people are becoming much less patient when they go online. Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave.Hardly selfish really. Most of our activity is looking up information, so the most common use case is search, evaluate, keep, organize. We don't want fluff.
Other tidbits:
Success rates measuring whether people achieve what they set out to do online are now about 75%. In 1999 this figure stood at 60%.I don't think any of this is much of a surprise.
Web users were also getting very frustrated with all the extras, such as widgets and applications, being added to sites to make them more friendly.
In 2004, about 40% of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60% use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there.
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1 comment:
I have noticed that my students will give up if they can't find something within a few clicks.
I actually have two takes on this. The first is that there is nothing like skimming through a book to find what you are looking for. Sometimes you don't know what it is until you find it. I often find it frustrating that I know there is something out there on the internet, that I have already seen, but the search engines just aren't finding it (so now I either save it on del.icio.us or on my own computer on Zoltero, just in case I need it later on).
On the other hand, I get frustrated at how quickly my students give up looking. They will state that something is not there, yet I will be able to find it with just a little additional digging. This impatience is beginning to show up in many areas. Having lived in Costa Rica for two years and waiting in line for up to 2 hours (on especially busy days) to get my paycheck cashed, I learned to be patient. We Americans overlook and/or miss a lot by focusing on "quick" rather than "better".
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