Ever try to have a conversation with someone that has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)?

Some tell me that I exhibit some of the tell-tale signs.  I know my father does.  My family jokes with him about it all the time.  A couple of years ago, we bought him one of the famous t-shirts, “I don’t have ADD. I’m just….Oh, look! A chicken!”

Joking or not, that’s sometimes what it’s like talking to him.  If you aren’t engaging him with something interesting or meaningful, the attention goes out the window.  If I’m ever having trouble putting together part of a website, I just think of him, and I usually figure it right out.

If you think you don’t know someone with ADD, guess who does? Your customers. The people you are trying to reach.

Here are a few simple tips to work with the web’s short attention span:

• Follow Steve Krug’s advice laid out in ‘Don’t Make Me Think‘.  Make it immediately clear what you do
• Format your text appropriately.  Use headings and blocks of text to break up information into parts that are easy to scan.
• Have clear calls to action.  Make it easy for people to do what you want them to do!  Join a list, download a PDF, or calling your business all fit the bill.
• Speak to people, don’t shout at them. We’re all SICK and TIRED of the bullhorn tactics (even those with pretty strong ADD characteristics).  And they don’t work anymore, anyway.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 7:45 am and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.