Essential
Many interactive websites, such as community sites, can only function by allowing people to add information. Members must be able to add and share messages. There have to be rules to determine who can see what information and what they are allowed to do.
As well as websites where interactivity is a fundamental requirement, there are times when it offers subtler benefits.
Commitment
Adding interactivity changes how people feel about a website. Instead of just being an anonymous visitor casually surfing around, they provide some data — typically an account profile. The more information they provide through preferences or usage, the better experience they receive.
Just by having decided to invest a small amount of their time and privacy, they have made a “micro commitment” to trust you. And psychological studies show that they are now far more likely to return and recommend your website.
Personalisation
The more you know about each person, the better you can help them. You can intelligently provide information, products, or advertisements that are more relevant to them. This is a win-win. Your users see things they are more likely to want and you do more business.
You can also apply this to your marketing programs. For example, Twitter sends emails to users with personalized recommendations of who to follow. Twitter can only do this because they get your email address and analyze the types of people you follow. Users benefit so long as the recommendations really are relevant and Twitter benefits by getting people to keep using their service.
Learning
One of the most important benefits that is often overlooked is how you can use the data your website captures to inform your decision-making. By analysing your data you can see if certain types of people use your website in different ways. You can test new ideas on a subset of users and measure how well those ideas work.
Data collected by an interactive website is far more useful than traditional marketing research. It is more reliable as the data is what people are actually doing, not what they say they will do.
Fun
Whether people use your website as a business professional, as a consumer, or personally — adding interactivity makes it more useful, more enjoyable, and more memorable. Interactivity helps your website stand out from the crowd — impressing and engaging visitors.
Source: Dsc
