Imperatives in User Experience Design
This post is inspired by Stop Making Me Sign Up article I once read on Medium. I’d like to go further than this article went and take a closer look on what actually happens when users feel like screaming: just would you please stop making me sign up??
The Annoying Imperatives
I wrote once on the subject of UX and emotional needs, and today’s article serves as a one more reminder that we want our experiences on the web to be emotionally fulfilling. It’s software for people, not people for software. I’m sure everyone has their particular points of utter dislike as a web user. What I find most annoying is the abundance of verbs in the imperative mood. If someone were to make a statistical research and count the instances of the imperative verbs, the amount would probably total to 90% if not more. All those “sign up now!”, “join for free”, “get a 10% discount” are nothing but annoying. Why the heck are they ordering me to sign up, and now, or why they heck would I want to “join”, and why the heck do I need this 10% discount if I don’t probably need what they’re offering at all, in the first place?? If I needed it, there’d be no problem paying, so why lure me with these imperatives accompanied by “free”, just as they would lure a toddler with a lollipop? The tone of those imperative calls seems to be coming from someone who disrespects my judgement and completely ignores my wants. That’s about how it feels for me when I see them on the screen, and obviously my reactions are far from making me do what they want me to do.
The Friendly Imperatives
Let’s reflect on where this trend for imperatives probably stems from. It might be that “sign up now” is the outpost put in hopes that if users don’t have time to explore now, they‘d at least remember to get back to the web-site later. In this case the sign-up call would be an anchor that’d keep people engaged. This could be true to some extent.
Next, looking at the Apple web-site, we instantly notice that it abounds with imperatives. But Apple’s imperatives somehow don’t sound that annoying. Why so? I gave it some thought, and it looks like people just don’t need to be “trapped and hacked” as they found themselves on the Apple web-site. Apple is Apple, so people are pretty much certain on why are they there. They either want to find out more about Apple’s products, or buy an Apple product, or get an upgrade, but one thing they have in common is: they want Apple. In this context, the imperatives do not sound that annoying. They simply point people to places.
So, we’ve circled in on the one case where imperatives are friendly. You would probably be okay with the “sign up” if you were certain that you want this product. Mind you, a matter-of-fact “sign up” and “sign up now for free” are two different things. For the latter, we clearly see the desire to trap-and-grab a user with something that is supposed to be a call to action, but comes across as a .. disrespect. If you want me to sign up, call to action is the last thing I need from you. I need you to give me reasons why I should act first, and only then I will act on my own, with no extra calls.
Amazon.com uses next to no imperatives on their product pages¹. The only recurring imperative is “add to cart”, and they strive to give as complete overview of a product as possible, to back up a buyer’s decision. There’s only one imperative in this context with which I’m fine, and it’s “explore similar items”:
Amazon’s pages offer unobtrusive suggestions to find out more by looking at what other customers who bought this item also considered, or at product reviews, or at items frequently bought together. It’s a no-brainer: Amazon benefits from any items they sell, and they know users will like them more for helping choose a product.
Questions?
I’ve provided two simple examples of a caring user experience design. In the first example, the imperative verbs are not actually perceived as imperatives, because people do not feel pushed. In the second example, the imperatives are subtle and scarce. As for the annoying imperatives, you’ve probably seen too much of them by yourself. The bottomline is: this is about a lot more than just imperatives alone. We are talking about subtler ways to engage people. Ask them if that’s what they need, and if not, point them to where they might go on exploring things on their own. User experience design, in the above contexts, is supposed to help people decide. The art represents a delicate intersection of marketing, design and psychology; and if our goal is to stand out and to differ from all the rest, we will not want to stay within the frames of just one discipline. Only the mixture scores the winner. And, looks like the winning formula stands very far from throwing blunt imperative verbs. I’d rather see questions asked at me. Amazon does a great job with their questions, by the way, but that would be the subject of another article.
So, if you’re serious about designing comfortable user experiences, watch out for the wise use of imperatives. In the web world where everyone seems to be forcing people to get into traps, a user experience designed in a caring way would surely stand out.
This story is based on an earlier article.
