Context is King

All Hail the King
He stands in His honour
And speaks what is true
He is the King of Context

We’re all aware of the adage “Content is King”, but just because we’ve always been taught this, is it necessarily the case? As designers we are beginning to take a more holistic approach to web design and we are also beginning to explore a myriad of different factors to determine what makes a website work well and convert results (I hope!).

All hail king context
It is official King Content (formely known) has been usurped by King Context. The reason we have a new king is because the world we live in is rapidly changing. With the development of mobile devices / augmented reality and the like, we are no longer designing for just a desktop experience. I hate to use the artist analogy again but it really is a case of taking a step back and evaluating your surroundings. Looks different to when you were in your own little world at the screen doesn’t it?

Now take another step back and you’ll see what type of room your user is in…
take another step back and evaluate the building he is in and the estate which surrounds him.
You can push this even further…which country is your user from ….
what galaxy are they in…wait a minute, maybe I’ve pushed the analogy too far.

On a serious note, the idea I’m trying to sow is that we need to understand where our target audience sits in relation to everything surrounding them. Still struggling? Try this analogy: Visualise your typical target individual as a dot on the globe. Now take into consideration everything surrounding that dot before you begin your design.

What is context?
So what is context? In essence context is comprised of all the factors and variables which indirectly and directly affect the users of your website. Many of you may currently contextualise by identifying your target audience…heck some of you might even create a typical persona and try to second guess their actions based on their character traits.

But Contextualising goes one step further than this. It looks at the factors which surround your typical user. It looks at the wider environment which your design exists in. Okay so your website typically sits in a screen; but in what environment / situation is that screen sitting in? Is it in a crowded cyber café with a one hour time limit, with no seating / air conditioning….or is it sitting on an old computer in a library with no audio? These are the external factors we need to take into consideration before we even begin designing the site. Contextualising should begin in the research phase of the web design process.

How do I contextualise? (in order of importance, and yes these are all inter-related):

1. Environment: Where is your primary audience located? Could they possibly be in two different environments? A pensioner on the Algarve in a 5 star hotel with a quick broadband speed is far more likely to spend time on a site than a highly strung MD in a packed office with high blood pressure and little time on his hands.
2. Device: Pretty self explanatory, what device is your website being viewed upon? A laptop, desktop computer, mobile device etc? If a user if browsing your site on a portable device the likelihood is they’ll be on the move which in turn means that lighting could be suspect and the battery low. Basically they are less likely to spend time browsing whilst on the move.
3. Comfort: The more comfortable your viewer is the more likely they are to be receptive to your site and in turn spend more time on it and also be a little more patient. In contrast to this is someone who may be in an uncomfortable situation in a shopping mall / exhibition and will not have the patience to search for what they want.
4. Mood: A bi product of comfort is mood. A few factors you may want to consider here
   Factors which may impact upon mood:
   Temperature, well being, comfort of chair, spaciousness of environment, internet speed, space, time, environment, attention span.
5. Time: Again does what it says on the tin. How long is your user likely to spend on the site? This could impact on how many pages you include…and how many CTA’s you include etc.

Let’s consider where the user fits into the grand plan
Contextualising is about personalising the web experience as much as possible….it is about creating a domain, (no I’m not talking domain name and hosting here!) and then working out where the user fits into this model. By nature context cannot exist in isolation, so it is about working out what surrounds your webpage. Okay I’m going to try and cut the bs and sum this up in a sentence! Context is about understanding the world we live in and how that impacts upon your user that exists in it.

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