Information Scent
Users estimate a given hunt's likely success from the spoor: assessing whether their path exhibits cues related to the desired outcome. Informavores will keep clicking as long as they sense (to mix metaphors) that they're "getting warmer" -- the scent must keep getting stronger and stronger, or people give up. Progress must seem rapid enough to be worth the predicted effort required to reach the destination.
Once only grasped intuitively, the pursuit of knowledge mirrors a thrilling hunt, an epic journey. Hyperlinks act as gateways to information—treasures uncovered, hoarded. Success is gratifying yet potentially draining, requiring a rewarding payoff.
The joy of discovery—the journey from search to revelation—is central to the information foraging experience. This sensation, akin to a scent leading to a coveted answer, ignites the pleasure center, driving further exploration. It's encapsulated in the concept of "information scent," elaborated in the section "Predicting a Path's Success."
Information foraging's most famous concept is information scent:
The most obvious design lesson from information scent is to ensure that links and category descriptions explicitly describe what users will find at the destination. Helping you convey your information clearly is akin to trail-blazing—building a path. Faced with several navigation options, employing Microcontent is a good first step in ensuring that your users can clearly identify the trail to the prey and see that other trails are devoid of anything edible.
Avoid using invented terms or personalized slogans as navigation options, since they don't have the scent of the sought-after item. Prioritize using plain language throughout your navigation choices. This simplicity not only enhances search engine visibility but also facilitates a direct match between users' mental language and the content on your site. Furthermore, as users navigate through the site, each page should clearly indicate their progression towards the desired content. In essence, providing feedback regarding the current location and its relevance to users' objectives is crucial.
Your future visitors will be satisfied if your website succeeds at performing these 5 tasks
has traffic
conveys information
attracts engagement
elicits a response
rewards successful visitor interaction
SITE SUMMARY
Please browse around! Besides search-sales funnel stuff, there's bits and pieces of other website building material in here. Everything from color-picker tools for designing your website and User Experience (UX/UI for short) articles to retweets of hackintosh how-to articles and writer contests for would be aspiring writers, this is one eclectic grab-bag o'stuff.
~Thank you, enjoy!~
FROM YOUR HUMBLE WEBMASTER