E-Biz Designers Neglect User Needs

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January 25, 2001 (11:05 AM EST)

By Barnaby Page,

E-business companies risk losing repeat customers if their websites are too focused on newcomers, according to a design group.

Catalyst Group Design, New York, said in its report, "Surviving the Adolescent Internet," that many websites are excessively geared to making usage simple for Net novices.

"Paradoxically, many websites don't reward -- or even accommodate -- the increasing user interface sophistication of their most frequent users," the report said. "These sites risk frustrating their most valuable customers."

Early Internet successes such as America Online Inc. (stock: AOL), Yahoo Inc. (stock: YHOO), and Amazon.com Inc. (stock: AMZN) scored because they optimized their sites for new users, Catalyst said. But as the Internet grows older, the ratio of experienced to new users is increasing dramatically and website operators must work to retain existing customers as well as wooing new ones, the company said.

"An interface that is aimed at retaining frequent users ... will offer design features that allow [them] to accomplish their goals more quickly or derive enhanced value from 'power user' functions that would baffle a less experienced user," Catalyst said.

As examples the report cites 1-Click Ordering on the Amazon.com site, which compresses a five-step checkout process into one action for regular customers; saved search parameters on Monster.com; and the facility to personalize a menu of favorite artists on CDNOW.com. Sites should also allow frequent users to hide unwanted help functions, the design group said. But Catalyst warned that some sites, such as those devoted to mortgages and weddings, will be only rarely visited by individual users and should assume most of them are unfamiliar with the site.

Separately, a study released Thursday by Consumers International said few websites in the United States and Europe adhere to privacy standards. The federation of consumer groups said that while two-thirds of the 751 sites surveyed collected personal data such as birth dates and addresses, "the vast majority" gave users no choice in how that information was used. And despite tighter European regulations, some of the most privacy-conscious sites are in the United States. Only 10 percent of sites aimed at children advised their young users to get parental consent before giving personal information.