What's going wrong here?
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2025 9:06 am
The behavior of website visitors is also usually automatic (but fortunately usually less aggressive). Automatic behavior is useful: it saves cognitive energy and helps you quickly reach your goal. The banana functions as a key stimulus: click! Before you know it, your visitor does exactly what you want (Cialdini, 2009). Nationaleapotheek.nl (see image 2) did not understand that very well. Do you know where to click?
Suppose you land on this page. With your mouse at the ready, you want to click through as quickly as possible. Preferably within a few seconds. That is not possible here: there is no banana. There are some buttons, but they are all the same size and they have almost the same color as the background. It is not clear which button is the most important. In fact, the pictures of the nicotine patches and the contraceptive pill stand out the most. A missed opportunity.
How should it be done then?
Glamourdate-elite.nl has already understood it a little better. There, a large brother cell phone list blue button with 'register now' demands your attention (see image below). This is because the colour and dimensions differ from all other elements on the website. The site even meets a second requirement of Van Erkel: there is a click magnet ('direct'). And you could conclude from this that the call to action also meets the need of 'losing as little time as possible'. Yet there is something wrong with this banana: it is at the bottom of the page. It does not stand out when you land on the page: you have to scroll down first. That takes time. And effort.
Suppose you land on this page. With your mouse at the ready, you want to click through as quickly as possible. Preferably within a few seconds. That is not possible here: there is no banana. There are some buttons, but they are all the same size and they have almost the same color as the background. It is not clear which button is the most important. In fact, the pictures of the nicotine patches and the contraceptive pill stand out the most. A missed opportunity.
How should it be done then?
Glamourdate-elite.nl has already understood it a little better. There, a large brother cell phone list blue button with 'register now' demands your attention (see image below). This is because the colour and dimensions differ from all other elements on the website. The site even meets a second requirement of Van Erkel: there is a click magnet ('direct'). And you could conclude from this that the call to action also meets the need of 'losing as little time as possible'. Yet there is something wrong with this banana: it is at the bottom of the page. It does not stand out when you land on the page: you have to scroll down first. That takes time. And effort.