How your website can effectively communicate with different personality types

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:07:02 GMT

Appeal to your users different learning styles

Imagine yourself in another country where you didn’t speak the language, and nobody cared. That is what we are all guilty of on our websites my friends. Simply put, every one of us no matter what mother tongue we were born with learns with the four basic approaches in life. This is what I call my new friend KVAD and in this post you will learn how to make your website effectively communicate with these differing learning styles.

 

• Kinesthetic
• Visual
• Auditory
• Digital

 

Now you might remember these little beauties from school, unless your teachers weren’t as cool as mine. None the less I will recap an entire book I read called “Law of Connection” by Michael Losier (great book by the way) for you in a matter of seconds.

 

Web site user personalities described

Kinesthetic learners are often considered the “feelers” in a group. They will most often use sayings such as “I’m not comfortable with this” or “I haven’t grasped that yet” ect.

 

Visual learners are seen (lol see what I just did), anyway back on track. Visual learners are the ones who will say similar expressions to these; “I see what you mean” or “I have a clear picture of what I want”.

 

Auditory learners are the listeners and story lovers. They will express themselves with sentences that involve sound related terms. For example; “Tell me all about it” or “I want you to listen to me”.

 

Digital learners are the logic base types, who can be commonly heard asking or saying; “I need the details” or “Prove it with facts”.

 

We may think we know people who sound reminiscent of one or more of these categories, but keep in mind that we all present traits from each of these styles, just to a greater or lesser degree. You can also check out plenty of websites that will go more in depth on this subject.

 

So moving forward.

 

How can you make sure your website appeals to each one of these personalities? Simple. Chose one thing that will satisfy each group. Hummm can you think of anything that might appeal to a visual style personality? Well that might be too obvious…let’s give you something harder, I have a feeling that you can take it. What ways can you appeal to a Digital style personality? I’ll give you a second.

 

Here is an easy list of things that you can implement on your own website right away to make as many people happy, while navigating your (hopefully amazing since you used Serious Monkey) website. I am referring to the personality types as “Users” as it will be easier to adapt an understanding to what is known as the “User Experience” in website creation.

 

Appealing to Different User Personality Types

Visual user paersonalities are the types that love pictures. Use quality imagery but try not to use the over saturated Stock Photography (we are all tired of seeing it, trust me).

 

Auditory users love to read stories. Funny thing is, this is because they will read it in their head and it will sound just as if they are saying it in their own voice (which they love hearing by the way. I’m guilty lol).

 

Kinesthetic users really want to build a strong connection with others, so offer them a “leave a comment” section. Kind of like the one below this blog (fishing for you kinesthetic users to interact).

 

Digital users love by-passing long winded stories and getting right to the point (oops maybe I should have put them at the top of this list). Try and offer them a clear FAQ section and support your arguments with facts and figures.

 

Conclusion

Now that you have the building blocks to really get your users engaged in your website without excluding any personality types, try and use what you’ve just learned in your everyday life. At work see if you can pick out what style people are and remember that KVAD is a great friend who loves to be talked about.

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