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01/23/2009 Authored by: Jeremy Girard
Established Conventions Are Your Friends
7 to Save - 9 to Delete
Without fail, every time I try to delete a voicemail, I end up saving it instead. The reason for this is simple – I have two systems that I receive voicemail at (my work phone and my cell phone) and while both systems allow you to either delete or save a message, they do so in exactly opposite ways. My kingdom for some standardization!
The phone system at my office requires me to hit the number ‘7’ to save a message and the number ‘9’ to delete it. My cell phone uses the exact opposite method, you hit ‘7’ to delete and ‘9’ to save the message. I can never seem to remember which is which, and inevitably I guess wrong every single time. That cold, robotic-sounding female voice saying ‘message saved’ is like some cruel taunt from the telecommunications gods reminding me that I have guessed wrong yet again!
This problem could be easily fixed if there were some standards that governed how phone systems operated. If ‘7’ to save and ‘9’ to delete was a universally accepted standard, there would be no need to remember which method is used on the device I am currently interfacing with – because they would all be the same. Work phone, cell phone, house phone, any phone – 7 to delete and 9 to save. How wonderful a world that would be.
Conventions Make Life Easier
The concept of established conventions, specifically in regards to Web sites, has come up a number of times recently in my conversations with clients. Conventions and standards can make a Web site user’s experience easier and more enjoyable because they allow visitors to quickly understand how to use your site by taking advantage of things they already know and understand. Knowledge gained from past experiences is leveraged so there is that much less that is ‘new’, which means that the things that are new (like your company-specific content or applications) are easier to find and interact with because they are framed by things that are already familiar.
An example of this would be the cursor. When using the Web, users have come to expect their cursor to appear as an ‘arrow’ until they rollover a link or clickable area – then it becomes a little ‘hand’. Users know exactly how to position their cursor to access the link and make that click. This is a convention.
I was recently asked by a client if we could change the default cursor on their Web site to a graphic that represented their company/services. While the answer to this is ‘yes’, that is certainly possible, I suggested against this change. While the cursor replacement might be a neat visual trick, whatever novelty it offered would be quickly replaced by annoyance as users try to navigate the Web page and click links using this unfamiliar cursor instead of one they have grown incredibly used to.
Web users are an impatient and often fickle lot and the surest way to drive someone away from your site is to confuse or frustrate them. Breaking away from a convention they have come to expect is a pretty good way to do both.
Conventions and Creativity Can Play Nicely Together
I have heard some argue that adhering to conventions or standards saps creativity and innovation. I don’t think that is the case. I would never argue against creativity, but you need to weigh the benefits of breaking away from an established convention against the consequences of forcing your users to relearn how to perform an action (such as clicking a link).
If you’re going to innovate, understand why you are doing it and make sure it is the right choice. If your change is well thought out and executed (and if it provides value to the user or adds to the site in some real way), your users will take the time to learn this new convention-breaking method. Innovate because it is the right thing to do and it makes sense – not only because it ‘looks cool.’ As much as the designer in me hates to admit it, ‘looking cool’ is rarely a legitimate reason to break away from a convention and potentially frustrate users.
Share Your Conventions
Are there any Web conventions that you find particularly helpful and have come to expect from sites you visit? One I always make reference to is the company logo being placed in the upper left corner of the site (allowing users to easily find the company branding in a place they have come to expect) and also being linked back to the site’s homepage, kinda like a ‘start over’ button.
Feel free list some conventions you find useful – in the meantime, I have a number of voicemails that I need to get rid of since I never meant to save them in the first place!
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