

Buffer's UX: "Buffer" as a Good Thing - jason_shah
http://blog.jasonshah.org/post/17851783879/buffers-ux-buffer-as-a-good-thing

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huhtenberg
I think you are over-analyzing it, Jason.

> _The 3 navigation options are “Blog”, “Sign In”, and “Sign Up” - by putting
> blog first, they direct traffic away from their main site_

No, they don't, unless it's a bot traffic. If someone is ready to sign up, he
won't go and read the blog instead. Similarly, someone's _not_ ready to sign
up, won't be persuaded more to do it if the Blog link would've been moved to
the 3rd place.

~~~
jason_shah
Quite possible that I'm overanalyzing it, but only A/B testing would say for
sure. Either way, thanks for reading the post and taking the time to question
whether rearranging navigation options has an impact on conversions, which
pages get the most traffic, etc.

My view is based on my experience. When I first visited the site, I was ready
to sign up. But then my eyes glanced at the navigation bar, and the blog was
linked first.

So I clicked on 'Blog' instead of signing up.

As much as I was ready to sign up, I also find it very interesting to read
startups' blogs, so I clicked through there and only really came back to sign
up because I was planning to write a blog post about Buffer's UX. I would have
bounced otherwise.

Moreover, the blog's masthead + logo link to the subdomain's index (i.e. the
blog itself), so while there's a prominent 'Sign Up' element on the blog
(credit to the Buffer team on that), my initial attempt to go back to the home
page (and perhaps sign up) was met with a return to the blog. I don't think
most users have much patience, and it's quite possible that people visit, get
distracted by the blog, and then bounce, especially when a first attempt at
going back to bufferapp.com doesn't pan out as expected.

Even if the order doesn't matter at all, and there's no impact from 'Blog'
being first, my point is also about subdomains, as I sort of hinted at above.
So when I say the current UI directs traffic away from the main site, I mean
to say that if I click on 'Blog', almost all of my interaction options from
there send me to somewhere else on the blog.bufferapp.com subdomain where my
options are less about those on the main site (i.e. sign up, explore pricing,
etc.), and more about reading posts, commenting, clicking through to the
founders' Twitter pages, etc. For all I know, that interaction may somehow
increase brand affinity and the likelihood of positive word of mouth for
Buffer. But in the short run it seems more likely that it will distract from
at least one metric: registrations.

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roryokane
The first time you write “Buffer” really should be a link. I’ve never used
Buffer, and throughout the article I was kind of curious what it was, but I
didn’t want to take the effort to look up its URL.

Link to Buffer: <http://bufferapp.com/>

~~~
jason_shah
Absolutely. Edited the post to link through. Thanks!

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tommoor
Hey Jason,

I'm the main guy behind the UX on Buffer - thanks for such a detailed writeup
of the app! I'll reply with some indepth thoughts on your blog soon...

By the way, you might want to remove the bit about the blue email icon - that
has nothing to do with us, it's your toutapp extension picking up email links
;-)

~~~
jason_shah
Hey there -

Thanks for the feedback! Looking forward to a response. Totally on point re:
toutapp; edited to reflect that. Thanks again.

Jason

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jason_shah
Anyone have other experiences with Buffer where you picked up on some really
novel interactions?

