No. 29 Hiding Information(September 30, 2005)
In this column, I would like to touch on approaches for designing and building a website. From time to time, I come across websites which intentionally hide information (or do not make it available). Here is a look at the main reasons for hiding information:
- To increase the number of inquiries on a site by making the user want more information
- To avoid action on the part of the user related to certain information (e.g. hiding the telephone number of your call center)
- To prevent the user from seeing information which is not beneficial to them (e.g. hiding the fact that there is actually a fee for services)
In our experience with thousands of usability tests here at beBit, we have yet to see this tactic work successfully. Rather, it typically produces the opposite effect. Users might think, for example:
- “I'm not going to look at this site anymore, since it doesn't have the information I want.” (and then the user generally moves on to your one of your competitors' websites)
- “I'll refer to another site since it gives more detailed information.”
- “It seems like this site doesn't provide the information or service I'm looking for.” (and in the end the user doesn't even make an inquiry)
- “I think this site is intentionally hiding information. How low can you get?!”
It is the responsibility of the person operating a website to provide as much information as he or she believes the user wants. The old marketing approach of manipulating the amount of information provided to the user to change his or her behavior does not translate well to the Internet.
Especially in the past few years, blogs, Q&A sites such as 360.yahoo.com, and social network services like Friendster.com and Linkedin.com have come along, making it easier for more web users to share a variety of information. With this change, most of the information users need is available on the Internet, and information provided by companies is now starting to lose credibility. If you take the approach of intentionally not providing information on your site these days when the credibility of information coming from companies is already on shaky ground, your users will naturally be dissatisfied.
In fact, one of our clients was considering hiding information in order to get inquiries on their site. However, based on the results of usability testing we performed on their site, they made a major shift in their policy to providing as much information as possible in order to get inquiries. In this example, not only did the company's inquiries increase nearly threefold as a result of the change, but the inquiries grew more sophisticated and more of them led directly to deals.
Since your website exists for your users, providing the information that they need is your ticket to success.
Yukiko Takei.
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