Re: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
Brian - One issue you've not asked about (possibly because you already know the answer), but what does that kind of URL redirect do to searches? For example, is the Google search score (which relies to a certain extent on inward links) to fruit.com diminished because of the pear.com redirect? Regards, William -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Brian McLaughlin Sent: 28 December 2009 8:18 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
Thanks to all for continuing the discussion. The overall system is a software as a service that allows people to buy a certain item from big name brands. By big name brands I mean brands that you see everyday as you drive around or watch commercial TV. We work closely with each big brand to make sure the pages that are involved are fully in sync (look and feel, functionality, etc) so that a person never knows they have left the big brands main site as we take them to our servers to make the purchase. Unless they look at the URL. We currently are using a URL strategy that looks like: BigBrand.ourcorp.com I am looking to change it to: ourcorp.com/BigBrand The reason I am looking at changing has to do with other products that we are looking to build/make public and want to make 'ourcorp.com' the 'mother ship' URL for SEO purposes as it relates a global corporate strategy...being able to use the power of the big brands identity. For example of another URL would be for a store someone could choose from any of the big brands. This store would have its own name/domain such as 'ourstore.com' that when clicked on would go to 'ourcorp.com/ourstore'. There may be a banner ad that has 'ourstore.com' in it that when clicked on goes to 'ourcorp.com/ourstore' So once again the URL is changed from what it has been presented as. All that is where my question comes from about trust the URL structure. The bottom line - The content will be what is expected. The page will look and feel exactly as expected. The end goal of the page is for someone to make a purchase so they will be asked for credit card information. The URL will have the big brands name in it, just a matter of where. There would be very little, if any, cases where someone would type the URL directly in. Clicking on something or copy/pasting would be 99% of the use case. Brian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48094 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
I am fishing for some information about general public and URLs structures. Here is an example for me to ask my question: Say there is a domain name of fruit.com. They deal with the general public (not B2B). Fruit.com wants to set up a site called pear.com. When someone types in pear.com they are redirected to fruit.com/pear. Any repercussions from the users/visitors? Trust issues? Confusion? Dont notice? Thanks Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
Thanks for the reply. That is what I was leaning towards as well, but URL structure and users is not something I have looked at in a few years. Another way we have been looking at this is to use a subdomain like - pear.fruit.com We are trying to balance a complex set of pieces (as always). Part of the balance we are trying to strike right now is what a URL looks like and other system needs. And as part of this is the tipping point that a URL becomes noticeable and/or untrustworthy/suspicious to the general public. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48094 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
Brian wrote: Any repercussions from the users/visitors? Trust issues? Confusion? Don’t notice? On Dec 28, 2009, at 4:14 PM, live wrote: Yes, that completely erodes trust because the user has no idea that fruit and pear are related companies. I'd love to see your study data on this, because I've got a ton of data that says 99% of the users wouldn't ever notice. Or, by chance, is this just Your Opinion? (If so, I think it would be great form if you said so instead of stating your opinions as fact.) In My Opinion: most users won't notice. It'll depend far more on the content. Why did people type in pear.com to begin with? It wasn't a random act -- something told them to do that. Whatever content is on the resulting page, that should match their expectation. If it matches, they won't bother to check the URL. You might want to check into the work of BJ Fogg and his studies on trust and credibility online. Jared Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
Brian, My own experience supports Jared's view below. A simple translation of URL will generally not cause concerns (when noticed at all), especially if the site site content match the visitor's expectations going in. Regards Steve 2009/12/29 Jared Spool jsp...@uie.com Brian wrote: Any repercussions from the users/visitors? Trust issues? Confusion? Don’t notice? In My Opinion: most users won't notice. It'll depend far more on the content. Why did people type in pear.com to begin with? It wasn't a random act -- something told them to do that. Whatever content is on the resulting page, that should match their expectation. If it matches, they won't bother to check the URL. You might want to check into the work of BJ Fogg and his studies on trust and credibility online. Jared -- Steve 'Doc' Baty | Principal | Meld Consulting | P: +61 417 061 292 | E: steveb...@meld.com.au | Twitter: docbaty | Skype: steve_baty | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevebaty Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
