We thought we'd kick off the new year by sharing with you some of what we've seen and learned in '07. Two planning and design activities from 2007 deserve special attention, as they have proven invaluable to our clients in terms of informing their web strategies and success online:
- Personas Research: The Power of Users’ Stories
- Testing Strategies: Low-tech Solutions for
High-tech Strategies
Personas Research: The Power of Users’ Stories
Personas are detailed profiles of archetypal customers that are an accessible, easy-to-understand interface to customer data. Good personas capture key user motivations, behaviour patterns, skills, attitudes, and goals in a manner that inspires planners and interactive design team members to do their best work. Personas are based on primary research – generally ethnographic (or contextual) interviews, observation or both. WebFeat often supports our primary research with published secondary research from such sources as Forrester Research, Marketing Sherpa or eMarketer.
Personas differ from traditional design techniques in that they help to identify the hows and whys behind customer decisions, and the context of their activities, behaviours and usage. Personas provide everyone involved in design decisions — from business owners to designers and developers — with a common understanding of the people who use or buy their products and bring these users to life as real people.
For WebFeat, Personas are a technique that keeps customer needs at the forefront when planning overall business and online channel strategies. We have used Personas as a strategy tool and design practice for years. In 2007, WebFeat won more engagements that utilized this technique in the planning process, bringing the users’ stories and experiences directly into the business and design planning process, strengthening the interaction design.
Key Benefits:
- Personas capture customer insight, cost-effectively
- Ensure alignment between business and user goals
- Drive relevancy and a positive experience for users
- Help identify and prioritize marketing budget expenditures
Testing: Low-tech Solutions for High-tech Strategies
We are often surprised at how hard it is to get organizations to buy into the testing process. Our experience has proven that testing doesn't have to involve weeks of planning or a white coat lab facility, but rather can be implemented quickly, at low cost, using low-tech methods and deliver great results. Whether it is email testing for layout and subject line or low-fidelity usability testing, measuring a site’s interaction for its intended goals, purpose and ease of use with real users is a very doable activity that can be done using low-fidelity testing techniques.
This simple activity can have a profound impact on campaign and online brand success.
Low-tech Paper-based Usability Testing (low-fidelity
testing):
A simple hand drawn sketch on paper of key screens with
your test subjects using a pencil or pen as a mouse can yield
great user feedback and catch the big stuff, validating site
navigational labels and wayfinding with users before you start
to move to the wireframe, graphical or technical phase of your
development.
Index cards are another great low-tech tool to obtain user feedback on interpretation and organization of information and can be leveraged to assist in the development of site architecture and site label names.
Email – A/B response testing
Prior to a large deployment – do a quick test of email
subject lines or offers, test the newsletter layout to see what
elements help optimize user response.
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Share learned customer insights with sales, customer service and extended customer teams.
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Use the information in your other customer interactions, in addition to informing your web strategy.
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Don't worry about the size or formatting of your report presentation. What matters is capturing real user information (audio, video, text), getting the learnings out and applying them in a meaningful way.
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Overlay findings with traditional qualitative and quantitative data for a holistic customer picture.
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Get out there and talk, listen and test your users – small steps can garner big results.
2008 and Shop Talk
All of us at WebFeat are looking forward to 2008, and continuing to push ideas and innovative strategies in support of our clients' business goals. Our Shop Talk topics are designed to explore new ideas and learnings or make you pause and maybe challenge previous notions about the online environment. We look forward to your feedback and future suggestions for topic ideas. To 2008 and beyond!
Book Recommendations:
About Meredith:
Meredith MacKeigan is a founding partner of WebFeat, and has
helped define our strategic growth for the past eleven years.
She provides marketing and strategic direction for our client
initiatives. Meredith leads our research and planning engagements,
helping inform strategies with a passionate WebFeat team, focused
on capturing user stories.
