I am reading Harvard Business Review tonight and there is an interesting article called “Understanding the Psychology of New-Product Adoption.” The author catagorizes new products into 4 catagories, Easy Sells, Sure Failures, Long Hauls, and Smash Hits.

Whats the difference between a sure failure and a smash hit? A sure failure is a product that has limited product changes but requires significant behavioral change on the part of the consumer. On the other hand, smash hits have a significant product change while requiring a limited behaviorial change by the consumer.

Think about it for a second — this ties in very closely with website development.

I have observed that my most active forum members already have experience using forums. I suspect that if you were to poll the active members of your own forums you would find similar results.

Why is this? Because someone who has never used vBulletin before has to generate completely new models in their minds just like they must do when learning to use a new software application. Just because someone registers on your forum does not mean they will be comfortable enough to become an active member — or even make that first post.

If you make your website “familiar” to visitors then they do not have to go through such a dramatic period of new behavioral change. As a user, I am happy when I visit a site and everything makes sense to me right away. If not, then my chances of leaving increase by the second.

An example of breaking down behavioral learning challenges would be making your forum look more like a social networking site. There are already many plug-ins for vBulletin that will do this for you. Of course, remember who your audience is. If you run a website on retirement home reviews perhaps big fonts and contrasting colors is a better idea.