5 interactive principles you need to master for event operations!

This article combines nearly a hundred case studies and extensive interactive professional knowledge research, integration, and refinement to provide the five basic UI principles that event operations need to master. Enjoy~

First of all, interaction planning sounds like a very complicated job. In fact, there are indeed many professional methodologies and sub-research fields in the field of interaction planning. However, the research on interaction planning is ultimately to cooperate with copywriting planning to achieve three levels of user experience effects, namely:

1. Deliver information accurately and effectively
2. Influencing users to perform certain operations
3. Let users spread the word

Of course, these three levels of effects can only be achieved in conjunction with the actual product experience and product value, but the role of copywriting and UI planning in the realization of these three effects is like the foundation of a house, providing solid support for the conversion of actual content. The more effective the copywriting and interactive planning, the more the content experience and value can be magnified.

After understanding the above concepts, let’s return to the scope of event operations . For example, in copywriting planning logic, we first start with the basic and effective transmission of information, and understand how to accurately and effectively convey the product experience and value, which is the process from 50% to 100%. This is the most basic and necessary prerequisite for UI planning capabilities. Based on the content of this part, we will explore the last two stages from 100% to 120% or even 1000% from another perspective.

“There was no interaction in the world originally, but it emerged as people used it.”

——Li Bai

UI: user interface (human-computer interaction interface design, in order to avoid being dissed, I will complete the concept here. UI refers to the user interface in general. At present, we call the beautiful interface style UI Design (that is, the visual you are familiar with, UI is more platform visual design) Interaction design is called Interaction Design, or UX (user experience user experience design). Human-computer interaction is generally HIC (Human Centre Interaction or Human-Computer Interaction)).

What is interactive interface design? It’s about how to interact with something correctly and effectively.

There is no right or wrong in the form of interaction. However, one day the first person who invented the screw designed it to rotate clockwise, and everyone found it convenient to use. Over time, all people and all spiral products followed this process, and the counterclockwise rotating spiral bottle cap became a weird and wrong form of interaction.

This is the essence of interaction, basically correct and good interactive experience combined with habits formed over a long period of time and broad consensus.

Therefore, interaction planning ability is about the use of existing interaction principles and experience. Of course, there are different levels of interpretation and depth of understanding of principles and experience. The deeper your understanding, the more easily you can use interaction principles to create a variety of excellent experiences.

Of course, you can also create and cultivate your users' habits in a new and unprecedented form of interaction to help you form product features or user conversion usage habits. However, such advanced and cool operations are generally only attempted when the product itself is valuable enough or when the product has a monopoly advantage in terms of user scale (some products that do not have these two advantages are also trying it, perhaps because the interaction engineers are stuck).

For example, on WeChat and Apple’s products, you can see many unique interactive experiences that competitors can only imitate or accept the cost of user habit transfer.

Having strayed off topic, let’s get back to the scope of event operations. Let’s lay the foundation first. Learning the basic UI principles is enough for you to convey 100% of the product experience and value. Based on this, those who are interested in this field can continue to conduct in-depth research. At once

Combining nearly a hundred case studies and extensive interactive expertise research, integration, and refinement, we provide the five basic UI principles that you need to master most for event operations. By understanding and using these five principles to check the pages you plan in real time, you can basically achieve the first-level goal of effectively and clearly conveying information.

3W Principle

What/where/how, why do these three Ws always appear in various problem analysis principles and logical organization frameworks? Because people are thinking about these three questions all the time. When the answers to these three questions are clear, people will feel comfortable and at ease; otherwise, they will feel uneasy and want to change the status quo.

Therefore, the first principle that excellent interaction design needs to follow, which is also the part that many interaction designers tend to ignore, is to always make your users aware of the 3Ws of the page they are on:

1. What is the page I am on now?
2. Where is the page I am currently on in the entire browsing 'map'?
3. How should I do this to achieve my goal?

Observe and analyze extensively how excellent products and special planning achieve 3W on each page.

For example:

1. what: The common search box style lets me know that I can search here;
2. where: The search path table allows me to easily search back and forth between pages at all levels;
3. How: The direct and clear button form and guiding copy let me know that I can achieve my goal by clicking it.