Not my opinion. Thousands of research $ for an at this time unnamed corporate shoe giant. But I've signed papers that precludes embellishment. On Dec 28, 2009, at 4:57 PM, Jared Spool wrote: Brian wrote: Any repercussions from the users/visitors? Trust issues? Confusion? Don’t notice? On Dec 28, 2009, at 4:14 PM, live wrote: Yes, that completely erodes trust because the user has no idea that fruit and pear are related companies. I'd love to see your study data on this, because I've got a ton of data that says 99% of the users wouldn't ever notice. Or, by chance, is this just Your Opinion? (If so, I think it would be great form if you said so instead of stating your opinions as fact.) In My Opinion: most users won't notice. It'll depend far more on the content. Why did people type in pear.com to begin with? It wasn't a random act -- something told them to do that. Whatever content is on the resulting page, that should match their expectation. If it matches, they won't bother to check the URL. You might want to check into the work of BJ Fogg and his studies on trust and credibility online. Jared Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
My experience based on many hundreds of tests is that it really depends on the severity of the cognitive dissonance caused immediately begins to erode the (very little) trust a site or application has built with the user. Mis-labelling links is one thing, first couple of tries, the user will blame themselves for being stupid, then get frustrated, then leave. If you going to use url shorteners - which to me seem only appropriate in places like twitter, be darn sure you explicitly explain what the user can expect. Even on twitter, though, close friends can erode trust for their friends following links if a pattern of deception emerges. This is where I go into opinion - their are now friends on twitter that I will never follow their links, no matter how close our personal relationships, because I have no confidence they aren't wasting my time. My 2 cents. ~ will Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems Will Evans | Director, Experience Design tel: +1.617.281.1281 | w...@semanticfoundry.com http://blog.semanticfoundry.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/semanticwill aim: semanticwill gtalk: semanticwill twitter: semanticwill skype: semanticwill On Dec 28, 2009, at 8:38 PM, live wrote: Not my opinion. Thousands of research $ for an at this time unnamed corporate shoe giant. But I've signed papers that precludes embellishment. On Dec 28, 2009, at 4:57 PM, Jared Spool wrote: Brian wrote: Any repercussions from the users/visitors? Trust issues? Confusion? Don’t notice? On Dec 28, 2009, at 4:14 PM, live wrote: Yes, that completely erodes trust because the user has no idea that fruit and pear are related companies. I'd love to see your study data on this, because I've got a ton of data that says 99% of the users wouldn't ever notice. Or, by chance, is this just Your Opinion? (If so, I think it would be great form if you said so instead of stating your opinions as fact.) In My Opinion: most users won't notice. It'll depend far more on the content. Why did people type in pear.com to begin with? It wasn't a random act -- something told them to do that. Whatever content is on the resulting page, that should match their expectation. If it matches, they won't bother to check the URL. You might want to check into the work of BJ Fogg and his studies on trust and credibility online. Jared Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
I'm going to have to agree with Jared here (I never seem to agree with you when listening to your podcasts, but when you're writing here I always do for some reason). Most users are not going to notice. Also, how do you know that people are not going to know that pear.com is related to fruit.com. There is absolutely no way that you can know that. Maybe the users know perfectly well that pear is a sub-brand of fruit. For example, when we folded the various child cooking magazines into the banner website of http://www.tasteofhome.com (check http://www.quickcooking.com and http://www.simpleanddelicious.com), no one really had any complaints about it, and some people even commented that they had no idea that there was so much more content available to them as a subscriber of one of the child magazines. We also used all sorts of marketing and contest domains that redirect to domains on a main site (both going to sub-pages on tasteofhome.com and rd.com) that again posed absolutely no problems with our users. Your example of banking sites makes a good point, but it is a very limited case. Most sites out there are not dealing with this sort of situation. If you are dealing with a page showing content and not a page asking for secure credentials, it really isn't going to matter. On Dec 28, 2009, at 4:14 PM, live wrote: Yes, that completely erodes trust because the user has no idea that fruit and pear are related companies. Additionally, with all the phishing scams out there consumers are more and more being taught to pay attention to the domain. Heck, even my credit union is reminding us that it doesn't matter what the page looks like, it matter what the domain says . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48094 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Trust and URLs
On Dec 28, 2009, at 4:57 PM, Jared Spool wrote: In My Opinion: most users won't notice. It'll depend far more on the content. Why did people type in pear.com to begin with? It wasn't a random act -- something told them to do that. Whatever content is on the resulting page, that should match their expectation. If it matches, they won't bother to check the URL. Further, why are they typing in the URL in the first place. That will only happen if they are transcribing it from some form of print media (or word of mouth). In which case they are going to be that much more aware of what they are expecting to see, and so pear.com becoming fruit.com/pear won't be an issue if the forwarded URL and the visual display match their expectations. Consider http://iflyswa.com and http://iphone.com for examples of redirects which are not going to be an issue if someone types them in. And in reverse, something like http://outcountrydance.com, which goes to a mirror of http://iaglcwdc.org and has no OutCountryDance text content. (In fact, it may actually be more of an issue if they clicked on a link that was supposed to go to pear.com and then redirected them elsewhere. It's that surprise redirect from a mystery link that is the problem people are trained to watch for, I think.) -- Jim Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
