Your website creates an experience for your users. That experience will vary widely depending on the purpose of your site: it may be the experience of instantly finding high quality research; it may be the experience of booking a dream vacation, with all the emotional underpinnings; or it might be the experience of finding out why one digital camera is more suitable than another. No matter the details, a successful user interaction with your website – finding the right document, completing a booking, understanding a product offering – is highly dependent upon a seamless user experience.

What does seamless mean? Users shouldn’t experience anything on your site that breaks the flow of their experience. What types of mistakes reveal the seams of your website? It depends on the user, and each user is different. Overly complex forms, spelling mistakes, internal terminology, navigation that disappears, broken links, missing images, meaningless error messages. Sometimes the seams are more subtle: inappropriate tone, too many search results, too much fluff.

How do you find the seams? User testing.
Find 5 people (preferably in your target audience) to test your site. Ask them to use your site, watch them, and listen to them. You’ll start to find the seams. But, be aware that this is an ongoing process. As you fix your site, add new features, and rewrite your content, you’ll need to test and retest.

A real world example?

This is a photo of crepe shop that I pass several times per week. I love crepes, but I’ve never bought one here:
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Every time I walk by their front door, I’m reminded that they use instant mix to make their crepes. What comes to mind? I could do that at home, why should I buy a crepe here? So, I just keep walking.

What’s really interesting – there’s a cheap and simple fix: put the mix in a canister. And you know what, I wouldn’t be surprised if the shop where I do occasionally buy a crepe uses the same mix. The difference? They don’t remind me of that fact when I walk in their front door. In fact, they never remind me.

The lesson: if users are made aware of the mechanics of the experience, the experience is broken, and the effectiveness of your site suffers.