What the heck is Neuro Web Design?

I came across this interesting subject a short while ago and it fired an interest in me. Foremost, what the heck is Neuro Web Design?

It was a terminology I hadn't come across before so I investigated it a little more. Simply put it is a way of explaining how and why we [humans] do things within the web environment. Well that's too simple, it also encompasses the way we communicate as a community and in general.

As the name suggests 'Neuro' it has it's origins in the brain and the way in which we decipher the information we take in every minute of every hour of our waking hours and how we act upon that information. For designers and marketeers alike, we use the principles that Neuro Web Design highlights every day but we may not realise why we use them.

There is also a difference between 'can do', 'will do' and furthermore 'still do' in terms of website design. You can design a site from a user perspective so you 'can do' i.e. find the right buttons or links but does it answer the 'will do' and furthermore 'still do' question. This is where new principles based in Neuro web design start to kick in. These principles are based around Persuasion, Emotion and Trust.

1. CHOICE

Ask a user and they will tell you that they want choice and usually it's show me everything. But research shows that if you do this they freeze!

Dr. Iyengar used an experiment using Jam in a supermarket. She set a table up with six jams and another with twenty four jams. The table with twenty four jams saw approx. 60% of people stop and taste them, whilst the table with six jams saw 40% of visitors stop by. Now from first impression having so much choice saw a big swing in favour of having more choice BUT when examined further it is clear this is misleading. The conversion to sales for the table with twenty four jams was only 3%. In comparison the conversion to sales for the table with six jams was a massive 30%.

Even though people want more choice the reality is that they freeze because there becomes too much choice which in turn freezes our ability to decide. So in terms of website strategy this shows us that we can't just look at increasing quantity of visitors to our sites but must focus on the quality of the offering to get the conversion to sales we actually desire.

2. SOCIAL VALIDATION

When we are presented with more choice, research shows that we look to others to help validate our choices. So if you can give ratings and reviews to your products or services this help users decide, The power of these reviews cannot be undervalued. In the same way testimonials can also help validate the services you offer.

The most powerful source of reviews is peers. It has a far bigger effect than even those of 'expert' reviews. So know your audience and try to ensure that when a review is given you get as much information as possible from the reviewer. Location, type of business, age and images are all great beneficial aspects when users want help validating their choice.

3. SCARCITY

Our unconscious brain is very sensitive to the idea of losing. So when you have an offer that says only '3 days left' or 'Last one in stock' our unconscious brain triggers an emotion of loss which in turn triggers action. We have a fear of losing so the idea of scarcity can be a powerful tool.

4. BASIC INSTINCTS

Our old brain is very attuned to the basic requirements of food, sex and danger. So whenever any of these basic instincts come into play we make strong unconscious choices. Where appropriate we can use these devices to appropriate a reaction. For example if an insurance company wants to sell you its products it may use a video to help instigate or subconscious to react. Lets say we watch a video of a house that is engulfed in fire we make connections in our old brain that this might be our house, therefore, triggering danger. This strong instinct talks to our mid brain and attributes the correct emotion. Both together become a strong trigger to action.

5. POWER IN FACES

We have a special part of the brain called the Fusiform Facial Area (FFA) that only processes the facial areas. It is well documented that there is power in showing faces on a website. It is normally best to show them looking directly at the camera. We are highly receptive to facial features and our subconscious makes decisions based on facial attributes but it is especially attuned to the eyes.

The use of faces is another form of validation as we are in essence social animals.

6. THE STORY

When presented with information it has been proven that our brains are highly developed to take in information in the form of a story. Stories allow us to chunk down the data in a more readily re-collectable format. Chunking is a key when presenting information and stories allow our brain to do this. Our brain is developed to process pictures, when presented with text our brain deciphers it and creates a mental image of the information given. Remember, the written language only occurred a few thousand years ago so our brains used images to scan our environment to warn us of possible dangers, threats or indeed opportunities. So making sure you have descriptive images is a great addition to your armoury.

7. COMMITMENT

Research also shows us that getting small commitments from users over a period increases loyalty. So when signing up people you take basic information then get them to fill out more later. You must give good reason to get this commitment so remember it's a two-way street you give they give.

THE BASICS

There are some key factors to take into account in how our brains work when we are presented information. It is theorised that there are essentially three ares of the brain which are used for very different purposes:

• The old brain: used for instinctual decisions and processes
• The mid brain: used to process emotions
• The new brain: used to think about problems, play music, read this blog

The old brain is thought to be part of our evolutionary development and it's purpose is essentially survival. So it decides what is dangerous to us, it keeps us breathing, it drives the need for procreation and essentially the need for food.

