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In my company we have a page with 8 call to actions! in detail:

  • product detail page
  • product detail pdf
  • product request 100% online (this assures you some product feature missing in the next point)
  • product request to get a call back from our backoffice

As in the page we have 2 products promoted we have finally 8 call to actions.

From my point of view there is redundancy (2 call to actions to get further infos and to call to cations to request the product. 2 + 2 for each product) and complicated to format as a layout, because, as i wrote before, the request method you go for allows or forbid you to get some features (I won't go deeper but I think you can get the point).

So what I thought is to simplify the page with only 2 call to action for each product:

  • get more info > link to the product page
  • request the product > link to a step zero form, added to the already existing form

In this new step 0 I would only ask the user which way to request he likes the most, showing him the features of each method. In this way way the user has a click more to do, the one to reach the step zero page, but the landing from my point of view is clearer and more simple and the whole UX is designed like in a wizard way, I mean that I first ask the user only if he wants to request the product and, only if he wants, I'll ask him with request method he likes the most.

Do you think it's a good solution? or do you have any suggestion?

4 Answers 4

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I agree that 8 EQUIVALENT calls to action on a page are too many. It seems as if you could solve this issue with better grouping of the actions and having some sort of primary (and therefore visually distinct) call to action on each page, one that aligns either with your business goals or with the best interests of your customers.

Presumably the jumping-off point you are referring to here is some sort of product listing page where the user can see two products, each with 4 calls to action. My thought is that you should have just ONE action for each of those items (something like "See product details"), which would bring you to a Product Detail page for that item, from which you could download the Details PDF or request that product in either manner.

On that details page, which would presumably display more useful information to the user, three options does not sound out of bounds, though I question why there are two options for requesting the product if one is guaranteed to give you incomplete options later in the process. Could "Request Product" be a single option, and the user could choose the method based on their needs and understanding of what each one involves and allows?

Perhaps a little more detail on where they are coming from and what their goals are would flesh this out even more.

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Redundancy is often a good thing. Different users achieve the same goal in different ways. Think of the "redundancy" inherent in keyboard shortcuts: but no one suggests getting rid of those.

Take, for example, making a word bold in MS Word. There are four methods: keyboard + toolstrip + menu + right-click. How wasteful! Clearly this product sucks! But if you watch people use Word, they almost never trip over this so-called flaw.

The important part is that each mechanism is appropriately located within the interface, in a place that a particular sort of user would look for it. Make sure your calls to action are appropriately located for the segment of the user action space you're going after.

tl;dr: layout and interaction treatment matter more than 'redundancy'.

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Without knowing more detail about your use case, I would say:

  • Having two ways to request the product is likely to be confusing. You should have one option for this that helps the user select the appropriate method, as you proposed.
  • Multiple ways to get product information are probably fine. If you have a product information PDF, it may be beneficial to provide this at the top level, as some people may come looking for this and want to access it directly. The PDF might be missed sometimes if buried on a secondary product information page. And, unlike the above issue, no one is going to be confused and wonder "should I click on the page link or the PDF?"
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my opinion, say my approach, is one question at the time, to not overcharge the user. So I thought: 1st I ask: you want more info OR you want request? 2nd I ask info page OR info as PDF request online or via a call back I feel it's good but it's just my feeling, so I'm asking, and also looking for some best practice about a case like this, but I didn't find any

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