Different Personality Types Browse Differently 
For the sake of discussion, I’ll use the DISC personality system to show some big ideas. While it’s not a perfect model, it is simple enough to help you to visualize and make good decisions about your visitors. The graphic to the right shows these personality types, they are:
- Dominance: fast-paced/analytical.
- Influence: fast-paced/emotional.
- Steadiness: slow-paced/emotional.
- Conscientiousness: slow-paced/analytical.
What’s your personality type? Is that likely to coincide with your visitors’ personalities?
What’s your operating personality type at work? Do your visitors shift as they browse your site as well? See the graphic below to see how visitors usually shift as they browse.
Not all personalities browse the same way. Different people make decisions and browse in similar, but distinct ways. A lot of decision makers are in the relatively small 3% of fast-paced/analytical segment. This is why it’s so dangerous for these key players to make decisions solely based on their personal preferences and experiences.
It should be noted that a person may behave differently per situation, and in different environments. What you want to cater to is their likely personality when browsing your site. Your individual stats will not match the overall population. For instance, if your target audience is CEOs, you may see 90% of your target visitors operating in the D quadrant. While in a work setting, visitors may shift towards being analytical and face-paced due to the requirements of their job role. If you’re selling in B2C capacity, your viewership may more closely resemble the general population.
The relative cost of your goods or services may affect the shift in behavior as well. The lower the cost, the more emotionally and fast-paced the decision will be. (E.g., even an engineer might buy a candy bar on a whim.) The higher the cost the more time and analysis goes into the decision.
Make sure to account for both your visitors’ likely personality type (S), and the shift they make based on type of business you run, and your offerings.
Focusing on one primary personality type more specifically as you lay out your system will save time and help you to get in your visitors’ heads more easily.
Understanding how your visitors make decisions also helps you to provide information at the right times. In any instance, we recommend that you cater to all 4 user types with an emphasis the 1 or 2 you perceive to be dominant in your use case. There could be whole books written on this topic (and have been), but here are a couple of tips to help you cater to your different visitor type.
- Dominance: fast-paced/analytical. Results driven. Show that your offering will achieve their objective. Focus on providing high-level summary type of information, within easy reach. Make sure your copy is very scannable and that your page intros contain challenges and rationally engaging options.
- Influence: fast-paced/emotional. Focused on immediate needs. Highlight how your offering will address their needs quickly. Keep your content skimmable and showing options to accelerate delivery. Briefly show the human side of your offering, whether that’s your team or your customers.
- Steadiness: slow-paced/emotional. Relationship oriented. These people will look at your “about us” page to learn about you, rather than to vet you. Display testimonials and provide content to let them satisfy their slower nature. Show how others like them have seen results.
- Conscientiousness: slow-paced/analytical. Detail oriented. Think of the stereotypical engineer. Provide details and verifiable fact in an organized fashion. Answer how your offering will address their need. While faster-paced types will read your headings, you can expect these people to look for hard evidence and to spot logical disconnects. Don't depend on relational draws to influence them.
B2B users are more likely to operate as a Dominant, even if that isn’t how they behave elsewhere.
Higher cost items are more likely to make users behave more Conscientiously. You can cater to them by providing supporting details that that same person may not care about for a smaller purchase.
Dominance: Provide high-level information about results.
Influence: Provide emotional information about speed.
Steadiness: Provide relationship oriented information.
Conscientiousness: Provide details that are verifiable.