The Web at the moment bears a remarkable similarity to Times Square, with its multitude of billboards vying for the attention of a limited audience with a large wallet. Just as they command a high disposable income, Web users possess the highest level of media literacy of any audience, and they demand that Web content creators provide valid reasons to visit and return to their offerings.

Your public Web site (as opposed to your private intranet site) needs to gain instant recognition from these users by giving them rewarding experiences. You want your site to build a reputation for being worth visiting repeatedly. This article is intended to give Web site developers broad ideas for building the kind of site people will return to time and time again, which will help turn passing visitors into loyal customers.

I call this kind of site the user-centric Web site, which I'll define more closely in a moment. What follows is intended to spark your creativity and help you devise your own specific solutions. I can't really hope to provide all the answers you're asking, because I don't know the specifics of your situation; but maybe by sparking your imagination and breaking down the problem at hand, I can help you ask yourself the right questions.

THE INFORMATION SUPER-BOOKSTORE?

Browsing on the Web has a great deal in common with browsing in a bookstore: Bookstores are interesting places that use a multitude of features to attract visitors -- attractive lighting, informative displays, even a coffee shop, but mostly lots of sources of information and entertainment. The strategy for building a successful Web site is akin to running a bookstore. A bookstore becomes a haunt because its customers find the shop inviting and because the atmosphere is conducive to browsing without the store's main function -- selling books -- invading an otherwise rewarding visit.

The product-, or brand-centric Web site is like a bookstore where every few minutes a salesperson approaches you and asks if you want to buy the particular book you're browsing through. The brand-centric site is one that contains nothing beyond outbound information about the product, company, and purchasing details. This might be a good way of selling used cars, but bookstores learned long ago to treat their literate and intelligent customers with far more respect. You have to find the right balance between actively selling your product and giving potential customers reasons to enjoy their visit. The equilibrium for a good Web site lies nearer that of the bookstore than that of the used car showroom; however, the Web is still littered with sites that bother the user or in some way distract from what might otherwise be an enjoyable experience.

The user-centric site, on the other hand, consists of compelling, entertaining features aimed at attracting a broad audience, the objective being to deliver a good experience so that these users will return to the site and favor the company in the future. The features are subtly branded and familiarize the visitor with the product. More and more user-centric Web sites are appearing, and -- just like the bookstore owners -- their creators know that they're dealing with a highly intelligent audience that expects something for nothing. In many cases, users are actually paying to see Web sites; it's hard to imagine why they'd pay to view a blatant advertisement.

In the rest of this article, I'll provide ideas that will help you build your own user-centric site. Again, keep in mind that I'm trying to provide general ideas that will be useful to a broad audience, rather than specific tips and techniques. Also, I should say up front that by mentioning a specific site as an example of one of the following ideas, I'm endorsing neither the company nor its products; the company mentioned simply serves as an example of a Web site that illustrates one of my points.

SATISFYING NOT ONE, BUT THREE AUDIENCES

I've divided the general audience into three key user-centered categories; I'll then provide ideas and examples to help you deliver the best user experience for each category. These three categories are as follows:

• Passing visitors, who aren't purchasing, but who will form an opinion of your company or product through your Web site; they may become purchasers, or pass their opinions on to purchasers
• Purchasers, who need help with purchasing decisions, whether they're buying over the Web or through other channels
• Existing customers, who need to know how to derive more value from your product, and whose loyalty can be strengthened by what they find on your site

Segmenting Web audiences in this way helps you identify key steps you can take toward achieving the objectives for your Web site. Each of these segments has particular interests and requirements that you need to consider; here are some of the key steps you can take to meet the needs of users in each segment:

• Passing visitors
• Bring together creative and technical minds to conceive features that users will visit and return to
• Extend what you might be doing in other media
• Emphasize your many user-centric features; don't bury them within your site
• Aim to provide a great user experience; sales will follow
• Purchasers
• Use interactivity to allow users to burrow down to the information they need
• Provide active assistance through artificial experts and agents
• Aim to deliver the key pieces of information that will help purchasers make their particular decisions
• Existing customers
• Use the Internet's capabilities to improve the service you provide to existing customers
• Deliver valuable features that supplement your product
• Keep your existing customers better informed
  

