It’s about time...

Time is the most precious of all commodities.

Life feels like it is continually speeding up. We seemingly have less and less time and working hours are being stretched so we are consuming more and more personal time. The mobile phone, and endless devices we own, mean we are always on and always contactable.

Brands, and platforms in particular, are constantly outbidding each other and vying for our attention.

At Clock, we value time more than others, it’s in our name after all! Because we value time so much, by proxy we place it high on the value system of our end-users. For every platform that we make for our clients, be it a website or a mobile app - we ask ourselves a simple question:

Does this page value the users time?

If we value the attention of the user and ensure that each page is well structured, is informative, is succinct and gives them the correct CTAs (Call To Action) in the right place and at the right time, then we have done our job well; ensuring time spent on our clients’ websites is valued and respected.

Of course there are exceptions to the rule, such as exploratory sites, games, and entertainment which users enjoy using their time on.

For the vast majority of sites (that sit outside of the above edge-case rule) it is important to respect the user, to give them what they need, as efficiently and intuitively as the site can.

Some of the key metrics you can look at when thinking about your users' time are:

• Bounce rate (high is not necessarily bad if the user got what they needed from the page)
• Dwell time (was this inefficient time or intended? context about the site/page is all important here)
• Behaviour flow (are there unnecessary journeys people are taking through your site?)
• Look for dead-end pages... pages that have no key links or recommendations at the end. This could leave the user unclear as to what to do next.

And here are a few tips and tricks to improve your site:

• Conduct a user-survey by getting users to complete a specific task on the site and asking them how they found the experience and how long it took.
• Use a User Testing platform (like UserTesting.com) and get videos from your users, to see how they navigate the site.
• Give your colleagues a task to perform and time them.
• Try a colourblind filter (like https://www.toptal.com/designers/colorfilter/) and see if your site is easy to use for the visually impaired.
• Add a 'rate this page', or 'did we answer your question' section at the bottom of the page, with inputs for users to feedback.
• Set up tracking events and look for drop-offs and completion rates.
• Use Google Lighthouse (or similar) and check your site's loading speed and 'first meaningful paint' time.
  

If you'd like help with your website, or would like Clock to check the performance of your site, please email us at hello@clock.co.uk