Collect and record the most common rather than the most gorgeous ways, combine them reasonably, and use the 3W principle to check whether your page is missing necessary elements. This is the basis for making users willing to stay and complete the operation.

It should be noted that the three questions are not all delivered directly to users in the form of straightforward interactive elements or text. As long as they are in a common form that users are accustomed to, they are all acceptable. For example: even if there are two long boxes above and below without any text, most users will know that the upper one is the account input box and the lower one is the password input box.

Use it flexibly, don't apply it rigidly.

Principle of consistency of expectations

The action button that guides users to the next page must be echoed by the highest-priority content of the next page, no matter how low its priority is on the current page. This way, users will have the first impression that they have done the right thing. Otherwise, users will be confused. Simply put, you clicked on a text link of 'View the home branch', and the first priority content of the next page must let me know that I have indeed entered the page of the home branch.

This may sound like nonsense, but looking back at the counterexamples given in copywriting planning, there are actually too many projects that ignore this point. During the planning process, we often only consider the jump logic between pages. It seems that as long as the user successfully clicks the button, he will definitely stay on the next page. Therefore, a large number of bad cases use deceptive and stimulating copywriting to guide users to click on the previous level, and then use other content to follow up on the next page.

Browsing that does not meet expectations of continuity is very painful, like failed attempts again and again. When the frustration reaches the limit of tolerance, no matter how valuable your product is, users will run away. Of course, there will be some more patient users who will stay and spend a huge amount of money to try again and again. Then these users often have a mentality that since they have spent so much energy, their expectations of achieving their goals will be higher.

Therefore, these users who stay often show high conversion rate data results in the first attempt, and unless you spend real money, they will not want to try it a second time.

This is why many bad campaigns start out with good conversion numbers, but then the numbers get lower and lower. Beware of this trap.

Single-threaded operation principle

The task that event operators often face is to allow users to achieve a main goal (complete a purchase, become a fan, or initiate dissemination, etc.) through a special page, with at most 1-2 secondary tasks attached. If there are more, it means that this is not a problem that can be solved by a special event, and it needs to rely on a more complex column format to solve it. This involves more professional and detailed interaction planning, which should be handed over to the cooperating product manager to complete this task.

When it comes to the topic page area of ​​event operation, the problem is simpler. The optimal path for users to achieve their goals eliminates complex navigation and retrieval settings and does not consider multi-level information organization. The task is simplified to the simplest problem - how to improve the conversion efficiency of users as they move down the levels?

Of course, the degree to which your final content appeals to users is the factor that essentially determines their patience (if it is a task to receive 100 yuan in cash, you can use the worst interaction in the world and that’s totally fine), so how to avoid user bounces through simple interaction principles under a given content attractiveness is a topic we need to discuss.

First of all, we need to face a reality: in the wireless era, the risk of users dropping out has greatly increased. The logic of newly opened pages in the PC era allows you to allow users to make incorrect operations without restraint. As long as it is a newly opened window, users can always find the previous level page marked with the operation status.

However, the wireless pages are covered step by step, and a large number of devices or browsers cannot handle the relationship between swiping right and closing (even the experience here on WeChat is very bad). Every time a user jumps incorrectly, there is a great risk of loss, so every key click of the user must be treated with caution, as if the user has no possibility of returning.

One of the most effective ways to deal with this is to try to make your task completion path single-threaded: the experience of clicking all the way to the bottom and sliding all the way to the bottom is the most comfortable interactive experience on the wireless terminal.

Try to avoid using any interactive forms that disrupt the user's single-threaded operation. The following are some common ones:

1. For tasks that multiple users need to complete, try to connect them linearly instead of letting users choose from the beginning. For example, purchase operations and store follow operations are generally guided after users complete the purchase instead of giving users two buttons at the beginning. (Pay attention to the wireless versions of many e-commerce websites now that the parallel settings of Add to Cart and Buy Now have been cancelled. Most of them reserve a main button based on category attributes or promotion status.)
2. The click loss rate of navigation switching is 1.5-2 times that of the click loss rate of placing them in sequence all the way down. Of course, this gap will gradually disappear after long-term user habits are formed in the columns of fixed operations. However, for short-term activity pages, it is difficult for users to be motivated to understand too many parallel concepts and make correct choices in the first place. The above is the result of a large number of actual case tests.
3. When an abnormal flow occurs (such as a prompt box indicating that the coupon has been issued), do not rely on the user to go back on their own. Use an obvious button (go back to view the product) to string the user's abnormal flow back to a single-line operation.

