Small changes in the way people first encounter your web site can make a big difference in the results you get. Careful attention to the initial pages on your site—before and after a user registers—can make the difference between a successful site and an unsuccessful one. So, what works and what doesn't, and how do you measure this? Clearly defining your goals, learning from the experience of successful sites, and being open to make small changes will allow you top maximize the number of people who say "yes" to the value proposition you offer.

Daniel Burka and Rob Goodlatte at SXSW Interactive.

At SXSW, former Digg Creative Director Daniel Burka (@dburka, now of game developer Tiny Speck), and Rob Goodlatte of Facebook gave an excellent presentation on this topic, sharing insights from successfully winning over millions of attention-deficient and critical users who visit some of the most popular web sites online. Here we'll share what we learned about the emergence of game mechanics in design, the "Aha Moment!" and the power of and rewarding users while doing.

Burka began the talk by telling the story of how getting a dog in downtown San Francisco caused him to need to buy a car, outlining the new car buying experience and the exact steps the salesperson used to hook him and his girlfriend on wanting to buy the car they were test driving.

What does this have to do with optimizing a site for user interactions? Designers build in similar "tricks" to attract users to convert or do some desirable action like enter their personal information, sign up for a newsletter or fan page, or even make a purchase. (You can read the entire story in the notes from the talk).

Goodlatte led his remarks by saying that "Often we can't see the problems in our own products, because we're too focused on how we use them every day." As a designer or as a marketer hiring a design team, you can't always revisit your own product with fresh eyes. This is why it is important critical to put yourself in the shoes of someone encountering your product for the first time. As designers, we cannot be be afraid to be proven wrong, especially when designing with new users in mind.

Geni.com Homepage lets you start creating your family tree before creating an account.

In Tiny Speck's upcoming game "Glitch," the site first leads visitors to create a game character and give it a name, then displays the character created alongside its name. Only then will the site ask for personal details, because now the visitor is invested in the character they have created and are more likely to convert. This principle can be applied outside the world of gaming when working toward the goal of driving user signups. An ideal example of this, Burka says, is the geneology site Geni.com, which allows you to start building your family tree before signing up.

The principle goes a little as follows:

1. Allow users to first create something of value and make incremental progress toward what your site offers, building in rewards (such as a game character or a family tree).
2. As quickly as possible, convince the person that whatever comes after sharing their details is worthwhile.
3. After the person is already invested, capture their personal information or ask for the commitment.
4. As the presentation slides say, "Help people make something they'd hate to lose."

Facebook's "Aha! Moment"

Facebook calls the point where the user wants to commit the "Aha! Moment." This is the point in time where the user understands the biggest incentive your product or service has. By focusing user signup tests on this, Facebook saw a 5% topline increase in new user registrations (a significant number when you have 300 million users). They learned that for Facebook, this moment is the instant they see faces and names of their friends already using the site. As a result, one of the most successful web sites in the world is now totally redesigning their account creation process to eliminate every single distraction before new people reach that Aha Moment.

Learn from Games that have Feedback Cycles

An emerging trend in interaction design is to use game theory when designing software and online interactions. Games have long been written to teach players more difficult manuvers as they gain more practice, rewarding them along the way. In the same way, interaction designers can unlock complexity and funcionality as users complete more and more actions within your site. Rewarding the mastery of features and processes keeps the users interested, challenged, and engaged.

Some examples of this in both games and on the web include:

• Spore: New users are given a simple task with simple controls. After successfully performing an action with the game character, the user is rewarded with a character that evolves, along with more sophisticated controls.
• Mint.com has built instant feedback loops into their signup screen for when users enter a valid username, email address, and matching passwords. If you enter incorrect information, a red X displays next to the field alerting the user of their mistake without going through the frustration of loading the error page.

Lead Users, Teach While Doing, and Focus on One Thing

"If you tell your users to 'Go do anything,'" Burka says, "the user will respond in kind with 'What kind of anything should I do?' By creating "quests" as game designers call them, you can lead users down a path toward a goal, teaching them along the way. If you're naming your quest, give it something in context; for example, in a business application, you might refer to a quest as a "to-do list."

Tumblr walks you through creating your first post as you are signing up.

Don't think of educating users as a side part of the experience (such as documentation or help pages), rather, make it a core part of the user experience. For example, the LEGO® Universe multiplayer online game teaches users how to perform moves as they are actually discovering new things while playing. The designers specifically do not interrupt the process of playing to teach. Blog service Tumblr walks new users through the process of creating a blog and a first post within 60 seconds, creating an investment in the service on the part of the user and teaching them core features.

Sometimes competing interests and objectives can confuse users, preventing them from accomplishing your desired outcome. Like a zig-zagging checkout queue, bursting with diversions of candy and must-have impulse buys, well-meaning individuals can cannibalize the goal. What's the answer? "Focus on one specific thing [and do it well]. Ask 'what is important for this step?'" says Goodlatte. "Do a few things less well, because [on the web] you can't do everything at once." Define your end goal, come up with a measurement for success, and design everything on the page to optimize for the desired outcome.

Living the Process

When designing a site, discover your Aha Moment & get to it ASAP. It will communicate more than any marketing material can. To convince management or clients of a needed change, Goodlatte suggests showing a a video of a user frustrated with your system. This evidence says far more than any theory-based argument about a site's usability.

If you are looking to improve user interactions on your site, increase signups, or increase sales, please talk to KeyLimeTie about how the design team here can help you reach your goals.

To see Burka and Goodlatte's presentation slides, visit Designing the First 15 Minutes on Slideshare. For extensive notes of the presentation itself, see the notes on the Facebook design blog.

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