Are You Opting-In Above the Fold?
Tamar Weinberg over at Techipedia posted an interesting question, “Should the Subscribe Button be Above the Fold?” In her post she asks two important questions:
“I am curious to know whether the placement of the “subscribe” button on the top of the page has actually yielded more conversions than if it was in the middle of the page. I’d also be curious to know whether people fall victim to searching in the wrong textbox or if I am the only zombie to do such a silly thing.”
Email Subscription (Opt-In) Above the Fold
I would argue that there is enough room above the fold to give proper attention to both a search box and an email subscription opt-in. Screen resolutions are going up and users are getting bigger monitors. Web designers are getting more work space. At the same time, just because there is more room doesn’t mean you need to abuse it. Don’t forget about the importance of white space.
Subscription Placement
In terms of placement of a subscription box, I’ve read several recommendations on placing the subscription box into the upper right corner above the fold. Offer the user good information and try to tempt them with great information. From a usability standpoint one could argue that an opt-in box isn’t supporting good usability. The Internet Marketer would probably take the stand that people who aren’t interested in additional information won’t enter an email address. I’m torn between usability and marketing in this case.
There are a number of web sites that make use of adding a subscription text link to the end of each post. If the author delivers quality content to the user, the web site owner might be more successful with asking for personal information after a good post.
Confusing Search and Subscription Boxes
Though I can’t recall falling victim to filling in a subscribe box with a search query it does bring up an interesting point. The question should force any web designer to carefully think out the placement and presentation of search and subscription entry boxes. Make sure your user won’t get confused by either selection. Sometimes it's easy to take such simple things for granted.
Want to get more great info? Check out the articles below:
- What is Web Usability? And Why You Should Care . . .
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- Hitting a HOME RUN with Your Web Site
- Don’t Pollute Your Web Site
- Do You Make These Usability Mistakes?
- Objectivity Paves the Way to Online Success
- LCU (Least Competent User) Usability Testing
- Web Usability - ALERT! Dominant Users and Focus Groups
- The Event Promotion System
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