Sticky, sticky, bounce, bounce: How to stop pissing off your users

 
Good morning, Class.

Today we're going to discuss sticky, sticky, bounce, bounce, which is the technical term for describing what happens to a user when they are trying to use your website and cannot because the directions are so awful. They stick, because you have something they want, but then they bounce, because they can’t figure out how to get it.

Let’s give examples of sticky, sticky, bounce, bounce:

1. When your customer, who has money to spend, inputs billing and shipping information, receives an error code, but the instructions don’t explain which field is problematic. The customer gets frustrated, throws stuff at the computer, breaks it, and can’t order your product.

2. Your user, who wants to sign up for a youth basketball league, can’t figure out how to sign up because the directions are so convoluted. So he doesn’t, his daughter never learns to play basketball and the WNBA falls apart. (Shhh…this almost happened, but was quickly rectified by some patient wife who has a lot of website experience. Don’t even try to figure out who this is.)

3. Your patient, who has severe coronary artery disease, needs to make an appointment, but can’t because the web site doesn’t have a phone number to call. The ending is not good—but you knew that already.

How to avoid bouncing users
Point is, sticky, sticky, bounce, bounce can be avoided by writing good content AND ALSO…wait for it…by actually going through the steps your users go through. This used to be called testing or Quality Assurance. Now I’m not sure anyone does it anymore.

Um..is this going to be on the test?
Now some might say this has nothing to do with Content Strategy. And they’re right…sort of. Because a Content Strategist’s responsibility could end with just giving the content to the developers and then singing while skipping through the rain, of course. However, a Content Strategist also needs to look at analytics to figure out why products might not be shipping out at the rate of 79.8 units per second. And, usually analytics reports is where you really get a lovely view of sticky, sticky, bounce, bounce. So Content Strategists of the world—make sure you’ve looked at the directions on a system—that’s content too.

Join in! I’m sure you have tons of examples of sticky, sticky, bounce, bounce. You don’t even have to raise your hands.

Content Strategy: Don't make your Twitter bio a puzzle

Ok, this is a short, Friday, I'm itching to write something blog post.  Quick advice:

You must put something interesting and relevant to me in your Twitter bio.  Otherwise, why would I bother following you back?!?

Everyday I get a few new Twitter followers.  Some are people following me back-thanks.  Others are spam-that's expected.  But some are people who are following some of the people that I'm following, or being followed by people I like, respect and follow, but they don't say anything in their identification that leads me to believe I could learn anything from them.

At its essence Twitter is a sharing tool.  Tell me why I should share with you.

Rules for creating your Twitter bio
Your Twitter bio is content, so follow the same rules you would for any other--it has to be persuasive, fresh and relevant.  If it's not, then I'm probably not even going to spend the time to write back.

So if you're creating or modifying your Twitter bio, here are three important rules:

1. Keep it short-if you have 10 interests you don't need to list them all.  List the top three.
2. Try to inject some personality into it.
3. Use words that others are using- if you're into healthcare communications or content strategy, don't list healthcare (too large a universe) or content auditing (too small a universe-although I do daresay it might become a speciality sooner, rather than later).

And one more-don't be afraid to change it.  Your bio is not set in stone-if you really are an interesting person, your interests will change and your bio should reflect that.

Just my Friday thoughts...

Why Don Draper would embrace Content Strategy

Anyone who has ever worked in an agency setting should watch Mad Men, a television series about advertising set in the 1960’s. Don Draper, the lead, is head creative and watching him spin magic is—well—magical.

However, this season, Don and his partners are faced with the possible dissolution of their firm, following the loss of a huge account. When his right-hand woman asks him, “Isn’t there anything we can do?” he responds, “No, we’re creative…the least important, most important thing there is.”

How can we communicate the importance of content strategy to our peers?
What struck me most about this comment is how it applies to web content (and having worked at an ad agency, about creative as well). After all, isn’t web content the least important, most important thing there is in a web project? Kicked to the curb, until the designers and developers actually need real words to fill up the modules, content is mostly ignored. As content strategists, we evangelize the need to change this project cycle so content gets the focus first. But web specialists are entrenched in their process. How can we convince them content strategy is necessary to improving the outcome of the final product?

