New media, new challenges

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen has dismissed web 2.0 as “the latest fashion” and said that there is a risk of returning to the dotcom boom, when sites like Boo.com looked great but had a terrible user experience. He argues that animated user interface features are a distraction from the bigger problems that websites have, such as making it easy for users to find what they need.

Nielsen’s right that you need to get the basics right first, but he underestimates the positive impact that new technologies can have. Because they eliminate the page refresh, web 2.0 sites can provide instant feedback and offer a much smoother transaction flow. It doesn’t matter if a minority of a site’s visitors use a forum because its very existence reassures customers that the company is listening. And while many will want to “get in, get it, and get out”, as Nielsen puts it, others will visit a website for entertainment, perhaps even some leisurely window shopping. Web 2.0 features can and often do improve the customer experience.

As web video finds its feet we’re seeing a lot of debate about how pre-roll adverts should be implemented. NBC Universal has limited ads to 15 seconds and CNET is experimenting with ads of between 5 and 32 seconds. But there’s been little discussion about the quality of the advertising. Users don’t care how long an advert is – they care about how long it feels. If an advert is stimulating, it can enhance the customer experience. Sony has shown how a great ad can often be more entertaining than the film that follows it.

When it comes to new web technologies, you can’t set hard and fast rules about what will work where. What matters is the customer experience, which can only be judged on a case by case basis. When there are quantifiable business objectives, and the results of activity are analysed, you’ll soon spot where the customer experience is weak.