3. Taking the Audience’s Pulse
• How many people work on your website?
• How many people are overseeing an ecommerce
site?
• How big is your website?
• Who uses a blog?
• Who outsources their website?
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4. Overview
• The importance of a web site, worth the investment
• Real world constraints
• Each topic could be an hour
• Google it, do it
• Conversation, ask questions
Let’s Jump In
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5. What It Takes
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6. It’s Simple…
1. Planning – Ideation & Definition
– Determine why, set out your goals
– Specify who you are building it for
– Determine needs
– Set budget, evaluate in-sourcing and outsourcing
2. Execution - Build & Maintain
– Write content
– Build prototypes
– Create designs
– Build and deploy
3. Improve & Optimize Part of the plan!
– Measure performance & evaluate
– Iterate on #2
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7. Setting the Stage
•Starting from scratch vs
upkeep
–First 90 Days analogy, Michael
Watkins (turnaround, salvage,
continue success)
•A Balancing Act
–Planning & Strategy vs Execution &
Tactical
–Creativity vs Science
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8. Interweaving
As we go through the over-arching steps, we
will add to the tenants of running a website
Build on a foundation
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9. Ready Set Go
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10. Determine Why
• A site needs stated purpose
–Money? Attention? People?
• Specific activities
–Sign-ups, leads, social following, online store, etc.
• Document Everything
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11. Product Management
• Captain of the Ship, Quarterback, Director…
• Prioritization
• Site Strategy
• Wear the hat
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12. Get in the Goal
• Set Targets and Track against them
• Create a Dashboard (example)
• Stay Focused
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13. The Audience
• Define who you are talking to: personas
• Speak to that audience
• Limit by making tough decisions
• http://www.forrester.com/
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14. Needs
• Lots of blog posts? Sign-up forms? Credit cards?
• Static one-off?
• Execution & Support
• Mobile? Go responsive
– 55% cell owners go online
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16. Budget, In vs Out
• Wide ranging costs
• Be smart about spend, do what you’re good at, get
help with the rest
In-sourcing Outsourcing
•Requires staffing, guidance, •More expensive
leadership •Trust
•Quicker reaction time •Less hassle
•Longevity, dedication
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17. Thus far…
• We know why
• Specific visitor activities
• Goals are set
• There is a defined audience
• Our needs are clear
• What next?
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32. Problem 1: Silos
• Content workflow diagram
• Understand how content is created, who affects it,
and how.
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34. Problem 2: Clutter
• Content inventory
• Understand what content you have. Can
be quantitative or qualitative.
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38. Problem 3: Lack of Insight
• Channel map
–Understand how users interact with each piece of content
you create.
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40. Problem 3: Lack of Insight
• User testing
–Understand whether users are
able to find/do what they need.
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41. There’s so much more...
• Governance • Analytics
• Maintenance • Expert reviews
• SEO • Content reuse
• Gap analyses • Editorial calendars
• Reports
• Style guides
• Content matrices
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42. Helpful resources
for getting started
Content Strategy
for the Web,
by Halvorson & Rach
Letting Go of the
Words,
by Redish
Content Rules,
by Handley &
Chapman
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43. Write
• Have a clear message - http://letsembark.com/
• Create an inventory & map
• Set tone and voice
• Use a calendar
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44. Content Management Systems
• Use one
• Lets you manage and publish content easily
• Types
–Wordpress, Drupal, Squarespace, etc
• Easy to modify
• Ecommerce Platforms
–Magento, Spree Commerce,
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45. Set the Experience
• What is UX? IA? Hard to define…
• Map the user’s experience by persona
• Set homepage, major section, and page goals
• Build Prototypes
–Allows for discussion and manipulation
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46. UX Design Tools for Prototyping
• Axure – http://www.axure.com
• Balsamiq - http://www.balsamiq.com
• Visio
• Pen and Paper
• Whiteboards!
Check the app marketplace!
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47. Thus far…
• We know why
• Specific actions
• Goals are set
• There is an audience
• Our needs are clear
• Content comes first
• Experience maps or prototypes
• How do we make it enticing?
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48. Web Design Time
1. Stay consistent with color and typography
– Offline synchronization
2. Have a design or pattern library, style guide
– http://developer.android.com/design/index.html
3. Use mock-ups
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49. The Genius of Design(ers)
• Photoshop, Paintshop, Illustrator
• Spend time on Illustrations, photos, the graphical
–Not on bulleted lists, padding, font sizes (set by style)
• Leverage templates
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50. Build and Deploy
• Use source control
• Have a test environment, or two, or three
• Build a rigorous deploy process
• Deploy on schedules
• Project management tools
• Hosting
– Redundancy, Speed, Uptime, Security, Price
– Do Not DIY
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51. Optimize
• Analytics Tools
–Google Analytics, free, easy to use
–Revisit the process & flow
• Use Data to inform actions, back into the flow of
work
• AB Testing
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52. Tips
• Avoid using dates except where prudent
• Avoid Flash
• Use a blog, write regularly
• Have reports emailed to you
• Responsive design
• Google Webmaster account
• Landing pages
• Nonprofit Website Best Practices
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