Time Poor or Time Rich?

Liew says that “Time Poor” users are people who use the Internet get things done. They search, they use sites like Froogle to compare prices when they’re buying something, and use social news websites like digg to filter news that interests them. In contrast, “Time Rich” users use the web to kill time and are interested in broad-based social networking sites like MySpace, social shopping sites like stylehive, sports sites, and anything video-related.

It’s important to be sure you understand your visitors before you design or build a site. “Time Poor” visitors want to minmize their time on a site and the pages they visit. “Time Rich” visitors like options:

If you’re building a website for the Time Rich, your focus should be to give them options to explore. Links density is the name of the game – more links means more clicks. Suggest a next click at any natural pause point, and keep people clicking within your site. Stimulate communication and community – it keeps people engaged and coming back. Give people reasons to bookmark you and come back often with fresh content and evergreen favorites.

I’d argue that many visitors to a college or university website are both “Time Poor” and “Time Rich” depending on a number of factors. For prospective students, it’s the stage of their search/choice process. For alumni, it’s how affiliated they feel already and what they’re looking for. Of course, for any visitor it’s about relevance. As Liew points out, if you aren’t relevant or if you’re just doing something to benefit you (like increasing page views to keep them on the site), they’ll soon wise up and go elsewhere.

But I find this view of visitors and their needs to be interesting and on point. See our thoughts on the shopping effect.