User interfaces (what a user sees on a website) are designed for a few different reasons: they want to teach, they want to sell, they want information. Either way, it’s designed to perform a function. But what if it wasn’t? What if the interface was only pretty? Would you pay for pretty? Pretty with no ROI? I would, if were tasked with spending cash for the sake of art (read: balling out of control).
I’ve been thinking about the “call to action” lately. The call to action is too often an afterthought. Too often, I’m looking at a website wondering what action it’s target market is supposed to take. Before we get in too far, let’s review a few examples of a call to action–which, by the way, should be designed based on the website owner’s return on investment needs.
- Newsletter sign up
- Contact form submission
- Online sales
- Quote request
- Consume information
- Request information
There are a variety of actions a user can take but without a definitive, obvious, effective call-to-action a user’s action might just be to leave the website all together. When a user fulfills the intended call to action (completes a form, initiates contact, whatever), website analytics regard this as a “conversion.”
One way to determine how your call-to-action is performing is to first look at two things within your website analytics:
- Bounce rate (should be a low percent, at least under 30%) and
- Conversion rate (should be a high percent, depends on nature of your action).
If your website isn’t performing the way it should be, it’s time to take a look at its user interface. Let’s face it if your analytics aren’t where they need to be, you’re tying to bungee cord to your users’ feet making sure they’ll never convert.
respectable interface. Developers have teamed with information architecture and user experience planning rockstars to perform. The result has been applications I consider straight-up-sexy, example: 
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