So is this the wave of the future? I can identify with the part about
web pages taking longer to load and learning to ignore the distractions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7417496.stm
BBC NEWS
Web users 'getting more selfish'
* Web users are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online,
reveals research. *
The annual report into web habits by usability guru Jakob Nielsen shows
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.
Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions
designed to hold their attention.
* Search rules *
Instead, many are "hot potato" driven and just want to get a specific
task completed.
Success rates measuring whether people achieve what they set out to do
online are now about 75%, said Dr Nielsen. In 1999 this figure stood at
60%.
There were two reasons for this, he said.
"The designs have become better but also users have become accustomed to
that interactive environment," Dr Nielsen told BBC News.
Now, when people go online they know what they want and how to do it, he
said.
This makes them very resistant to highlighted promotions or other
editorial choices that try to distract them.
"Web users have always been ruthless and now are even more so," said Dr
Nielsen.
"People want sites to get to the point, they have very little patience,"
he said.
"I do not think sites appreciate that yet," he added. "They still feel
that their site is interesting and special and people will be happy
about what they are throwing at them."
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.
Such extras are only serving to make pages take longer to load, said Dr
Nielsen.
There has also been a big change in the way that people get to the
places where they can complete pressing tasks, he said.
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.
"Basically search engines rule the web," he said.
But, he added, this did not mean that the search engines were doing a
perfect job.
"When you watch people search we often find that people fail and do not
get the results they were looking for," he said.
"In the long run anyone who wants to beat Google just has to make a
better search," said Dr Nielsen.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7417496.stm
Published: 2008/05/24 12:04:03 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Richard P.
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