

Jakob Nielsen: Customization of UIs and Products - edw519
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/customization.html

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patio11
One part of this deeply resonates with me: get users the "early success
experience". I have worked on it over the years, trying to provide more and
more of a glide path to people so that they successfully get something coming
out of their printer.

It pays off -- I sell to 2.5% of people who get that far, and only about .8%
among people who don't. (How do I love thee, analytics software, let me count
the ways...)

This is one of the reasons I wince when I see apps which drop people at an
empty screen, waiting to be filled by clicking the unobtrusive New Document
button in the top corner. Grab them by the collar and tell them what they need
to do next ("Click the new document button to get started!").

If what they need to do next is perfectly obvious, don't even bother with the
text. Consider taking them straight into that funnel, or providing them with a
half-built document that they can jump right into.

