This month, we welcome back Larry Marine, to respond to last month’s newsletter about link-rich home pages. He writes about when lots of links might not be the right answer, and what to do about it. Larry is a founder and principal of Intuitive Design & Research, and holds a degree in Cognitive Science. He is an expert in user research and user-experience, and has worked with companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune 500.
 
 
After last month’s article, you would be forgiven for thinking that link-rich homepages are the answer to every web design problem.  Unfortunately, however, it’s not that simple. Link-rich homepages are a good solution for information-oriented domains, but a task-oriented environment may be better served by a different approach.
 
Usability testing shows that information-oriented designs are not very successful in task-oriented environments. An information-oriented website, such as a standard business or corporate site, tends to offer plenty of content, from varying types and sources. A task-oriented site intends to help customers solve problems, such as determining the right health insurance options for a couple expecting their first child.
 
Information-oriented sites organize and categorize information by the content type and relationship. This approach relies on the users’ ability to find, assimilate, and use the right information, and most importantly, to know what information to ignore. Such sites work well when users know what they are looking for and how it is organized, but this approach rarely works well when the users need more guidance.
 
In a task-oriented environment, the users barely know the extent of their problem, much less what to look for or how it is organized on the site.   They can get lost and frustrated very quickly, and chances are, they won’t come back.  A much more successful, though more difficult, design approach helps the user define their problem and then suggests the best solution.
 
As you might guess, the design approach is very different for these two domains, and just as an information-oriented approach is not very successful in a task-oriented environment, the reverse is also true. If you know what you are looking for (as in an information-oriented environment), a task-oriented approach seems quite cumbersome.
 
But what does a task-oriented problem domain look like? To begin with, content doesn’t have to be information artifacts. It can be anything.  Take buying flowers, for an example. In an on-line flower shop, an information-oriented approach would have users find different flowers by flower type or name and put them together in a bouquet. A typical florist would have little trouble performing that task with such an information-oriented tool, but the average on-line flower purchaser is not a florist. Actually the average flower consumer is on the opposite end of that scale - men.
 
The typical male doesn’t know or care much about flowers.  All they want is to get a nice bunch for their sweetheart, in as short a time as possible. If it wasn’t for the last minute, the typical man would get nothing done, especially when it comes to anniversary and birthday gifts. I’m a man, so I know! When it comes to flowers I need them fast, and I don’t want to spend half a day figuring out which flowers I need. I just want the right bouquet for the occasion. After years of marriage, I have learned one thing about flowers, with the exception of Valentine’s Day, nothing cries insincerity more than a simple, dozen red roses. Roses are supposed to be a surprise, not an easy way out.
 
OK, so now we have the root of a task-oriented problem. I need just the right flowers grouped together in a bouquet that is appropriate for the occasion. A task-oriented approach should begin by asking me for the occasion, and then show me a set of bouquets perfect for that occasion. This is a big difference between an information-oriented approach and a task-oriented approach. An information-oriented design will typically provide an information artifact, such as an article, in one and only one location. A task-oriented design may very likely duplicate artifacts, such as putting the same bouquet in many different appropriate occasions.
 
Take a look at ProFlowers.com, an on-line florist that employs a task-oriented user-experience approach. The Nielsen ratings of on-line commerce for May, 2008 show that Proflowers is number 1 in conversion rates, almost 36%. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is their task-oriented design. I know, because I designed it and the CEO still publicly acknowledges that the UI design is one of their key success factors. Interestingly, the other on-line florists, at the time, used an information-oriented design that required users to build bouquets. What was the hot seller on those sties? You guessed it, a dozen red roses.
 
But as I said, task-oriented designs only work in task-oriented domains. Focusing on making sure you understand the problem domain correctly before defining a solution will help you find the right design approach.
 
Now go buy your sweetheart some flowers.