Any brand - regardless of what they are selling - faces a challenge in providing an interface and experience which allows their website users to easily find and discover the right thing for them. That’s why it’s so important to have a clear site structure and a responsive filtering tool which means content can be found quickly, easily and with minimal fuss. Read on to learn more about how Grandad achieves this for our clients.
The four search behaviours
At Grandad, we’ve identified four types of search behaviours which a site (or as we call it, User Interface (UI)) should be able to support.
- I know what I want exactly
- I know what sort of thing I want
- I don’t know what I fancy, inspire me
- Give me a suggestion which works with my schedule/ budget
These behaviours refer to both your user’s purchase intention and the way in which they look for content. Each of these behaviours need to be supported with minimal clicks whilst being fast and responsive to touch and inputs.
When creating a website, we take your content and strip it to the bare bones whilst we identify the possible audiences who may visit your site and assess what their goals are. This activity then fuels the rebuild of your site’s Information Architecture (IA), to deliver a reworked structure which places high-priority content at the forefront of your UI to make your user’s journey even simpler.
“Any modern website needs to be able to go from 1,000 events to one with minimal clicks and ease”Paul Sheffield, Creative Director
Added integrations
Whilst this process lays the foundation for the structure of your website, combining it with additional integrations to further ease your user’s experience is what will truly take your digital offerings beyond the ordinary. You may have the site structure in place to help your audience find the most popular content, but how can you help them from there? How can you guide them further through those 1,000 pieces of content, to the one they are looking for?
Arts and culture organisations in particular are challenged by the need to provide their customers with an interface which allows them to easily find and discover the right event for them. Our client Brighton Fringe immediately springs to mind - we all recall the brief which detailed how complicated their events were. We were faced with the ultimate challenge of handling over 1,000 events, some of which could have 100+ performances on a single day, plus a huge diversity of events on offer.
To tackle this, we started with the facts and the team got to work on understanding these events in full detail. We then conducted some further discovery to help group together different events, which you can read about in our case study. By unifying Fringe's event ticketing solution (supplied by our trusted provider Red 61) with our intuitive filtering metrics, audiences can view events by date, price and genre, and move through to the purchase phase whilst remaining on the core Brighton Fringe site.
What lessons can be learnt here?
The integrations for Brighton Fringe have resulted in increased ticket sales and a better user experience - successes integral to Fringe's longevity and accomplishments. They are a tangible example of how considering these content elements when crafting your digital offerings can positively impact your user’s interactions with your site. By putting measures in place to better service the needs, wants and unrealised desires of your audience, you can further their experience with your brand.
Get in touch with Grandad today to learn how we can help you in this mission and go beyond the ordinary.