This series of posts seeks to help website owners understand whether or not their site should be busy or uncluttered, based on the difference between “push” and “pull”.
A website that “pushes” is trying to get the user who visits it to do something specific, it tends to take the initiative. A website that “pulls” is trying to give the user more initiative, offering multiple ways for the user to extract whatever they can from the site.
We’ll have a look at some of the webs most popular sites to see push and pull mechanics in action in our next post.
Before doing so, it’ll be useful to establish some of the general characteristics of each approach.
Websites that are more inclined towards “push” mechanics will generally tend to:
- Have less links. The website gives the user less options, because it wants the user to follow a pre-determined path.
- Have less features. Same reason.
- Require some form of membership registration or subscription before allowing a user to access most of the content. This scenario is based more on the “Push” method, because it allows the site to track individual users, and therefore creates the possibility for direct and specific marketing, which aligns with the “Push” method.
- Have newsletter signups. Same reason.
- Have a less cluttered and simplified look and feel.
- Branding will tend to focus more on individual products or services, why a user should buy or use them.
Websites that are more inclined towards “pull” mechanics will generally tend to:
- Have more links. The website gives the user more options, because it seeks to allow the user to determine their own path.
- Have more search facilities, and features more things and in a more random manner. Same reason.
- Be more accessible, requiring membership only at the very end of a process, and only to allow users greater ease of use of the site. This scenario is based more on the “Pull” method, because it allows users to access all (or nearly all) areas of the site using any of a number of navigation or search options. It therefore allows the user to “pull” the information they desire, rather than “pushing” specific information at the user, uncertain of whether or not the user desires it.
- Be busier and are more likely to look cluttered.
- Branding will tend to focus more on the company or organisation, and why it can be trusted or favoured.
A simple real world example of push and pull can be seen by comparing the difference between the following two scenarios:
1) ABC Office Supplies decides to tell a whole city about their business, they organise a brochure to be placed in every letter box.
2) A small business owner decides to set up an office, they want to find out what products are offered by ABC Office Supplies, they phone and ask for a product catalogue.
The first scenario is heavily “push”. The brochure given to every one is 8 pages long, focusing on a few products and specials. This is because ABC Office Supplies (the provider) has taken the initiative.
The second scenario is heavily “pull”. The product catalogue sent to the client is 200 pages long. The client has taken the initiative.
In our next post we’ll look at push v pull on some popular sites.
