Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Citation preview
Iterative Web RedesignNick DeNardis
@nickdenardis #psuweb11
Who am I?
Associate Director of Web CommunicationsWayne State Universityhttp://wayne.edu/
Host of EDU Checkuphttp://educheckup.com/
Writer for .eduGuruhttp://doteduguru.com/
Curator of EDU Snippitshttp://edusnippits.com/
Why am I here?To sympathize
Why are you here?Let’s make the Web a better place
Agenda
• Reality of a website
• Why redesigns fail
• A better alternative
• Examples
• Tools
• Your turn
Websites are not “projects”
completion dates don’t exist
Your website is a business
If you oversee one siteYou have no excuse
Web departmentsJust do your best
Your site is launchedNow what?
Wait 2 years, repeat.Forming the committee now...
Or.. Start making changes in 2 weeks?
While the committee is still busy announcing the launch
Micro Redesigns
Definition:Taking small deliberate steps to reach a larger goal
(which may be not 100% apparent at the time).
CraftsmanshipYour staff didn’t spend four years and $50,000 to do
Kinko’s work
Some Examples
Wayne State Stories
Goal: Increase story click-throughs
A measly 0.009 %
of ~820,000 visitors per month
= less than 100 click-throughs
• Drop the drawer down then up
• Remove categories
• Remove branding images
• Pros
–Story displayed without the visitor clicking
–Auto rotate if visitor is on page too long
• Cons
–Takes up additional height
–Weird spacing in the menu
–Hard to find images that wide
• Pros
–Stories are front and center
–Only some additional height needed
–Easier to find images to fit
–Auto rotate if visitor is on page too long
• Cons
–Less space for story headlines
New CTR: 0.8 %
Now ~6,500 click-throughs per month
6400 % improvement
© 2011 Higher Ed Experts 22
© 2011 Higher Ed Experts 23
© 2011 Higher Ed Experts 24
© 2011 Higher Ed Experts 25
Let’s start the redesign process!
“When do we get to see what it looks like?”
“Let’s start looking at websites we like”
“The tabs are going to be at the top right?”
Business objectivesIn the web world
1. Offer something of value
2. Treat every visitors as your last
3. Your customer is always right
Your visitor on the other hand, isn’t.
Define the business objective of your site
To generate requests for more information
To encourage people to visit campus
To reflect positively on XYZ university and increase it’s reputation
The increase the profile of XYZ and it’s faculty, students and alumni
Start now.Go ahead, yell one out.
How are you measuring?
Go ahead, yell it out.
What did we learn?
Pick one objectiveand measure it
Start at the end
Privacy
• Privacy policy is a must
• Tracking via GA must be in it
• Tracking via cookies can be disabled
• Don’t know what third parties are doing
Tools of the trade• Google Analytics
http://google.com/analytics
• Google Website Optimizerhttp://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer
• Crazy Egghttp://crazyegg.com
• Click Talehttp://clicktale.com
• Wooprahttp://woopra.com
• Websorthttp://websort.net/
CrazyEgg
Woopra
Woopra
Websort
Google Analytics
Google Website Optimizer
Click Tale
Pick a timelineTwo weeks, One Month, One Semester, One Year
Take screenshotsWay back machine isn’t reliable
One thing at a time
Faculty listingCollege of Education
100 days?What type of timeline is that?
The side effect“Giving” link
Setting up a testVisiting campus
Where can you start?
• Identify a small problem
• Figure out a way to track it
• Propose changes
• Talk about it with some end users
• Implement the most appropriate one
• Review the results
• Document and share
Documenting
Thank you!@nickdenardis
http://www.slideshare.net/nickdenardis
