Adding explanations onto your website, applications and other digital products has the ability to improve your customers experience of your product. This is how.
What are explanations?
Before I move onto definitions, you should understand that explanations are not just used by Google, and Netflix to improve the way a customer experiences their products, but rather, explanations also affect the way you make sense of the world on a daily basis. In this post, I discuss how understanding the human brain can make it easier for you to tailor your offerings to satisfy human needs.
For a more relatable example of explanations, think of the irritation you’ve felt while stuck in slow moving traffic. You frustratedly realise that you’re probably the only one trying to get somewhere – quickly. But, also, how quickly your feelings change from irritation to understanding as soon as you realise that someone has been injured in a car accident, which is why the traffic is moving slowly.
Your change of attitude is not as a result of any changed circumstances, but rather as a result of your changed understanding. You understand why the traffic is moving slowing.
That’s the power of explanations.
It’s this same idea that makes you impatient with one website after receiving an error message, but patient with another company’s website.
Explanations, in this context, refer to any communication type with the intention of helping someone understand a circumstance better, to lead them to a specific action (e.g purchase a product, or stay longer on your website).
So, when looking at data driven outcomes, eXplainable Artificial Intelligence is an example of how explanations are used to help customers and data scientists understand how specific algorithm outputs were reached (e.g why did I get this movie recommendation).
Whereas, in a context of a private policies page, it is the methods used on the website to help the customer understand the policies better, and consequently leads them to accepting the policies.
How explanations enhance customer satisfaction
Having an explanatory error message for a user struggling to load your webpage where you provide suggestions on how their problem can be solved (e.g try to reload your webpage, or use our alternative webpage), rather than a 1 -line 404 message (e.g there seems to be an error), empowers your customers to understand better.
Here are some of the ways explanations can enhance your users, and customers, experience:
Helps the user understand
As can be seen in the example above, explaining to the user how they can solve their problem enables them to understand what has gone wrong.
Empowers the user
When the user understands what has happened, it gives them the power to choose their future actions. Control is one of the 10 Heuristics Nielson Norman Group state as necessary to ensure a good user experience.
Leads to the users satisfaction
These 2 factors have the ability to improve the user experience, which set the difference between a pleasant vs. an unpleasant digital product.
Conclusion
Explanatory texts, figures and audios have the ability to improve your users experience of your website, application, etc, by enabling your customer to understand better (e.g what they are pressing incorrectly on a website), empowering them to make a better choice in the future.
