Website Customisation: Our Three Top Tips for Success

When it comes to delivering dynamic, relevant content to your website's visitors, two aspects are key: customisation and perso­nali­sation. Though on the surface these two aspects may seem to be the same thing, they are in fact very different. Here we look at customisation and offer some tips for making it successful.

Website customisation options allow the visitor to set preferences within a system, giving them increased control of their experience. Parameters such as type of content, layout style and design options can be set by the user, making the website more appealing in both appearance and functionality. As customisation requires active input from the user (as opposed to perso­nali­sation), the payoff needs to be adequate enough to promote engagement.

Successful customisation relies on a number of factors but here are three general tips:

• Clearly offer customisation options. If users either aren't aware of customisation options, find them difficult to use or simply cannot find them, the options are of little use. Links to customisation features should be placed close to the content they relate to and should be clearly explained.
• Layer up customisation features. A set of features that is too rich can be overwhelming so reducing complexity aids success. Progressive disclosure is an especially-successful technique, which involves showing users only the most useful and popular features, with secondary options deferred to another screen.
• Don't rely solely on customisation. No matter how simple to use, the fact remains that many users will not want to bother with the extra work of using customisation options. This means that you cannot depend on customisation alone to deliver a positive user experience. The generic experience, free of any customisation, must stand alone as strong enough to deliver a compelling experience to the user. After all, if the initial, non-customised website is not good enough, few users will stick around long enough to access the customisation options.

Our blog article next week will look at personalisation so make sure you're subscribed to receive our feature-packed newsletter!