Reducing Clutter Helps Users Reach Goals
And in other news, water is wet. In design “choice” kills, if you try to say everything you end up saying nothing. I am not a big fan of clutter or anything that gets in the way of a user achieving their goals, like social media icons on websites. Therefore, it is really no surprise when I read Removing Social Sharing Buttons Increases Conversions. Yes, You Heard That Right! I am a big fan of “Goal-Driven Design” and if your goal is to drive traffic away from your website, add the social media icons and other distractions.
Every object on a web page is competing for the user’s attention and it is a user-centered designers job to lead the users to their goal, and every design element should have it is time, place and weight. If your primary objective is to drive traffic to your social media presence, sure the links should be prominent. However, if your goal is for the user to interact with your website, then wait. Wait until after the user has completed their goal then invite them to like your social media page. If your website does not have a goal, well then check out my last post on defining your website objectives.