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Tom Noonan of Elsevier's User Centered Design Group answers your usability questions
Tom Noonan
Q: How do we communicate value in our website design?
A: Just because you build it, they won't necessarily come. But if you write a persuasive message, they might.
Just because a link is added to a page or a new page is developed, there's no guarantee that users will follow that link or visit that page. A new feature on your website may be usable, but unless it is used, you have failed. If your users CAN use the feature, that's good but it's not enough. DO they use it?
Usability is necessary but it's not sufficient to provide value and return on investment. To drive value, you must communicate the value proposition to your users in terms that are important for them. To ensure a feature is used, you must communicate persuasively with its users.
You might think that the link label "Be first to bookmark" is persuasive. It's a call to action, which is a good thing. It indicates something users can do by clicking on a link. But will users care about that? Do your target users care if they are the first to bookmark an article? Are they in a race with others to bookmark an article?
Or are they more concerned about finding useful research, sharing it with their lab teams and accessing scholarly resources from any computer in the world? Are they aware that they can do so by clicking on a particular link? Are you telling them that?
Your website's functionality or content may be right on target, but your messages may be 100% off target. If so, your traffic will suffer and your users may never learn about the great features or pages you've developed.
What a shame! All because you failed to design persuasive messages.
Communicating value assumes a deep understanding of your
users' needs. Before you can craft a message that hits just the
right note with your users, you must know what drives them! 
t.noonan@elsevier.com
www.elsevier.com/librarians/AskUCD
Gerrol, S., & Straub, K. (2009). From convincing to converting: Applying the science of persuasive design to architect the decision space. Human Factors International, Inc.
Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. New York: Basic Books.
Schaffer, E. (2009). Beyond usability: Designing web sites for persuasion, emotion, and trust. UXMatters. http://tinyurl.com/cvf64k
