Great point!

The complexity of the item you are buying plays a very important role. The question is what gap can the web site fill to help progress the sale? There are certain items where *some research* can be conducted using a web site, but … to really close the deal you may need to speak to a person in person or over the phone, look at a product with your own eyes and sometimes even touch the product (something the web has not be able to replace just yet

I would assume that technically oriented people have a tendency to better understand how certain aspects of a website “work”. For example, they might use different searching techniques than non-techincal people (like binary operators or shorter phrases).

I wouldn’t make those assumptions at all. I’ve watched programmers who struggle with boolean search queries, and they theoretically work with boolean operators all the time.

Also, when it comes to the navigation of a website, they may be able to identify more clearly where the global/sub-category navigations reside on a site and how breadcrumbs work, much quicker than someone who hasnt seen a particular type of navigation.

Again, that’s not an assumption I’d make. We’ve see lots of evidence that people with more web/online/technical experience struggle just as much as people without that experience.

As Carolyn Snyder likes to say, “A poor design will always trump technical experience.” Poorly designed sites will stump the most experienced users. A well designed site will work no matter the users’ experience. So, it’s more a function of design than experience.

Of course, you need to test your site with people using it. Then you’ll know how to divide up the users. And I’d be willing to bet that technical savvyness plays very little into how people use your site.

Also, when it comes to the navigation of a website, they may be able to identify more clearly where the global/sub-category navigations reside on a site and how breadcrumbs work, much quicker than someone who hasnt seen a particular type of navigation.

So, to rephrase my question a bit: Are there studies/research on different types of users interacting with various types of websites. Maybe users can be broken down into groups such as: Technical, “New To the Internet”, Business Savvy, etc.

Thanks for the replies,
-=Vince

I think it’s a misrepresentation to say that one design is more b2b than another. In the CareerBuilder design from the study, it just says that more details and text helps users. To say that more detail makes it more B2B seems silly to me.

People want more detail, especially on home pages. This is something we’ve been saying for a while.

Hmmm….most of the time I pretty much agree, and certainly, from a designers & developers perspective and a usability perspective, I can see where you are coming from. But…….

Marketing Sherpa just had a pretty good case study about business to business a/b test on an offer –the orginal page was, dare I say it, more consumery less text, nice use of graphics — very easy to understand was tested against a version that had longer text, was more business to business oriented.

And the longer text, more what one would seemingly say more business to businessy won, conversions were higher.

Now, this is what blogs are all about, and we can engage in much banter, link baiting, etc, I am just sharing with you what I have read. Now, in terms of the testing I have done on sites over the course of my career, there is a difference……Let the link building begin!! hope you are well.

Best Regards,

Mary Kay Lofurno