Interaction Design 1.0
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Designing for Interaction
(this article is in process....)
When a visitor comes to a website, they tend to have one of two primary mental models: Seeking, and Discovery. If a user is looking for a particular piece of information, content, etc., and they more or less know what they're looking for, they are Seekers.
On the other hand, if the visitor comes to a site in a more general way, perhaps tripping from a blog to a site mentioned, then on that site they see a new product announcement, which takes them to another site where they see a link to Digg, and then before you know it the room is dark and the cat is staring at you... That's probably a Discoverer.
When designing web interaction we try to address the flows and calls to action (CTA's) that support the behaviours of one or the other of these use types. In many cases it's a result of the client and the workflow, and may even be driven by personas and audience segmentation.
If I know I'm designing a site whose primary function is to get users to download a 30 trial of a software product, then I can begin by addressing the mental model of the Seeker who comes in looking for some pretty specific information; general specifications and overview, features, fit for purpose information, etc. In this scenario I know how to line up these CTA's to tell a compelling story that leads to the obvious action of downloading the product. It is a mental model that all of us share, to a large extent.
On the other hand, serving the Discoverer is a little less obvious. From the mental model perspective we're toast. We can't tell if the user is interested in learning more about a product, or a service, maybe they are checking features, and maybe they just happened to stumble on your site because of a search result. In fact, we're not even sure if the user is a Seeker, and maybe just a little off track.
Designing good interaction is about anticipating what the visitor is likely to want, and then making an action for that want both obvious and intuitive.