In more cases, you can draw inferences and verify according to this principle.

Three-tier priority principle

I’m always told that there’s too much content on a diss page and it’s painful for users to read. How do I judge and organize the amount of content appropriately? Simply put, three layers is a good standard.

Each page should have one main piece of information, one secondary piece of information, and one supplementary piece of information (note that the action button is also information). Try to eliminate redundant information as much as possible. If there is essential information that cannot be eliminated, use the single-line operation principle to connect it to the next link.

The common application of the three-level priority of the first screen information in special activities is as introduced in the copywriting part: Tell me where I am (main title ) in order? Why did I stay (main gimmick)? What can I do (operation guide)?

Then each subsequent level of information organization follows the above principles: the three elements of the product module are name, price, and operation button; the three elements of product selling points under the product module.

Many interactive methodologies are still teaching people the 7+-2 principle of human memory developed by a memory master named George Miller, which means that the concepts that people can remember at the same time are within the range of 5-9. However, remembering is an active behavior. Don’t expect users to actively remember your content on a short-term special page, so treat it with caution.

But why three? A large number of mainstream interactive interface experiences have three main elements and three-layer logic that unfolds step by step. Take a look at the app interface of the app store: app name, main selling point, download button. Rating interface: review title, star, and review body. Over time, as users develop reading habits for these three elements, they become established interaction principles.

But it is not so rigid. If you really need to add a risk avoidance message (coupons will be issued while stocks last), adding a note in a weakened tiny font will not be a problem.

The principle of habitual application

According to the principle of the birth of interaction, we know that the essence of interaction is the established habits formed by users. Therefore, the last interaction principle that must be followed is to avoid creating new interactive experiences as much as possible, and try to use the most common interaction forms in the industry rather than the coolest interaction forms, unless coolness is your goal rather than conversion.

This principle can also be applied in a higher-level form, which is to expand the existing interactive references from online experiences to all things that interact with people. As long as the interactive operations are generally recognized and accustomed to by the public, you can refer to them.

For example: many event operators have experience in planning interactive games . Of course, copying the interactive game model that everyone is familiar with is the safest method. However, if you want to make some innovations in the interactive experience, it is recommended that you learn from the existing offline game experience rather than creating a completely new interactive operation on your own.

An interactive game that requires a floating layer and a bunch of arrow text to guide you on how to operate is very irresistible. If your interactive game is completely based on offline claw machines, the remote sensing and grabbing buttons on the page do not require any explanation from you, and users will know how to operate as soon as they enter the page.

Similarly, I know I can shake a bottle of Coke, I know I can pinch the handles of a pair of scissors, and I know I can pop a balloon.

By learning from this, you can create interesting yet effective forms of interaction.

An effective technique

The PC era has inherited a lot of interactive experience, and of course most of it is effective. After all, users have formed habits after so many years of training. But always think about one thing: users are now clicking with their fingers instead of using a mouse, and you will find a lot of interaction points that can be optimized.

For example: round buttons are more in line with the shape of users' fingers, and square buttons are more in the form of mouse clicks. In the key click guidance link, using a large, three-dimensional, click-feeling round button will definitely give users a greater desire to click than a regular square button.

I don't even need to take screenshots to give examples, just imagine it yourself.

Of course, the above interaction principles are not all, but as long as you can always use them, learn from them, complete the common tasks of event operations, achieve the purpose of accurately delivering information, and reduce bounces, it is completely sufficient. If you still want to move on to the next two stages and become a more professional UI master, you can do two things:

1. Learn more professional interaction knowledge, collect a large number of effective interaction cases, and use practice to consolidate your own interaction methodology and interaction prototype library.
2. We will discuss this later on how to improve user insight and cultivate sensitivity in copywriting and interaction.

Source: SKY#沙璇皓 (ID: skyhahalife)