GRAB THE ATTENTION OF PASSING VISITORS

Building a great user-centric site requires adopting the right philosophy at the site's conception. Ask yourself, "What can I best achieve with this Web site?", and keep the following in mind when considering the passing visitor:

• This is an interactive medium. How exactly are you exploiting this aspect?
• The audience is highly media literate. Are you differentiating your message for this particular audience?
• Visitors have short attention spans. Are you delivering an instantly accessible "payoff" to catch their attention?
• You are aiming to get repeat visits from this audience, not sales.
• Sales and favorability will follow if users have a good experience.

Simply taking your marketing message and dressing it up through graphic design overlooks the most fundamental requirement: that you must be delivering a payoff that visitors will appreciate; graphics themselves are not a payoff. Start by asking, "How can we reward the user for visiting our site, and how are we providing our browsing guests with a good experience?" This is the sort of question that a good internet "host" should ask at a site's conception, instead of thinking, "OK, so we've given them something for free; now we're entitled to invade their screens with marketing messages."

The most recent site that seized my attention and delivers a most rewarding visit is the one for the Mini automobile. Laden with stunning use of Java, the site has two "arcade games," a screen-saver, an interactive Mini designer, and enough interactive eye candy not only to keep users entranced, but also to ensure that they'll be mentioning the site to other browsing friends. The Mini designer allows purchasers to view the available options, while casual browsers can enjoy the slightly less practical enhancements, all with great sound effects, such as the lawn tennis court roof or Ben Hur chariot wheels.

The Levis Web site is another great example of how to deliver a fantastic experience to passing visitors without blatantly marketing at them. Levis extends its familiar television ads with Shockwave and "Javatized" games, reinforcing its conventional media campaign by using the Web's key feature -- interactivity. Games are great ways of rewarding users; they can add significant value to a user's visit. The Levis home page instantly reveals the many attractions it has to offer, and the curious browser is drawn into a long and rewarding visit to the site.

Levis is a large corporation willing to pay for highly creative features that will attract passing traffic. Many of you, however, have to develop a Web site on a smaller budget, and have to be creative while watching the budget.

Creativity on a budget is the real challenge for content creators, and, fortunately, creating a good user experience doesn't depend on spending a lot of money. One inexpensive way of promoting a site is through wit, which can be very cheap. In England, the advertising agency where I used to work combined Monty Pythonesque humor with the potentially boring subject of Direct Debit especially well. In the hands of the right creative people, the result is a site that both educates the visitor and makes them smile upon remembering their experience of the site.

Another great example of the use of humor, albeit on a large budget, is the Hellman's Mayonnaise site. The site allows you to use the power of the Internet for no better purpose than to send a picture and a recipe for a mayonnaise sandwich by email.

Humor is not the only inexpensive resource: Technical wizardry and creativity make for a powerful combination. The 80's Server displays this combination especially well. It's littered with original ideas that must have been conceived with technical experts present. For the curious, there is an online trivia test; for those seeking interaction with others there is a chat room that uses a Java Telnet applet. One feature that caught my attention is a RealAudio jukebox that lets you create a selection of your favorite music from the decade, which you can listen to, or you can direct a friend to the site where they can play back the compilation of tracks that you created.

ASSIST PURCHASING DECISION MAKERS

What about people surfing the Web to make purchasing decisions? Frequently updated information that is of interest to your visitors can provide a very worthwhile reason for them to return to your site. We use this approach on the Netscape DevEdge Online site, where the Home page presents news that's updated on a weekly basis.

A good example of a nontechnical Web site that does the same thing is the Discovery Channel site. The information on display is always highly topical and relevant to viewers of the channel, and it extends the offerings on TV. The Sci-Fi Channel's excellent Dominion Web site likewise provides a wealth of easily navigable information and a good user experience, with a schedule search engine that lets you find out when your favorite science fiction show will be screened.

