People-Friendly Websites Utilize Microcopy

How many times a week are you frustrated because the information requested from an online site isn't clear and you have to re-enter your info a second time – and maybe even a third time?

This week I've set up three ebook author accounts for my father Albert Zimbler for his first self-published comedy short story book "The Love Life of Howard Handsome"

The three sites – Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook, and Smashwords (multiple ebook formats) – pay royalties to the author, so a Tax ID or a Social Security number is required.

Over 11 years ago when I worked for an LA web design company, we used microcopy to make it clear whether a phone number should be entered as XXX-XXX-XXXX or XXXXXXXXX. And yet here in 2011 website forms still do NOT make this clear.

I entered my father's Social Security number without the hyphens in one information field only to be given an error message. Then I had to go back and type the number with the hyphens.

But on other sites it could have been the reverse: I could have typed the number with the hyphens and gotten an error message.

SIMPLE SOLUTION: Make your websites people friendly by adding microcopy next to the information fields in which confusion can result.

For example, if you ask for a telephone number, have microcopy showing the format in which the number should be entered. (See above example.)

This small courtesy can greatly reduce the frustration people feel on your website.

And yesterday my business partner Yael K. Miller was attempting to download webinar software for an online writing course she will be taking.

When she reached support, she was told to switch from using Firefox or Chrome to Internet Explorer and the software would download easily.

As Yael said, why not use microcopy at the point of download to tell people that in the first place? Instead, people using other browsers are frustrated and have to waste the time of the support staff to be told what could easily be written on the website page.

In today's often frenetic online world, the difference between a website that makes things easy as opposed to a website that makes things difficult can be a major factor in what a potential customer or client thinks of your company.

I challenge all of us to review our website pages to see if we make things clear. And, in fact, Yael and I have already accepted this challenge. We're currently changing the labels we use for purchase links for books and ebooks to make things clearer.

What have you done to make things clearer on your site?

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic, LLC, which offers "done for you" and "do it yourself" social media services including marketing-focused WordPress websites.

Visit Phyllis' "about" page on Google Plus.

View information on Phyllis' books and ebooks at http://budurl.com/PZMbooks