In contrast the mid brain is our emotional interface that processes incoming data and helps us to decide how we should feel about that information. Does it make us feel sad, angry, elated or sympathetic.

What distinguishes us as humans above animals is the ability to think. This is the new brain and is usually called the pre-frontal cortex. This is generally a distinguishing feature of 'higher' functioning as opposed to 'lower' functioning animals.

BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND

By now you can begin to understand some of the principles in Neuro Web Design. This is just the surface as you must get to grips with the fundamentals of how and why our brains do what they do.

What is most evident is that we humans like to feel we have full control. It is our new brain that formulates how we think we deal with communications/information. However, the truth is that we are not as in control as we like to believe. Most of our decisions are based on unconscious processes and decisions made in our mid and old brains. Our new brain then formulates reasons why we made that decision even when the decision is at odds with what your new brain thinks it should have done.

As marketing communicators we know that to effect an outcome you need to make an emotional link to the consumer. This is what helps translate a page visit into a potential buying scenario. The interesting part is joining up the dots and realising what is really going on in the brain that helps us deliver better communications and more effective returns.

We must begin to engage all three ares of the brain rather than necessarily using the type of logic your new brain would suggest. For instance, if you go online to find a new piece of equipment you may have a list of must-haves that it needs at the very least. The reality is once we begin to look through a list of items a series of unconscious decisions kick in that bend our thought processes. You may end up looking at items that only have three or four of the must-haves of your original list.

It is true that we have a decreasing attention span, which has been engendered by our social and work environments. So if you have a list of items presented to you on a page they likelihood of you viewing the first items on the page is quite high, even though they may not actually suit your original requirements, such as price. Part of the reason is that we do not like too much choice. Our new brain says we do, however, the reality is once we are given too much choice we freeze. Our decisions are compromised and that elusive quick sale is lost. So the solution is more focussed results, less is more where decisions are concerned.

Our brains are remarkable things and at it's heart it is a social animal. This is evident in the way in which we will follow perceived trends or induced scarcity. Scarcity can be seen as exclusivity or the perceived lack of something. For example if we are looking for an item and it says 'Last one in stock!' the chances are we will be motivated to make a quick purchase even when it runs against the logical new brain. It is an emotional interface with the old brain that could be likened to a survival instinct to get the last banana on the tree before it's gone.

So scarcity can be a very powerful selling tool. Retailers do this all the time with offers or sales but they are inducing this emotional/survival instinct. We can employ the same tactic on websites by using offers based around a giveaway or time limited offers. These serve to get the impulse decisions that can create sales.

As social animals we tread carefully in new environments so buy-in is an important element in building trust within that social arena. This can be done where sign-up is required by being transparent. For instance by showing pricing levels together with a clear comparison of service. But giving something for free alongside the sign-up helps add loyalty. How does this work? Well it is human nature to feel indebted when someone gives you something. As an example, you send out a Christmas gift to an acquaintance who in return now feels indebted and reciprocates by sending a gift back. Now the interesting part is that it does not equate that if you send a small gift to someone that they will send a small gift back, in fact the size of gift they return is more equal to the level of indebtedness they feel so the gifts value may well exceed that of your original offering.

This can be used where there are sites that offer information. You gain that information through subscription. These sites can employ loyalty through the scarcity principle we just described. If the information can be received before anyone else 'exclusivity' then it is deemed worth the subscription. That also employs the indebtedness theory as they offer money in return for that 'exclusivity'.

Although Neuro Web Design can be more complex it is fair to say that in it's basic form it uses the unconscious decision making parts of your mental processes to effect better design and marketing solutions.

We understand these principles and, where appropriate, we employ these techniques in our design solutions. It is important to realise that these techniques are not limited to the available internet technologies but also influences print design too. As first mentioned at the beginning of this blog although it helps guide design decisions it certainly should help you to understand how to market your business more effectively.

Understanding your brain may just help solve your sales problems.

Planning your website

One of the biggest conundrums of website build, design and planning for any size business, is what content to have on the home page of their website. When I ask clients this, invariably the answer is everything is important. Now common sense is that you cannot have everything present there. So what do you do?

I have described on other blogs how to brief a website but it's crucial before you do that you fully understand what your business needs.

We know that the home page is a crucial element any any website as it's usually the first point of entry for users of the site. Before you go planning what will go on the home page you MUST sit down and fully understand the whole of the website and how the home page fits in. This will especially be important in terms of marketing, as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and email campaigns may be employed in the promotion of your website.

