Simpler is always better. That is what it always comes down to… I like to understand things quickly, with few words, and not time-consuming, which is why I would have initially passed on that video. Seeing things simplified with pictures and just a few words is usually what keeps me interested.
Video takes away from the flow. I’d rather, like that sorta quick video, I guess a gif or whatever you call it, like that’s simple. It had words next to it to kind of understand what was going on. And once I got it I could move on. As opposed to watching a video, I might understand the beginning of it, but I just wanted to watch the end. That’s why I don’t want to watch it because I don’t know how much I need to know. If I just see parts of that video that is simplified, I could just scroll past and get to what I want.
Tori, Long Island
We want to put our best foot forward. And we should. But when building a website, trying to put our best foot forward at every step might trip us up.
That is not to say to cut everything down to the basics. An overcorrection like that would bore our visitors and make our offering unattractive. What we need to do is understand what a customer is trying to answer on each part of the website. That is how we build a better user experience.
Customers want (hopefully) to purchase a product or service when their on your website. They’re actively looking for you to sell them the product. Simplifying things makes it easier to move onto the next thought/question they have… getting them one step closer to checkout.
Tori’s quote above leaves out one important moment from the full shop-along:
Now that I am here and thinking I could purchase it, I would probably watch this video to see if I could truly do the installation.
Initially, when she saw a prominently displayed video on the homepage, she was turned off by it. However, a gif down a couple sections caught her eye. It kept her interested. It helped her move on.
Later, she learned enough from the product page to be interested. Now the question was, “Can I install this on my own?” So when she saw the video again downwards on the product page, she wanted to watch it. It was the right time and the right place.
Simplicity in user experience is not about which format is best or looks cool - be it video or gif or text. It is about which format is the most effective at answering the question a customer might have in that moment.