Take a look at the fine print

Disclaimers and fine print are an expected part of product information in any industry.  These additional details are used to clarify claims about features or services that may be restricted, limited, or otherwise requiring additional clarification.

Though this information might not be the main point of research or interest on a website, the requisite “fine print” should not be forgotten content when it comes to site layout and usability.  Across automotive manufacturer websites, there are a variety of strategies used to help shoppers get to these details.

There are three main categories that most OEM disclaimers fall under:

• Listing footnotes at the bottom of the page;
• Linking to specific disclaimer information in a fly-out or pop-up;
• Linking to a separate list of all disclaimers.

From the J.D. Power and Associates Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study (MWES), we have learned many lessons about Navigation on OEM websites.  Overuse of clicking, scrolling, or jumping between pages or long blocks of text can quickly confuse shoppers and distract them from the main goal at hand: researching vehicle information.

With these lessons about usability in mind, below are my observations on the different strategies for displaying disclaimers on OEM websites.

Listing footnotes at the bottom of the page
The majority of OEM websites list footnotes at the bottom of the page.  There are a few different ways of implementing this strategy.

BMW has numbered footnotes that are referenced at the bottom of the page.  The advantage is that this keeps related content close together.  However, shoppers are required to scroll up and down to view both features content and the disclaimers.

On the Dodge website, numbered footnotes are referenced behind an additional link at the bottom of the page labeled “Legal, safety and trademark information concerning the numbered items above.”  Shoppers must then click on the link to reveal the list, creating an extra step for shoppers to access the disclaimer information for items listed on the page.  This link reduces clutter that could be caused by lengthy text on the bottom of the page, but it also makes more work for the shopper who is looking for this information.

Lexus has hyperlinked footnotes that take shoppers to the bottom of the page where all disclaimers are listed.  The advantage of having the disclaimer information at the bottom of the same page may be outweighed by the amount of scrolling required for this strategy.  Shoppers have to jump back and forth to view a disclaimer at the bottom of the page and then scroll back up to find their place again to continue researching information.

In these examples of listing footnotes at the bottom of the page, information is available in a location where the details are relevant without competing with features information.  However, the amount of scrolling to connect footnotes with the disclaimer can interfere with the goal of an uninterrupted research process.

Linking to specific disclaimer information in a fly-out or pop-up
The next most commonly used strategy is to link to specific information from a fly-out which only references a particular disclaimer.  This links the shopper to relevant information at the point of interest without taking them away from their research path.  A word of caution would be to make sure these footnotes for disclaimer links are not confused with links to additional features information.

Nissan and Mercedes-Benz incorporate this additional information into their sites without distracting shoppers from the research process.  In my opinion, this is a good strategy for providing disclaimer information even though it is not the most commonly used.

Linking to a separate list of all disclaimers
A handful of sites provide a separate link to all disclaimers for information found across the site.  Ford provides shoppers with a link to “View Additional Disclosures” and then provides all disclosures in one comprehensive list.  The advantage is that shoppers can quickly access this content from any point on the site.  However, they must also scroll to the relevant information each time they are interested in additional disclaimer details.

Though there are a few other strategies, the majority of OEM sites fall into one of these three categories for displaying disclaimers on their website.  After looking across the industry to come up with these groups, I think that the approach that has the least amount of clutter and potential confusion is the link to specific disclaimer information in a fly-out or pop-up.  That is, as long as there is not too much competition with other research links.  As in most cases, these decisions should be related to the functionality of the site as a whole and what works for one site might not be the best solution for another.

However the strategy for incorporating disclaimers is implemented, best practices of design cannot be ignored.  There are advantages and disadvantages to each strategy, so OEM sites—and their legal departments—must weigh how to best give their shoppers quick access to disclaimer details without interrupting the research and shopping process.

Tagged with: Manufacturers • Usability • Website