjoy a rich digital experience”. This disconnect is creating paradoxes that impact customer behaviours. In this article, we examine the choices companies have to make around the form and function of the digital experience they offer. Read more about the latest research from BearingPoint and the five key paradoxes that customers and companies are facing here.
Form versus Function
Different types of website assume different types of user. A ‘form’ website such as ladygaga.com offers an engaging immersive experience whereas functional websites such as online banking prioritise quick and easy transactions. Ideally websites and mobile applications should be sensitive to customers’ states of mind, so how can you ensure that your website hits the mark?
Audience or customer?
Let’s take a planned service for your car as an example. A visit to the manufacturer’s website means an inconvenient wait while the Flash sales experience of the latest model loads, complete with sound effects and test drive pop-ups. You don’t need this, you’re happy with your car.
A bad website? Not necessarily. Three years earlier when you were in the market to buy, you might have been receptive to this video.
Website users then can either be an ‘audience’, looking for an engaging experience, or they can be customers, looking for a quick, efficient transaction. The matrix below shows how the experience varies with the level of user involvement required. Low involvement and an emphasis on functionality are typically associated with e-commerce whereas high involvement and an emphasis on form is associated with brand awareness.
To help focus on the options it is worth thinking about the different roles that websites fulfill.
Websites and the attention economy
The first role is brand awareness. Used for categories as diverse as perfumes and pop stars, in their pure form these sites often encourage visitors to enjoy an experience and to share in a vision. Users don’t care about the time it takes, so long as they’re having a rich experience: a visit to ninaricci.com or ladygaga.com is not to be rushed. Indeed, the American theorist Michael Goldhaber has suggested that there is now an ‘attention economy’. Economies focus on what is scarce, and these days it’s people’s attention. Goldhaber asserts that ‘Money flows to attention, and much less well does attention flow to money’, so if you hold people on your website you have accumulated a form of attention wealth.
Trading platforms
At the other end of the spectrum, a website can function as a trading platform. The more complicated and time consuming a website is, the less likely it is to be used. ‘One click’ ordering, retaining card details and simple verification procedures all make trading websites more effective. Unfortunately these innovations also make for greater security concerns.
An experience surrounded by buttons
The diversity of roles for websites might at first imply that the different objectives cannot be met simultaneously. However many websites manage quite well. There is a de facto standard by which the central area of the home page offers an experiential view whereas buttons and menus provide information and transactional support, as exemplified in the Disneyland website below.
Consistency is important. One of the reasons people find menu driven call centres so frustrating is that on the one hand you’ve got a human voice. On the other hand you’ve got an interaction format based on lists of menu items. No restaurant waiter would simply read out the menu “press twenty seven for chicken tikka masala”, so why should call centres?
Design for state of mind
Ultimately, the form versus function paradox is best addressed by designing media around customers’ state of mind. In some circumstances this is relatively easy to figure out and respond to, as in the funeral director’s website which starts with a poem.
An emerging challenge is to devise websites that try to adapt. It is possible to ask questions to assess what customers want to do. Alternatively, using clues such as the speed of typing can attempt to assess a customer’s mood; knowing the Google search terms that a user has used to arrive at your website is another pointer. This is the ideal – an emotionally intelligent website.
How to Address the Paradox
1. Be clear about the function of your website or application. These can be diverse – including brand awareness; trading platform; facilitating a community or social network; acting as an information resource; or providing service and support.
2. Try to predict the states of mind of your customers as they interact with your applications, and try to imagine what their motivations are. Are your customers interested in an immersive experience of your brand, or are they hoping to complete a transaction as quickly and easily as possible? Or is it a mixture of the two?
3. If there is any ambiguity – and there probably is! – look for ways of making your applications adapt. The simplest option is to have a single portal and let your customers choose which path they follow. More complicated approaches pick up on clues and adapt the experience accordingly. Consider the types of clue available: kind of media used, time of day, typing speed, voice characteristics, historical path through the website.
By Sarah-Jayne Williams
Director
BearingPoint
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These can be various – including kind sense; writing a good dissertation trading lectern; facilitating a neighborhood or sociable grid; acting as an info expedient; or providing utility plus living.