Understanding Deer Crossings and Online Marketing UX
- Sue Skavlem
- Oct 6
- 4 min read
OCTOBER 2025 | Sue Skavlem
Have You Heard this One?
The Deer Crossing Story
I live in the Midwest.
When people tell each other "watch out for deer," they mean, "I love you."
Recently, I heard a story about a teen girl who was upset about SO MANY deer crossing signs on highways.
They wished the signs were more conveniently located.
"I mean, why do they have so many? Can't they just put up signs for the deer to cross in one or 2 spots?"
I'm so sorry, that's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.
The signs aren't there to tell the deer where to cross the highway.
There to tell the humans where the deer are already planning to go.
To create meaningful connections with your audience, it is essential to understand user experience (UX).
Just as deer follow instinctual paths, humans also have established online behaviors.
What is UX in Online Experience?
User experience (UX) defines how users interact with a digital product or service.
"UX design is all about a website’s user experience, where UI design focuses more on the way a website looks. " -- Mail Chimp Resources Page
It includes various aspects, from website design and navigation to user emotions while browsing. A positive UX is vital for keeping customers engaged and driving sales.
Good UX (user experience)
Easy-to-use website
Clear path to what I want to buy
Social proof (testimonials/reviews)
Transparent pricing
Not Spammy (emails, contact info, pop-ups)
Bad UX (user experience)
Competing messages on the homepage
Hard to find what I need
No reviews/Bad online reviews (not on website)
Pricing spikes/changes
High-pressure funnel marketing
Spammy communication (emails, contact info, pop-ups)
A great UX also considers how users think and behave online. For instance, studies show that 88% of online shoppers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience. This statistic underscores the need to design websites that meet user expectations and preferences, making their journey enjoyable and seamless.
How Do Deer Crossings Help Us Understand UX?
Attention is the oldest currency. Yet, in the digital age, capturing attention is more challenging than ever. How can you connect with your users?
Just as deer have consistent movement patterns, users have predictable behaviors.
AND YET, we think we put up signs for the humans to see and go to the next step, instead of placing the signs where the humans ARE ALREADY LOOKING FOR THE NEXT STEP.
UX "Road Signs"
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Can you imagine if we put up deer crossing signs only where we wanted the deer to cross? Disaster. Crashes. Terrible Deer UX.
Instead of putting up UX "road signs" in random places on our websites. Let's first take a step back and find out how humans interact with your online site, page, or store.
Key Considerations When Engaging Your Audience Online
1. Recognizing Human Behavior
It's important to remember that humans have unique habits and preferences that shape how they interact with websites. For example, Google reports that users spend 53% of their time on mobile devices. This indicates the need for mobile-optimized sites.
People Seek Out 3 Types of Information on Websites
Do the pages you want people to spend time on have any of these?
Photos
Prices/Sales
Social Proof/Reviews
Where Are People Spending the Most Time on Your Site/Page/Store?
Here are 3 ways you can find out.
Google Analytics: Install Google Analytics on key pages of your website.
Field Test/Beta Test: Get a small group of people to test a new page launch/product drop
Survey Tools: Assess your current online user experience through online surveys in your customers' own words. Check out these tools
2. Assessing Website Structure
Consider whether your website aligns with established user behaviors.
Is the menu 3-4 items?
Can people get the gist of a page at a glance?
Do you have clear headings and bullet points?
Does your website load quickly?
Remember the deer. Put the signs where the deer already want to cross.
3. Designing with User Behavior in Mind
Lastly, building a user-centric website involves aligning your design and policies with consumer behavior.
What do people want from you and your site? Can they find it quickly? Do you have "road signs" in the right places?
Is it easy to understand at-a-glance?
Humans Make Informal Paths
One final thing. Humans go where their eyes and their heart lead them.
When I learned about human-centered design in city paths, I laughed outloud.
Elephant Paths & Human-Centered Design
"An elephant path (also known as desire path, game trail, social trail and herd path, among others) is an informal path that pedestrians prefer to take from one location to another, rather than using a pavement or other official route." Source: Pop Up City
Humans Go Places. We can try and force humans to walk in straight lines on official boundaries.
We can set up deer crossing signs where we want the deer to cross.
We can try to change instinct, desire, and expectation.
Or we can study where and how people go about their business(UX) and create a system and signs around that.
About the Author
Sue Skavlem
When I make a design, I think – What can this do?
These designs DO.
They are levers.
They are sales.
They are engaged customers.
They get you that next meeting.
Top 3 things I love to do: Read. Paint. Puzzles.
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