Is Desire a Priority in Your Site?

I’ve worked for a multitude of Web sites, but they’ve always emphasized function over form, useful and usable over truly engaging. There was never enough time or money or even talent to do more. And maybe that’s why, with one exception, none of them has ever been or will ever be the kind of destination where people arrive and say, “I gotta tell my brother/friend/mom about this…”

What did they lack above all else? Desirability comes to mind — that sense of play or uniqueness that lures visitors in and immerses them in experiences that transport them.

So how do we inject desirability into the sites we work on?


In a recent Forrester report, Kerry Bodine offers three tactics.

1. Provide engaging content and functionality. Think beyond what the executives of your company consider important for the site — product descriptions, management team bios and press releases. Go further than visitors’ basic needs and add that element of surprise, appeal to personal interests, allow for customization and — the one that gets so much attention right now — help people share and connect with each other. For example, the “I have a stain” tool on Tide.com lays out how to get that ballpoint ink out of your favorite white cotton shirt. (And, no, Tide isn’t the only answer.) Sheraton.com is featuring vacation stories on its home page shared by guests. Cornball maybe, but it shows what real dreams are made of.

2. Focus on aesthetics. Yes, that could mean working with graphic designers. Web developers, writers and usability mavens all have opinions about the look of the site, but it’s the designers who can deliver the goods (and good looks) — Google-ugly-chic aside. Aesthetics also means tapping rich media. Somehow it’s important that the watches on Rolex’s site reflect the real time showing on your own computer or that Nikewomen shows videos of name athletes sharing their training techniques.

3. Incorporate elements of game design. If your visitor is playing, chances are, she’s staying. That may mean creating a system of challenge and reward or developing a narrative structure to motivate visitors to interact with the site. What do dancing hands have to do with beer? Beats me. But it’s worked for Guinness. Another (simpler) example: LinkedIn’s “Profile Completeness” bar that encourages members to continue developing their profiles (“Adding a recommendation will bring you to 90%”).

Bodine’s point is this: Those of us working on the inside of a Web site need to bone up on our interactive skills; we need to do everything we can to understand the hopes and dreams of our visitors; and we need to take a lesson from other industries that have already learned how to link products to emotions.

Do you think your site already does that? Share the link!

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