Marketing With Mental Models

Dr. Jakob Nielsen

When you think “sexy” you probably don’t think “Jackob Nielsen.”  He is, however, the dreamy human-computer interface guru who has been studying web usability since before it was, well, sexy.  But can we use his seductive statistics to arouse a user’s desires to click an ad?

Dr. Nielsen argues that users bring with them certain “mental models” about how they expect to interact with a web site.  Navigation is at the top or the side, links are underlined, and your contact information is available at the bottom.

Because everyone has done it that way since the advent of the internet, you must do it that way, or you will break users’ mental models and they won’t know how to use your site (which is not at all sexy).

Capitalizing on Local Mental Models

Take a step back from usability at large and focus on your own web site.  How do users interact?  Let’s consider two web sites: Google and Digg.

Google looks a lot like Dr. Nielsen’s web site: a certain pre-sexy-graphics utilitarian efficiency roughly akin to a fanny pack (useful but not very sexy… maybe in the ’80s).  Google users expect to type a word or phrase into the box, click the button and have several text-links presented to them which are relevant to the topic.

Now let’s consider how Google ads works.  Several text-links are presented which are relevant to the topic.  This is consistent with users’ mental models of how they expect to interact with Google.

One step further, Google ads look like Google search results.  Users expect results in a certain format, and Google doesn’t deviate from this format for advertisements.  To Nielsen,  Google users have mental models about how they expect to interact with Google.  The ads do not violate these mental models.  Users feel less “advertised to” and more like they were provided the service for which they came in the first place.

It’s taken a long time to duplicate, but finally other web sites are starting to realize the value in this.  Digg has begun inserting advertisements which take the format of every other link on Digg.  The “What to do if your accelerator pedal sticks” link is a paid advertisement from Toyota.

TechCrunch recently reported that Digg ad revenue is finally supporting their cost of operation.  This is because Digg finally supported users mental models of web site interaction.

How to Capitalize

Make your ads look like your content.  Focus on ensuring your advertising is throughly consistent with how your users are interacting with your web site.  Image advertising isn’t dead, it simply isn’t interactive.  People still see the Malibu ad on Digg, they’re just more likely to click on the Toyota ad.  The Toyota ad doesn’t sell them something.  It gives them more information, which is consistent with the reason they came to Digg in the first place.

Sexy Summary

• Mental Models describe how users expect to interact with your web site
• Advertising must be consistent with mental models to facilitate interaction
• Jackob Nielsen is a data dreamboat