Talk to people about what they know
Information Architects understand the process from one point of view, as do developers and designers. While at the The Washington D.C. Chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association User Focus Conference this past Friday, I met many other web professionals who care about content, but don’t really know how to manage a project that makes content first. That’s why mapping out what we do and how we do it is so critical. Case studies, help, yes. Another approach involves talking to web specialists and demonstrating the added value we bring to a process they already feel comfortable with.

Following are some examples I thought of, but you may have your own thoughts on the matter:

What do we say to the UX professional?
The personas you’re creating will be very valuable when thinking about how to write the content so the audience is engaged and involved.

What do we say to the IA?
Understanding the content from the beginning will help us label pages more accurately, from a keyword perspective as well, avoiding a last minute shuffling, adding or deleting of pages.

What do we say to the developer?
If the content is planned from the beginning, we’ll avoid the 11th hour shitstorm and you won’t have to scramble to figure out where it all goes.

What do we say to the designer?
When we talk about designing a page, we should explain why a page spec is important to avoid content breaking design.

What to say to Don Draper?
Can I buy you a drink?

I’m interested to hear how others approach working with Web specialists when talking about adding content strategy to the project lifecycle. What’s the best argument you’ve used to explain why it’s so important to a project’s success?

Content Strategy: How to avoid content breaking design

Content breaking design is a critical issue for us content strategists. One of the goals of content strategy is to make meaning out of content BEFORE the design process begins (if possible) so that you don’t end up with the problem described so well by Charlie Peverett here:

And when does a 'content person' get involved? Usually at what is, effectively, the last minute. When the lorem ipsem (that placeholder copy that's just stuck there by a designer) needs to be magically transformed into sparkling, all-singing all-dancing 'copy'. At this point you'd be better off with an alchemist than a writer.

So, how do you avoid that huge old mess? In other words:

How can content strategists inform designers to know what to expect so they can move ahead with design?

One of the best ways to do this is a page spec. A page spec gives the designer the “specifications” for what should be on the page. And your specs should include keywords and character counts. In this way, you may give the designer the room to create more interesting templates.

So, what does a page spec look like?

Really, it can be a list, diagram, etc.  But, it needs to be a document that summarizes :

• All the different sections of the site
• Types of content that each section holds
• Description of the different types of content each page will have on it

For example:

About Us Section

1. This section will encompass the following six pages: X, X, X, etc…
2. Each page must have the following elements:

• Three paragraphs no more than 250 words each
• Two ad holder spaces
• Two award graphics
• A picture placeholder
• Etc…

3. Headlines should hug content
4. Social media icons should be clearly visible
5. A print this icon is necessary

Why moving is such a pain in the ass
I know this is an oversimplification of an important idea, but I do think it’s important for us, as a community of content strategists, to talk about best practices for solving problems. After all, when we’re moving, we don’t call a furniture company and say, “I need to move.” We call and say, “I need to move a four-bedroom house with basement, living room and dining room furniture about 250 miles away--would you like more specifics?" Then we label the boxes so the movers can put the stuff into the right room.  And then, we unpack and decorate our new home with stuff from our old home, trying to figure out how it all fits together.  A messy process, indeed.

So, if you have ideas or examples of page specs, I'm all ears.

Related Post:

• What a content strategists needs a designer to know

In defense of Content Strategy: In every generation there's a GAP

It’s been a hard week for content strategists. (I will not direct any more traffic to a certain blog post.) Yes, our discipline is “new” and needs clear definition. But as someone who practices the discipline, and the art, what I know for sure is that we are desperately needed in the world of Web development.

Content Strategy is very much like Supply Chain Management or Supply Chain Logistics—the professional discipline of managing your supply chain—or how your inventory gets from point A to point Z and all points in between. Now, I personally think CS is sexier—that's my ego talking—but essentially it is the same thing.

Why are content strategists like supply chain management professionals?
What content strategists do is figure out what you’ve got, how you’re going to deliver it, and what the best, most cost-effective way is to do that. You’re right—they don’t call it Supply Chain Strategy. So call it Content Logistics. It doesn’t really matter—huge websites need someone planning and managing content. So maybe a smaller website can use a professional who is a combination of IA and CS expert. But you still need a captain steering that ship. 

Let’s say you’re the VP for Supply Chain Logistics at the GAP. You need to know how many shirts are going to Store #15 in Los Angeles, which sizes to ship, how they will be displayed, and when to put them on sale. Below a handy table describing how content strategy can be compared to Supply Chain Logistics:

How could The GAP possibly ship any shirts, make any money, without someone spearheading this massive effort?  The answer is: they couldn't.
 