Most people have a fair idea of the content they want, but invariably fail to produce a site plan and don't fully realise how the whole sits together and, therefore, miss great opportunities to make their website truly an invaluable tool.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

This may be an old adage but it's true. You have to sit down and plan your website before you can decide what goes on your home page let alone anywhere else. So if you haven't done the planning DO IT before you do anything else.

Obviously, the size of the business makes a difference in terms of the services or products that are or will be on offer to the web user on entry to the final site.

So create a site map. The 'Basic' building block for any site build is the understanding of the content that will make up the website. This comes before even thinking of any other functionality the website will need.

So sit down and begin to plan the basic content of your site. You can use programs to help you do this or you can be as simple as setting out post-it notes. There are plenty of tools out there to help you with the planning but you need to aim to have an understandable diagrammatic description of your site.

Where to put the information

What isn't so easy is making sure you put the right information in the right area of your site. I always find it best to give priority to information first. This will help you in terms of structure. Use a scale such as a 1 - 10 scale or alphabetic scale, but use a system that works best for you.

Now we need to think about how the web will hold the information. I'm not talking technical know-how just some basic common-sense. Think first of having information of a particular type and placing them in a container (say a Tupperware box) we may label that box as 'Services' for example. All the information we want in the 'Services' box we place inside the Tupperware box so we know anything to do with that type of information can be found easily. We can call the 'Services' box a 'Category' container and we may have several such boxes for example 'Products', 'FAQs' etc. Each of these boxes may need some further segmentation to help define the information we are offering. So let's say that the 'Services' category box needs another box inside it called 'Consultancy', and we place any information that is relevant to consultancy in that box. Now we have just created an 'Sub-Category' which is a 'Child' of the 'Services' category.

I hope you are still keeping up with me, so now we are beginning to segment the information required for your website into neatly defined areas. We can now call all the information contained within 'Consultancy' as 'Children' of that sub-category. As you will begin to see, we are defining the structure much like a family-tree. There is no particular limit to how you nest information on a website, however, you must ALWAYS bear in mind that people coming to your website want to find information quickly and easily. So don't get too bogged down in segmenting your website because people will not be able to find the relevant information that they require and likely as not will leave and go elsewhere.

I use the analogy of the tupperware boxes to illustrate that if you have too many nested boxes you'll get tired of opening one after another to get to what you want. This is the same on the web, remember peoples attention span is less than a 'Goldfish' these days. So make the information quick to access!

Once you've got the hang of the way in which we begin to define areas of your website you will see the pattern emerging of how we can navigate that information too. This will also help you to think objectively about the information you want as opposed to really need. For instance, even though you have neatly categorised a piece of information down to a third or forth level down the family tree, you may realise that this piece of information needs to be accessed far more easily. This will allow you to begin refactoring the way you have segmented the information so far.

In essence, we have begun to create a site map or flow chart of the information, where it sits in terms of structure, and a rudimentary navigation.

Put all of the plan you have amassed so far into a chart. Do what feels comfortable but bear in mind your web developer or designer needs to be able to understand what you are trying to achieve.

Once you have done your first-draft of your chart we need to think more objectively. Print it out or lay it out so that you can sit back and think clearly about what you need. Firstly, as you will have seen on countless sites there is a level of information that is vital yet not the main purpose on any website. These are 'Terms and Conditions', 'Privacy', 'Shipping Information' etc. Although these could quite easily be categorised within the structure of information you have gathered, they need to be immediately visible to your users. These types of information generally will be offered on a secondary navigation but not within the main navigation. They may also be mentioned and linked to for other areas of your website but must always be apparent.

You now have an understanding of the information you need to present on your website. What I suggest is now you need to analyse where you have or need to have access to duplication of information. This is important as your web developer would need to understand that you need the ability to assign a single piece of information to multiple areas. This is a build issue. You will also need to be able to update one single piece of information rather than multiple versions of the same thing.

Administration of your information is a key consideration for any website and, understanding from the outset where sensible time-saving measures could or should be made is essential to all parties involved in the creation of your website.

Understanding that you will need to cross-reference information in multiple areas of your website is crucial to understanding the best methods of doing that.

So now you have created your basic site map you need to be smart and not assume it's right. This is the opportune point to get other key people involved, to get some informed opinion, to get some objective but constructive input. This should help clarify grey areas in your site, it will most-certainly highlight those areas you have forgotten, but within a business environment it will also show you where others have a differing view of priority.

