How many clicks does it take? Is bad design costing you customers?

May 15, 2017 Brandon Beidel

The inspiration for good software comes in the strangest form. Take for instance the nostalgic commercials starring Tootsie Pop's Mr. Owl who attempted to answer the question "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?". For the web and mobile apps, a parallel concern exists: "How many clicks does it take to get the good stuff?" Now the "good stuff" could be a successful checkout, submission of a contact form, or just taking the time to read more about your business.

So to explore this idea more deeply, consider a hypothetical Wonka Candy company. The company wants to sell and distribute as many sweets as possible. However, they find that their customers abandon their shopping carts alarming rates upwards of 60%. Also, the development team discovers that the users are partially completing and then abandoning user registration, and signup for their online newsletter ‘Cavity Monthly’ at comparable rates.

Each of these attritions, represent lost sales or missed opportunities to engage customers. Every abandoned form represents a real cost to the business. To tackle this problem, the team has to ask a few fundamental questions:

What types of users are coming to the site?

What objectives do these users have when they are visiting the site?

How quickly can users complete their objective?

What path(s) can a user take to complete their goal?

With these answers in hand, the team is now better equipped to mitigate abandonment. As the team answers these questions, they have begun to develop deeper, empathy-driven profiles of the dentists and Halloween shops that represent the majority of their customer base. After carefully considering their end-users, the team can then design an effective user experience to limit the costs and attrition and to deliver more confectionary treats to hyperactive children everywhere.

Looking to empower your business with a mobile application, or just want to ask a few questions? Contact the team at Grok to find out how we can help.