So how can any website larger than 15 pages expect to do any better when it comes to delivering their content?
 
So call us whatever you'd like.  We're happy with any title—we just want to make sure there is one on the page—and every page after that.
 
And the next time you go to The GAP? Scoff at their new logo, but appreciate how that shirt came to be there.  And if you're shopping online, and there's no product spec on that shirt you know you'd love to wear next week, don't blame the social media strategist.  That wasn't his responsiblity.

Content Strategy for Hospitals: Make your Health Library Pages Stickier

When is the last time you did a health search online? If you’re like two-thirds of Americans, it was pretty recently. According to The Social Life of Health Information, from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 66% of internet users online look on the Web for information about a specific disease or medical problem.

How do health searches happen?
According to Pew’s report, Online Health Search 2006:

“the typical health information session starts at a search engine, includes multiple sites and is undertaken on behalf of someone other than the person doing the search.”




Search Matrix: How patients search online for health information

 What do patients really want to know?
Patients typically come to hospital websites in a state of deep anxiety and want the following questions answered:

1. What’s wrong with me?
2. Who’s going to fix it? And how?
3. Who’s going to pay for it?
4. Is there free parking? (Which is my funny way of saying, “Give me the logistical details I need to get cured.”)

How to make your disease-specific pages better for patients

If you are responsible for writing or creating hospital web content, you need to start paying careful attention to your disease-specific pages because those are the pages the majority of your patients are landing on.

How do you make these pages sticky? Here are 5 practical suggestions for making health conditions pages sharper and geared toward your user audience:

1. Anticipate and answer your users’ questions from the get go. This will probably require redesigning a template, but the ROI could potentially be HUGE. Consider creating a page that describes the disease, has a call to action to make an appointment and a set of quick links to common logistical questions patient have, like maps and directions. You would be surprised how many hospitals do not do this well. I will not name names.

2. Introduce your selling point early in the conversation. This is what Ginny Redish (Letting Go of the Words) urges Web writers to do:  Find the moment in the conversation when the marketing information is critical to the buying decision. Do you start a conversation with someone by telling them why they should be friends with you? No, you look for moments of connection. But on the Web, your users have already started the conversation with YOU!!! They are looking to be convinced—people don’t search for health information for fun. Look at how the Mayo Clinic does it: Right way, up front, they tell you why you should choose them for treatment of urinary incontinence.

3. Optimize according to the disease or condition, not the hospital name. In your browser title, make sure you have the name of the condition, not the name of the hospital first. Include geographic information. This way patients who using the drill down method of searching noted in the search matrix above have a better shot of finding you. Title tags should look like this:

Urinary Incontinence Treatments and Symptoms | Rochester, Minnesota | Mayo Clinic

4. Tell them who their treating physicians will be and what difference they bring to the table. This means more than staff bios. It means a team page where you describe the overall diagnostic and treatment approach of the department or division. And if you use the word multidisciplinary, EXPLAIN what the hell that means.

5. Describe the diagnostics and procedures in a way that’s specific to your institution.
For example:

a. At Hospital X, we prefer to perform most of these procedures using a minimally invasive approach because our doctors find this leads to less blood loss, reduced risk of infection and a shorter hospital stay. However, if you are not a candidate for minimally invasive surgery, our doctors will discuss all possible surgery options with you.

b. At Hospital Y, our physical therapy offices are conveniently located across the hallway from our joint replacement patients’ rooms, so they don’t have to travel far for their daily rehabilitation appointments.

c. At Hospital Z, our commitment to quality means that every nurse is an oncology-certified nurse, so that he or she has had extra training in cancer treatments and managing a cancer patient’s needs.

Practically, how do I do this?
Let me guess? There’s two of you managing and writing 9,000 pages? So don’t implement all five steps at once. Instead, pick a department that needs some help increasing patient volumes and analyze what you can do on three to four pages to make them better. Watch what happens to your analytics and other measurements of ROI, like call center volume and appointments. When you see what can happen when you improve those disease-specific pages, you’ll be ready to change them all.

Let me know if you have other tips for making those pages better.  I'm interested to hear what strategies have worked.

Related Posts:

• 5 Rules for Avoiding Boring Hospital Content
• How health literate is your hospital's website?