Simien

Notes > Keep the focus

Common mistakes in developing websites can be avoided if the client and the agency take the time to look further into why they are building a site and who for. Sounds simple enough but how many websites seem to have been built with little or no purpose behind them?

Among some the myriad of possible mistakes and mis-directions in corporate website design three of my ‘favourites’ are:

  1. Building a website without clear purpose or justification
  2. Designing the site to suite the tastes of the company's executives not its end users
  3. Architecture that reflects the organisational structure of the company behind the site, and using internal language
  4. Information hierarchy agreed to avoid upsetting any dept or division who’s not been given equal footing to the one next door, irrespective of the user's requirements

A few years back, I was leading the online component of a major privatisation project, the client was a large organisation making the journey from the public to private sector. Essentially this involved moving from being an inwardly focused, technically driven, with only one client, to becoming a client, service orientated organisation needing to attract new clients and customers.

The challenge was the client had never had to look at themselves like this before, and the work required to get the organisation into a logical structure from a customer’s view was immense. The hardest part wasn’t designing the architecture taxonomy, but getting the client to get outside of their corporate mindset to understand and buy into it.

We got there in the end, but there where more than a few tears along the way, so what steps can be taken to avoid them?

  1. Unless client and agency have a clear understanding of Objectives, Goals, Strategy and Measures for the website the chances of getting a decent ROI are limited. This doesn’t require a version of War and Peace for a strategy document, just be able to answer some simple questions such as: why are we building this? who’s it for? what do they want? how will we measure success?
  2. An organisation’s internal mindset, how it sees itself, is not the same as their customer's. Don’t try building a site that will make the CEO and all the department heads happy.
  3. Architecture, interface and functionality design need to be centred around user needs at each development stage. Information from online surveys, beta-test groups and usability studies are invaluable in this respect.
17 Oct | Filed in Articles