It’s Friday evening. Your 2 year old is screaming. Dinner’s late (and burning). You’re having company over at the end of a horrible work week and the house is a disaster. Life sucks. The recipe you’re trying to cook is on your phone on recipe.com.
Fast Forward >>>
It’s Sunday morning. The house is quite and clean. You’re drinking coffee. Reading a book. You’re rested and relaxed. Life is good. You’re reading a local news article on your phone.
Circumstance influences our Frame of Mind [FOM] , which influences how we interact with everything, including a website.
Simple enough. We could say “the end” and you’d be well enough off if you put some thought into it. But here are a few more granular examples of how our surroundings influence our FOM, which smart web designers will incorporate into their UI/UX strategy. Each bleeds into the other because, hey, life is messy and like that.
1) Time of Day
Are people visiting your site in the morning or evening? That’s a big question when you think about it. For starters is the room they’re looking at a screen in light or dark? Think color palette. Are they distracted because they’re thinking about getting off work since it’s 4:00? Are they tired because it’s really late and they should be in bed? Think call to action.
2) Physical State
When someone is on your website, what’s going on physically with them at that moment. Are they hungry or full? Because I get hangry, don’t you? Are they tired or energetic? People will convert when they’re energized more than when they’re tired. Are they distracted? Good look making a sale. A perfect user interface will vary depending on the answers you give.
3) Emotions
People buy because of emotion, and use logic to justify it. While people are on your website are they happy or sad? Are they relaxed or agitated? Excited or bored? Are they emotionally exhausted or energized? What do all these things mean for copywriting? For colors? Navigation hierarchy? Call to action? Color palette?
So Do This
There’s no cookie cutter template when it comes to good UI/UX, just human centric best practices. So consider this a best practice: before you start your next web design project, take a moment and consider the FOM of the users you’re building a website for.
