How you can help your users get to where they want to go by making it abundantly clear what they should be doing.

Overview

Virtually every aspect of what we do as UI/UXers is to help create experiences that make doing whatever it is that our users are attempting to do more doable.

Today, I want to show you how you can leverage The Law of Conveyance to help your users get to where they want to go by making it abundantly clear what they should be doing.

The whole point of UX

After over a decade of experience, I can tell you that UX is essentially one thing, and one thing only: expectations vs outcomes.

→ That’s it.

If a user expects garbage but gets a Rolls Royce, they’re gonna be pretty happy about it.

Similarly, if a user expects a Rolls Royce (even unfairly or unreasonably) and gets above average (but not a Rolls Royce) they’re not gonna be satisfied.

The whole point of UX is to understand current expectations vs outcomes, and to design a process by which a person can exceed these expectations by out-performing their previous outcomes in terms of emotional, utility, and convenience values.

The Law of Conveyance

I’m like 99.99% sure this has been said somewhere in some form by someone far more talented and more experienced than myself but just in case, this is what I call the Law of Conveyance:

To help your users get to where they want to go, you need to make it abundantly clear what they need to be doing at every step in the process.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-shocked-woman-with-brown-curly-hair-3764392/

This sounds simple but in reality, it can take some doing. Regardless of what form it takes in the case of your project, you must always do your best to show and tell the user exactly what they should be doing to get to their desired results at all times.

Bad conveyance = bad engagement

Let’s get down to brass tacks here: if your users have no idea what to do, or where to go next, they’re gonna drop your product like a hot rock and rightfully so.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-sitting-in-front-of-the-laptop-computer-in-shallow-photo-133021/

You need to be explicit, like sign-post, neon-lights, arrow-pointingly with semantic markup and aria-labeling obvious, as to what your user needs to do step-for-step.

Don’t overcomplicate this, but remember that all good UX is an abstraction that allows your user to get from where they are to where they want to be as quickly, pleasurably, and seamlessly as possible.

Some methods to increase conveyance

Here are a few ways that you can practically increase the conveyance of your designs to ensure your users know what to do:

• Visually highlight the next step they should take with color, size, and/or style. Make it stand out somehow from the rest of the page.
• Use supporting text to assist the user in moving down the correct path, and to help them understand any points that may be vague or questionable.
• Use interaction patterns that the user is already familiar with in apps that they more than likely already use (see Jakob’s Law; YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, etc.)
• Maintain good visual/information hierarchy so that your content is scannable, with nothing else is directly competing for your users’ attention to the best of your ability. This can be in the form of typography, color, styles, and/or positioning of elements.