Part II - Persuasion and Information Architecture: 5 tips

This post is Part II of a three-part series on Persuasion and Information Architecture.

Principle of Tunnelling

Please follow the blue arrows. Design your information architecture to guide users through a process or experience provides opportunities to persuade along the way.

What are your (IA) measurements?
The dimensions, shape and structure of an information architecture can be persuasive. Danaher et al (2005) explored how information architecture affects the success of a behaviour-change website.  They focused on four IA designs that have particular relevance for websites intended to change users’ health behaviour:

1. A free-form matrix design that offers little information structure. Here, users find their own path through available content, which can expedite a user’s search of the content; however, when links do not match a user’s search pattern, they may have to search through all navigation items. This approach is ideal for small websites with educated and experienced users who are familiar with the basic organization of the content and may be well-suited to a website designed to help users resolve their ambiguity regarding whether or not to engage in a behaviour change attempt.
2. A hierarchical design that provides the user with information arranged in an organized fashion. Information is organized top-down so users can locate a broad theme and drill down into increasingly detailed information, allowing for fewer links between pages, reducing confusion from too many options. This design mimics the tree-like file directory/subdirectory structure in operating systems, with which users may be familiar already. However, confusion may result from user’s mental model of the content grouping not matching the website’s content organization.
3. A tunnel design that defines a narrow path with a predefined series of steps. Here, a user follows a step-by-step (page-by-page) approach, wherein access to navigation points is eliminated to avoid distraction and keep the user focused on the task at hand. Users must remain patient long enough to become comfortable using an unfamiliar interface that is preventing them from engaging in their typical information foraging behaviour. Participants who are ready to enact a behaviour change would be best matched with this design.
4. A hybrid design composed of a combination of modules that have their own IA design. These modules fall along the continuum of matrix, hierarchical and tunnel designs. The authors argue that the hybrid design appears to have a number of distinct advantages over websites that offer only the more orthodox matrix or tunnel designs. For example, a website can cater more precisely to different users in different stages of a behaviour-change decision process using the different structural approaches listed above.

Key takeaways

• Different information architecture formats have advantages and disadvantages. Familiarize yourself with these formats and mix them to create an ideal and persuasive user experience.

Principle of Tailoring

Make it special, just for me. Keep in mind that content will be more persuasive if it is tailored to the individual’s needs, interests, personality, or usage context.

It’s all about personalization

Website personalization has long been a feature of portals and extranets, allowing users to customize their online experience. With more recent technology advances, public websites can tailor served content based on a user’s preferences, Facebook account, or past browsing behaviour, clickstream analysis and data mining. Web personalization leverages personalization technology to provide “the right content to the right person at the right time”, in order to provide customized content and services and maximize business opportunities (Tam & Ho, 2005).

Tam & Ho studied the persuasive effectiveness of web personalization through the lens of the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion, which states that users are persuaded either through a central route, with full cognitive attention, or through a peripheral route, relying on heuristics. The authors found strong evidence that a website matched to user preferences was influential in persuading users to accept personalized offers, as was the order in which products were displayed.

Different strokes for different folks

From a cultural perspective, as mentioned above, culture, social and cohort all affect categorization process (Garrett, 2002).  Persuasive technology is more effective when it reflects the culture of its intended audience; given that current persuasive technology strategies cater to individualist audiences, Rilla Khaled (2008) determined eight culturally-relevant persuasive technology strategies and highlighted the differences for collectivist audiences.  These strategies become particularly important when developing the information architecture for a website with social media features, such as product reviews from customers or discussion forums.

For example, the Harmony strategy involves the presentation of social density cues to users, which subtly promote harmonious actions that support the group’s goals; the Group Opinion strategy provides users with the opinions of users similar to them at moments when users must make important decisions.

Tell me who you are

Finally, a current trend in information architecture is to encourage visitors to self-identify in order to serve them tailored content. This is especially useful when users are anonymous and have not indicated any preferences. For example, the University of William & Mary website encourages visitors to self-identify through a drop-down list in the header; the choices are Current Students, Faculty & Staff, Friends & Neighbours, Parents, Alumni and Employers. This trend also demonstrates the Principle of Reduction, as it guides users to tailored content, lessening the likelihood that they would need to perform a search for their target content.

Key takeaways

• Strongly consider personalization as a persuasion strategy.
• Consider tailoring content on factors beyond a basic user profile, such as culture and friends’ activities.

>> Continue on to Part III - Principles of Suggestion and Social Actors

>> Return to Part I - Principle of Reduction