Remember, each area of your business is represented by your web site, either directly or indirectly, you must ensure that you don't mis-represent those areas. It's common-sense that not areas can be on the home page of your website. But mechanisms can be used to help ensure a balance of presentation that helps ease the question of information priority.

For me one of the big benefits of having a thorough site map, is that all parties can see the end goal and therefore, can plan accordingly in terms of scheduling and effecting delivery points throughout the lifecycle of the project. Once you have gone through this planning process you will be in a far stronger position when speaking with developers or designers. You will understand what needs to be delivered more clearly so the interchange of both visual and functional design can be fit-for-purpose.

Think about the impact on your business...

Whilst it may sound obvious that other people in your organisation will have a different point-of-view regarding priority of information, if it's not clearly dealt with at this important stage it could cause HR issues further down the track when employees can become disgruntled if they feel that they have been overlooked. It's a potential disconnect that I've seen before, a marketing manager or director goes and gets a website created without interacting properly with key staff to ensure that the information is both fit-for-purpose and that it has been presented in a way that fits with both company policy and structure too.

Your website is not only just for the purposes of delivering information to an end-user but is increasingly an invaluable tool in collecting information. There are very few businesses that would not benefit from a site that can give you the tools to aid both business process and marketing. Your website should be viewed as part of a digital eco-system that interacts and impacts on each element. But all are there as much for the benefit of your company than it is as source of free information. Gone are the days when a website was simply an online brochure. It should be a fully interactive experience.

What I mean here is that if we take a simple idea that you have an existing system to hold customer CRM info. What you don't want to be doing is duplicating entries. So we need to make the website work to your advantage by automating and web-gathered data so that it imports to your CRM system with the minimum of fuss. This is where the information you require may be very specific but will impact directly on the build of the website. It may mean a little more investment up front but could save many hours of data entry down the line. And again here, using joined up thinking, how can we use your CRM system to be more effective with web promotion, online sales or predictive marketing.

The point is that once you have a site map it can help aid you in the process of joining the dots in your business far more effectively, especially if you think outside the narrow box of just a website. Think about the needs of the business, don't just think we need a web page to say this or that, think what can we get out of this web presence. Whilst the website has a job of marketing it can be used to greater effect in bringing areas of your business together. There are systems that can join all the dots, in terms of process, because they use the web as an element of the whole process rather than as just a necessary evil that the business has to do.

I've touched on other areas in this blog on purpose. Not only to highlight why planning is important but more so that you should not take your website as an activity in isolation. It is part of a symbiotic whole.

What is brand and why do I need it?

Many companies large or small, at some point, will come into contact with the term 'brand'. To many this is mixed up with the term 'branding' which is an extention of 'brand' and usually expresses the outward visual presence of your company but not the real 'brand'.

So how do we define 'brand'?

From a Marketing view point, 'brand' is defined as a 'name', 'term', 'sign', 'symbol' or 'design' or any combination of the same that identifies a products or services a company provides that sets them apart from other companies.

Now this to me this is 'branding' whereas 'brand' goes further than that, it defines the 'personality', 'language', 'expectations' and 'trust' that your company provides organisation wide from all touch points.

Furthermore, it's essentially how your company will provide a solution to your prospects that differentiates you from your competitors.

What does that mean to me?

In short, defining your 'brand' allows you to:

• Create clear communications, externally and internally
• Helps create policies and processes that help deliver reputation
• Directly connects to your prospects emotionally delivering a consistent experience
• Good experiences that motivate prospects
• Ensures customer loyalty

When you begin to understand what your 'brand' really is you can begin to deliver. Deliver to both customers and internally to staff. It helps initiate the winds of change in areas of your business that were ill defined.

'Brand' is the animal that sits inside your customers, prospects, clients, suppliers and staff. It is the culmination of their experiences and perceptions of your company.

So it is wise to take control of your 'brand' to minimise the negative and maximise the positive experiences.

Of course, 'brand' is not a cure-all it goes hand-in-hand with good business practices. But the only way to ensure you deliver a 'brand' that will succeed is to embrace the idea that design alone will not deliver the best ROI and it is only by spreading your true 'brand' throughout your organisation that will bring true ROI.

Having a strong 'brand' is essential in the constant struggle to gain customers. You must begin to invest in building your brand through research and defintion of who and what your company is. Begin to define the 'Promise' you offer to your customer but just as importantly ensure that is matched by what your company 'Delivers'.

Once your 'brand' is defined and integrated into your company ethos and working practices it becomes easier to deliver marketing communications that are effective. This then feeds your 'branding' and the delivery of your corporate marketing communications that are a true reflection of you.