Where the Heck Am I? Context Markers

After reading a recent article about how Breadcrumbs contribute to User Experience on Marketing Land, it got me thinking about frequent conversations I have with clients regarding search performance and mobile performance.

I feel like I am continually having a conversation with people about context. What do I mean by that? When you get a user to your website, you have to provide them with some context of where they are located. 

Magic Transport from Search

Let me set the scene.  You are sitting in your living room thinking that you need a pair of shoes. Ok, you need “gold strappy wedge shoes” for a wedding.  The next think you know, you are staring at a pair of them.  Magically transported there by the internet.

But where are you?  Are you at the mall? Are you at the local shoe store down the street? Are you looking at shoes by style or size. Do they have other shoes in this store?  

For the purpose of this blog, the answer is that you are in DSW in the Clearance Rack.  

How do I know that? In real life, there are signs that tell me that.  There are signs on the outside of the store. Right, but I went from my couch to the Clearance Rack inside of the store.  That’s right, they have their name on the walls, on the end caps, on the signs on every aisle. They also have an indicator that I am in a section that has ‘discounted shoes’ and they are size 8.5.  

So, you drove there and walked through the door of DSW. Job done on location right. No, they keep taking opportunities to reinforce that you are there.

Ok, so what I am getting at.  I get a lot of flack from clients who say that things are ‘repetitive’ on a website.  It might be that they think all customers will enter through the homepage.  People don’t come to an online store that way.  They are magically transported from their couch to your store – to the very place they need to be (we hope).

Providing recognition markers will make them feel comfortable.  Think of your own experience in a new store. For me, it will make we want to look around and try to find what I need if I didn’t get to ‘exactly’ what I wanted on arrival.

Mobile Markers

Recently, I have been working with a client who is in the design stage for their mobile website. It is a comment I continually make.  If I was searching for something in the Google App and came to this page, would I have any idea where I was in site? It is much harder in Mobile because of the screen constraints, but it is doable. Hard work will be rewarded.  GoRocketFuel published an article setting a benchmark that a well-tuned site will have an average bounce rate of 45-50% for desktops. For Mobile, that is generally almost 60%. 

There is no place where context markers are more important or harder to get right. Think of it this way, you can put up on sign to your party and hope lots of folks show up. Or you can put up a sign at every turn for them.  My guess is that if you do the second, it will be much more of a success.