Redesign Must Die

©2008 Louis Rosenfeld, LLC (www.louisrosenfeld.com). All rights reserved.

Redesign Must Die

Louis Rosenfeld University of Illinois 9th Annual Webmasters Forum April 30, 2008


About me

Biases: Library science background Information architecture consultant Works mostly with Fortune 500s


Redesign this: six months, a million pages


One ribbon-cutting later


Under the hood

5


Pig, meet lipstick


What do these have in common?


Every large web site is a complex adaptive system

John Holland: “A Complex Adaptive System is a dynamic network of many agents (which may represent cells, species, individuals, firms, nations) acting in parallel, constantly acting and reacting to what the other agents are doing.”


Individual agents, constantly acting and reacting Users vary by…

Content varies by…

Organizational context varies by…

Attitude Motivation and desire Demographics Psychographics Tasks and information needs Information seeking-behaviors Season/time of day What side of the bed they got up from …

Quality Currency Authority Popularity Strategic value Degree of structure Volume Cost Accessibility …

Mission, vision, goals Organizational politics Organizational culture Degree of centralization/autonomy Technical constraints Human resources Team structures Budget …


Can we really redesign a series of moving targets?


More from John Holland

“The control of a complex adaptive system tends to be highly dispersed and decentralized...

“The overall behavior of the system is the result of a huge number of decisions made every moment by many individual agents.”


How redesigns overcome dispersed, decentralized decision-making

From Tony Dunn’s Tales from Redesignland: http://redesignland.blogspot.com/


Whither Jimmy Wales’ photo?


The Cone of Uncertainty…

“It isn’t possible to be more accurate; it’s only possible to be more lucky.” From Steve McConnell’s Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art


…becomes a Cloud of Uncertainty

“…what happens when the project isn’t conducted in a way that reduces variability.”


Eight reasons why your redesign will fail 1. Moving target: too many variables to track,

measure, too little control over them 2. Getting it perfect: you can’t get a site

“right” 3. No end in sight: when will it be done? 4. Nailing it down: you can’t time box the

work that goes on


Eight reasons why your redesign will fail 5. The benchmarks have been benched:

it’s difficult to measure performance of a live site

6. Getting all enterprise-y: you’ll replace your CMS/search engine/CRM system at the same time

7. Politics, of course: no one has figured out how to make them go away

8. Lipstick on a pig: cosmetic redesigns offer no value


A web site ought to be something else

A platform not an application that’s supple and flexible,

rather than pre-specified

lends itself to tuning, rather than fixing and supports multiple levels of engagement.

rather than binary roles, (e.g., user versus provider)


So what can we do about it?


You must answer these three questions

1. Who are your primary audiences? 2. What are their primary information

needs? 3. Does your site adequately serve those

needs?


Q1. Who are your primary audiences?

In academic setting? Applicants Students Alumni Donors

How will you find out? Quantitative methods (e.g., web analytics,

switchboard/help center log analysis) Qualitative methods (e.g., persona

development, negotiation)

Faculty Staff Media


Got personas? Use them


Q2. What are their primary information needs?

3-5 major reasons each audience would visit your site (e.g., tasks, topics)

How will you find out? Quantitative (e.g., site search analytics,

reference desk logs) Qualitative (e.g., ethnographic studies,

stakeholder interviews)


Site search analytics tells you what users want


Q3. Does your site serve those needs?

Evaluate whether or not your site serves those needs

How will you find out? Quantitative: (e.g., web analytics focused

on conversion) Quantitative (e.g., task analysis studies)


Web analytics helps close the feedback loop


The site tuning process: Rinse…


…and repeat (monthly, quarterly)


A little goes a long way


A better bet


Improve the user experience by a thousand cuts 50% of users are search dominant x 5% of all queries are typos, fixed by spell checking. 2.5% improvement to the UX

50% of all users are search dominant x 30% (best bet results for top 100 queries) 15% improvement to the UX

…ditto for improving search results design, query entry design, query refinement design…

(Hint: invest in your enterprise search system)


Tune, don’t replace

These are expensive: CMS Search engines Analytics applications

Can user research expose tweaks that fix major problems?

Otherwise, user-centered specs can help in tool evaluation


Manage processes, not projects

Most aspects of design and development are ongoing

Budget percentages of FTE to tasks, rather than time-boxing them

Example: for content inventory, budget… 10% of the information architect’s work Rather than 60 hours during the first month

of redesign



No, really, the user is your friend


Close the loop

You need a UX methodology toolkit Quantitative methods to answer the what

questions Qualitative methods to answer the why

questions And you need analytics tools

Getting better at portraying true sessions Gather data for quantitative analysis


Distract, don’t persuade


Build platforms, not applications


Ban the word “redesign” at your next meeting


Thank you


Contact Information

Louis Rosenfeld Rosenfeld Media, LLC 705 Carroll Street, #2L Brooklyn, NY 11215 USA

[email protected]

www.louisrosenfeld.com www.rosenfeldmedia.com (discount code! UIUC08) www.slideshare.net/lrosenfeld (these slides)


Image credits and quotations

Lipstick on a pig: http://wizardofadscanada.typepad.com/touch_points/2005/06/mmm_for_june_6_.html Stock market: http://stylemens.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/16/wallstreet_h.jpg Natural gas pipeline: http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/ngpipeline/

compressorMap.html Immune system: http://www.thebrainmuscleworkout.com/image/scientist/

bigstockphoto_Biological_Design_1680747.jpg CAS: http://www.casresearch.com/ John Holland: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3410/images/ate-bio-03.jpg Holland’s CAS definition: Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos by M.

Mitchell Waldrop. Cone and Cloud of Uncertainty: http://www.construx.com/Page.aspx?hid=1648 Redesign cartoon: http://redesignland.blogspot.com/2008/02/desperate-times.html What do we do about it? http://www.pnac.org/images/shared_images/root/nacweb_047.jpg The bridgekeeper: http://arago4.tnw.utwente.nl/stonedead/movies/holy-grail/thumbnails/23-stop.jpg Personas: http://www.iqcontent.com/publications/features/article_75/ Conversion rate: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/05/google-analytics-is-re-launched-do-these-

five-things-first-in-v2.html Pacific Theater map: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/III/maps/USMC-III-I.jpg Admiral Nimitz: http://pages.videotron.ca/silexmt/optoaster/images/photos/chester_nimitz.jpg Gagged man: http://wire.ggl.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/gagged.jpg God kills a kitten: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:God-kills-kitten.jpg

Technology

Redesign Must Die