our product's got no pants on
I've been working with UXD manager Ben on re-designing our homepage and altering key pages of lovemoney.com. Our aim with the work has been to grab the attention of our user-base and encourage user registrations. We've tried to sex things up a bit and make it clearer why registering creates a better experience and delivers customers more value.
Attempts to register users for stuff can be seen as quite a sceptical move. We'd argue (obviously) that this is not in this case. We see it that we are not compromising the ability for individuals to continue to use our site not registered, merely making it explicit that we don't think we can serve you as well as a customer if you don't register.
We dwelt on this a fair while and it got me thinking about the general question of whether it is OK to put up certain barriers to entry for your product? I maintain that the answer to this question is YES (with a few caveats.)
Caveats:
- There has to be a clear customer benefit.
- You should provide a basic experience without barriers to entry.
- Keep barriers small and pain free.
- Make sure a sound rationale for constructing a barrier to entry is in place. Your customers are probably cleverer than you and will suss it out quick if not.
- Review your decisions, but stick to your guns, you have to make a living from your product.
- Explain your reasoning and create an open dialogue with your customers with the changes you make.
If, like us, you go to the effort of 'sexing up' a barrier to entry like registration, I'd suggest keeping these things in mind.
Am I right here? Would love to hear your thoughts on this one? (And, if you have time, what do you think of the new lovemoney.com site design?)
Carl Knibbs
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Reader Comments (5)
Hi Carl,
I really love the new look homepage, but for me it doesn't feature enough of the links to articles which will still be one of the main draws for visitors. I'm left feeling like I've got to sign up or the journey end (although, as you've mentioned, it's about finding the right balance). Granted, much of your traffic might bypass the homepage and go straight into the site via search engines, email or RSS feeds, and converting those visitors is another task, but I feel the current homepage, whilst slick, is missing one of the key points.
On a seperate note, I'm intrigued by the "your money in one place" feature, I'd been wondering whether you'd be adding spending tracking / account aggregation (as it seems to fit with some of the other functionality you already have on the site), so I'm looking forward to seeing what develops here. Are you looking to add some Kublax/Yodlee style functionality?
Rob.
Hi Rob,
Thanks for taking the time to feedback, it's appreciated.
Much of the traffic does bypass the homepage, that's right, and in many ways that has made it easier to make the changes. Our rationale is very much about trying to create added value for customers. We definitely feel we can serve people better when registered, although how well we can develop on this promise will inevitably develop and become even more tangible over time.
This leads in to your question about 'your money in one place.' We are planning to introduce services that actually require registration off the bat. So, there's a big element of the changes that reflect a re-alignment of how customers are encouraged to think about lovemoney.com. We are great for articles and content, we have ambitions to offer more beyond that too.
Obviously, we will keep an eye on things - we relish and thoroughly appreciate our customers and actually you still don't need to log-in to get to articles, you can go via expert help. We are not suggesting locking this stuff away. We just want customers to realise there is other stuff here on lovemoney.com too :-)
Glad you like the new look !
Cheers Rob - again, thanks for the comment.
Carl
Hi Carl,
I think the homepage looks great and you do a great job of communicating why folks should register. You might consider giving folks an obvious way to get to some content without registering just so they can experience what it is before they take the plunge. Even though most of your traffic comes in on other pages, there will still be some folks (like me, just now) that get to the home page and want to know what they can do without registering. My first click got me to a recipe for lemon rosemary chicken which sounded quite delicious but probably isn't where you want everyone to end up. I did miss breakfast this morning though so I'm probably not a good test case....
I really like the design of the homepage a lot though and again, the messaging around why you should register is very clear. Congrats on the re-design!
April
Thanks for the feedback April, it's really useful and appreciated.
It's interesting, maybe we do need to find that balance, hmmmmmm. The non-registerd experience is really important to us, we'll think on...
All this talk of food is giving me a Friday hungry feel, I'm off to look for that recipe....!
Thanks again,
Carl
It certainly needs some exposure. Apart from that the redesigned website looks good. Its going to work for you, Congrats for that.
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