Back in 1990s, it was common to hear the term Information Superhighway to refer to any type of digital communications. I don’t hear this term too often nowadays, and consider that picturing the internet as a highway, or as infrastructure created to allow communication exchanges could give a clear picture for web designers to put themselves in the shoes of the customers. It is fascinating to see the future of communication through the eyes of history, and take a deep dive to understand the role of the interstate system and the railway systems in the development of cities, and society. Today, we might fight and makeup over text messages, but think about the fights that people had to solve by penning letters, and sending them across continents either by boat or airplanes. The immediacy of the internet doesn’t allow time to consider the distances between customers and companies, so using the term Information Superhighway, might be helpful to imagine global exchanges, as letters travelling from far places at incredible speeds that require an adequate response.
Imagine the message in a letter landing at an airport in the middle of nowhere, with no customer services, no signs to indicate where the exit is, no roads, no transportation services. The communication would be truncated because we are not able to facilitate the exchange. We don’t want the message to bounce back, we need to make sure that the airport, just as the landing page in any website is easy to navigate, and allows an easy exchange. Landing pages, just like airports, and train stations are able to bring development when they accommodate, and designers understand the needs of the customer.
Using analytics to create acquisition reports to understand bounce rates could shed some valuable information in the design of our landing page. The entire navigation of a website has to be cohesive, and you need to understand where the people are coming from, as if your website was a city that needs train stations, airports, highways, signs, services. What are your entry points? Do you have the tools necessary to attend the exchange at the arrival of the customer or passenger? Creating landing page reports will help and guide you in the process of better attending your customers. Notice that just like any A/B testing, Analytics is a great tool to guide you in the process, it doesn’t provide the solutions.
Don’t get overwhelmed by the immediacy that the digital world demands. Sit back, understand the basic process of marketing, communication and exchanges of all types, and you’ll be surprise how many future problems can be solved by contemplating history, just by rescuing simple solutions that can be adjusted to our new reality.
STATUS: Keeping it simple, or complicating technology with history.
Tralala Media 