Often when I review a website project, or look back to published work; I find it helpful to revisit the strategy by asking questions.
Who is this website designed for? – Is it engaging the target audience?
What messages does this website deliver to the audience? – Is this aligned with our digital strategy?
What is the call to action? – Are the established conversions being achieved?
Once I answer these questions it’s much easier to make strategic decisions.
These are all questions we consider during the briefing phase and during the design phase, but I think it’s important to think these through again during the beta review and post launch. Seeing your website complete and live, is often when little things come up that can really affect results.
Logically, as the client/agency team developing a website, we look at the site from the target audience’s point of view. I like to put myself in the audience’s shoes and create user group profiles. For example:
User group: ‘Prospects’
• “I’m a mum with 2 kids under 5, planning a event for my part-time job. I just want to quickly jump on this website to get the phone number.”,
• “I’m a P.A I need to compare the services of the best two providers so I can find appropriate solution for our business”.
User group: ‘Skeptics’
• “I’m conservative female, my husband is eager to purchase this item, I’m not sure it’s the most sensible decision. I’m going to the website to investigate.”
• “I’m loyal to ‘brand A’, my friends recommend ‘brand B’. I’m online to research both points of view.
However you wish to approach it, successful websites keep people (target user group) front of mind; which means they often need to evolve, just as people do. Over time we will look at things from a different perspectives and decide that new information or approaches are needed. Why not test my theory out? Look at your own website and ask again: What is my customer looking for when visiting my website? Are we still achieving digital objectives?
COMMENTS