CivicActions

"There ain't much of a difference between a bridge and a wall..."
Tear Me Down (Hedwig and the Angry Inch)

Yesterday I walked into a local retailer and found this widget I'd heard about. I was considering buying it, but had a few questions for the saleman, so I went over to him and asked "Can you tell me more about this widget, like how long will it last between charges?"
"Buy it now," he replied.
"Well, I might, but I have a few questions. Besides battery life, what kind of warranty does it come with?"
"Buy it now," he said.
I pursed my lips, "Yeah...I'm thinking about it but I need to know how this will work with my computer. Are the cables included?"
"But it now," he smiled.
I stuffed my hands into my pocket to keep from strangling him and sharply turned around and left the store.

Okay, while that didn't really happen to me yesterday this kind of scenario does happen to folks every day on the web. Many sites are created under the assumptions that visitors don't read text, can't navigate, and will buy/register/forward/embed/link/invite/rate/read/share/upload/select/vote/etc. simply because we provide a link for doing such. Sure, some of these actions are low risk, but some of them- given the amount of information we encounter each day, our available time and money, and personal goals at the moment- require us to make choices.

Persuasion Architecture (developed by the Eisenberg brothers at Future Now, Inc.) overlays the traditional sales process (prospecting, initial contact, present, handle objection, and close) onto the web. Many sites do a good job of trying to close the deal (Buy Now) but a poor job of handling objections- the critical step before the close.

The name "persuasion architecture" is spin on traditional "information architecture," which is concerned with how information is organized and accessed on a website.
The concept behind persuasion architecture simply implies that there is information that will help someone make a choice and that information must be availale to satisfy any objections before the choice is made (and hopefully the choice we want the person to make). In the traditional retail situation a salesperson is available to handle a buyer's objections, answer questions, and give the buyer a warm fuzzy that he or she is indeed making the right choice. Had the salesperson in my store example above simply and succinctly answered my questions the likelihood of buying the widget would have increased greatly.

All of us have questions when using the web- from the simple question "where will this link take me if I click it? (and is it worth the risk)" to more complicated ones like, "If I order this $500 stereo component online can I return it? If so, how? Who else liked this component? How will this component interface with my existing system? What cables will I need?" A site that can answer my questions, overcome my objections and instill confidence that I am making the right choice is the site that will close the sale, gain a registration, or encourage me to take action.

Next week in Part 2 we'll look at the questions different types of people generally have before making a decision. These can be directly tied to our site's personae to ensure we're speaking to the right audience.