How just-in-case content is killing your user experience
Why too much is way, way worse than not enough.
Recently, I jumped online to try and replenish our daughter’s hair elastics and clips drawer.
I did this while vegging on the couch, bingeing Pine Gap with my husband, thinking it would take 2 minutes.
An episode and a half later, I had 12 tabs open, 16 items in my eBay cart, and was desperately trying to remember if I actually had purchased those clips on Aliexpress.
How could purchasing cheap, everyday items be so hard?
The tyranny of choice
Perhaps this could be why:
When you search for hair elastics, eBay surfaces a seemingly never-ending list of options. All of which are just slightly distinct.
And that’s only eBay. Of course, I had to check Aliexpress and Amazon too — just in case I wasn’t getting the best price (on a product that costs $1 for 100 items!) or the best product.
Amanda Mull from The Atlantic released this great article this week about how increased demand for a) lower prices, and b) more product options has resulted in an overwhelming shopping environment for consumers.
She calls it a “perfect storm of choice anxiety.”
And too much choice leads people to make bad decisions.
Research has consistently held that people who are presented with a few options make better, easier decisions than those presented with many. It has also shown that having many options is particularly confounding when the information available on them is limited or confusing.
Her article is a fascinating read on consumer psychology and the tyranny of too much choice.
There are remarkable parallels with content and UX design.
Intentionally remove options
In online retail, we are seeing the rise of companies who offer less range (think Koala Mattresses or Allbirds sneakers), but offer total confidence in the quality of their product.
They do one thing, and they do it well. Consumers know not to go to Allbirds if they’re looking for formal shoes. In fact — don’t go to Allbirds unless you’re looking for a very specific type of sneaker.
Allbirds aren’t trying to provide all shoes to all people.
The result is an easier and clearer path to purchasing for consumers. No more having to wade through a a zillion choices and filter out the noise.
The same principle can be applied beyond e-commerce.
Companies that have a clear understanding of their users’ core needs and tasks, and offer them clear journeys to meet those needs, do better.
The key to doing this is removing all non-essential options.
Endless “just in case” content ruins your users’ experience.
Imagine the above eBay experience, but with non-commercial content.
Say you’ve lost your birth certificate and you’re trying to figure out how to order a new one.
Imagine wading through a website filled with loads of information… way more than you ever imagined could exist about birth certificates.
There’s articles about where birth certificates originated, why we use them as proof of identity, what all the bits of information contained on your birth certificate are for… even a loopy page of statistics about birth rates in your state for the last 50 years.
What should take you 30 seconds, takes you 2 minutes, and leaves you very irritated.
Content from the ground up
That’s why when I’m working with a client, I always aim to start with journeys that meet a user need, rather than simply rewriting or restructuring their existing information.
We call it building a user experience from the ground up.
If you start by identifying user needs and only building content that meets those, you will probably end up with only 20% of the content that you started with.
The default mode in these projects becomes archiving existing content, rather than rewriting it.
And that’s a powerful change.
When you set out to rewrite existing content, this doesn’t happen. The default mode tends to be that everything stays — just rewritten.
This can still be an improvement — rewriting content in Plain English, in line with accessibility and usability best practices is great. Well done. 🌟
But you end up keeping the clutter… the just-in-case content
What is just-in-case content?
Just-in-case content is content for no one
Just-in-case content is the information that you’re not 100% sure people will always need, but that you’re pretty sure some people might need. Some time. Maybe.
It’s content that you admit no one needs… but they might just be interested, right?
It’s content that was created for another channel, that someone decided should also be published on the website just in case someone finds it useful.
It’s content that belongs in an annual report, or a corporate plan, or a press release.
It’s content that gets created for the fringe cases. Just in case someone signs up who doesn’t already know how the whole back-end of the system works and really wants to know.
(And yes, the last one might happen. But don’t assume it will. If a user asks for that content… wait for a few more to ask for it too. Then ask them if they’re happy to answer a few questions, do some user research with them, and develop the content as per the process above.)
How can I tell my content is for no-one?
Any time you can’t answer the following questions, you can bet your content is just-in-case content. Content for no one.
- When does the user come across this content? (i.e. in the context of what journey, trying to do what?)
- What task does this content enable them to do? (Hint: the task must not begin with the words “understand” or “discover.”)
- What is the immediate next step the user will take after consuming this content?
Just-in-case content gets in the way
Just-in-case content is clutter. And clutter reduces the chances of people finding what they really need.
(The first person who says ‘Konmari your content’ has to pay me 5 bucks.)
Everyone knows that people aren’t generous with their attention online.
How long do you actually have someone’s attention for? Research varies wildly — I’ve seen evidence ranging from 15 seconds to 0.05 seconds. Other research also tells us that users only read up to 20% of the text on a page.
We also know that readers scan headings — and will read deeply only if they find content that meets the task at hand.
You better prove to users that what you have to offer is really valuable, really quick, or they’re outta there.
So if you’ve got a lot of content that users don’t immediately need, don’t expect them to wade through it to find something useful.
It’s the equivalent of getting lost in the hundreds of hair elastic options on Amazon… but way more painful.
It’s desperately needing to order a new birth certificate, and not being able to find out how.
No one wants that.
Build content in journeys, in response to user needs identified through research
If I had to choose one thing that would make the greatest difference to your users’ experience, it would be this:
Start with user research, design your content, and test with real users early and often.
Good luck!