The use of artificial experts and agents is another good way of helping potential purchasers learn key features of your product. Search engines and, possibly, user agents can be used to help ensure that customers make the right product choice when there are many options to consider. For example, Chrysler has an excellent interactive questionnaire which, based on answers to a series of personality questions, recommends the most suitable Chrysler vehicle for your specific needs. Here the Internet goes beyond what can be done with a conventional product brochure.

STRENGTHEN LOYALTY AMONG EXISTING CUSTOMERS

There are many ways in which a Web site can use interactivity to add value to your product and strengthen customers' attachment to you. Hallmark Cards provides a service through which you can enter the birthdays of friends and family members. You're then asked how soon before each event you'd like a reminder to be sent to your email address. This benefits both Hallmark Cards, who gets its name in front of users at the most timely moment, and users, who receive reminders of birthdays that they might otherwise have overlooked.

Harley Davidson provides a useful source of information on great motorcycle rides. Although you don't have to be a Harley owner to benefit from this service, it's clearly aimed at enabling existing owners to further enjoy the product. Your Web site can also communicate that your company cares about its customers beyond the sale.

Supplementing your product also promotes consumer loyalty: The FedEx site includes a parcel tracking-service that you're probably aware of. The service provides a reassurance that you can check up on your parcel at any time, which adds value and further differentiates FedEx from their competitors. Most software buyers feel more secure buying software when the vendor has a tool on its site to help troubleshoot problems. This approach would be just as useful if you sell boilers or hi-fis. The Web site utility may well be the one thing that makes the difference to customers.

Another way of ensuring loyalty is to use the "push" of the web and the "pull" of email. For example, in the area of travel it can be tiresome to be told by travel agents, "Try calling us and we'll tell you if our airfares to that destination get any lower." It should work the other way around: Using a form on the travel agent's Web site, you should be able to place a trigger price on a given round-trip fare, and if it drops below this price an email is sent to you. This system could work like the automated stock trading systems used on Wall Street, only geared toward normal consumer goods. A person buying a car could register an interest in a particular model in case it went on sale; fans of bands could likewise register at record-store Web sites to be notified of concert ticket availability or new releases.

The banking sector, in which the retention of customers is key, has given rise to a large number of Web sites that provide immense value to existing customers by allowing access to services online, and these features can differentiate products. Just as banks allow online access to details of your latest transactions, gymnasiums and health clubs could provide access to graphs of your weight and blood pressure recorded over successive visits.

THREE OBJECTIVES FOR THE USER-CENTRIC SITE

To sum up, when designing your Web site and developing its content, remember that you need to keep in mind at least one of three important audiences: passing visitors, purchasers, and existing customers. Each of these groups has different interests in what your site has to offer, and you need to consider them in determining your site's objectives.

The key for all businesses, however, is to keep existing customers. Your site should build loyalty among existing customers by using the Internet to provide utility beyond the point of sale. Allow your customers to voluntarily register for reminders, discount vouchers, and notification of special offers. This registration could be done either at the point of sale or on your Web site. Although creating content for the first two audiences -- passing visitors and purchasers -- is important even though the revenue produced may not be obvious, this third area -- existing customers -- can produce tangible benefits that provide your management with the money to fuel the budget for the first two areas.

(The photograph of Times Square in this article is used with the permission of the photographer, Don Holway, who owns its copyright; it originally appeared at the official Times Square Business Improvement District Web site. All other illustrations are used with permission and should not be reused without the consent of their owners.)

Richard Hall is the producer of Netscape's DevEdge Online Web site. He previously worked in Britain for the advertising agency Euro RSCG and contributes to the European magazine, ".net".

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Related Reading:

• User-Centered Information Design
• Seven Deadly Sins of Information Design
• Information Design in Action

Any sample code included above is provided for your use on an "AS IS" basis, under the Netscape License Agreement - Terms of Use