Redesign: The New 4 Letter Word

synoppsys: An “iteration” may be a more appropriate description of web site projects than a “redesign.”

Like any bad habit, removing a word from one’s vocabulary is challenging, especially a word that has been so close to one’s heart. For the past year, I have probably repeated this sentence 1,000 times: “this web site needs a redesign.” Our project queue is full of web site “redesigns.” When I started to hear customers use the word in our conversations, I became concerned. This word promises much more than we can deliver.

Think a moment about what “redesign” implies. Let’s be the customer for a second. Is this what they are hearing? “Our web team is going to redesign your web site, because it really sucks. We can’t salvage anything. So by the end of the quarter, your current ugly site will be totally trashed and replaced with a site that is a hundred times better, with lots of flashy widgets, content you’ll never have to maintain, and millions of visitors.”

Now let’s try out the word “iteration.”

“Our web team thinks that your web site is pretty good, but there are a few things that we think can be improved in a short amount of time. Let’s pick the top couple of items that will benefit the most members of your audience, and then we’ll revisit your site in the future.”

Doesn’t an iteration sound a lot more manageable and realistic than a redesign?

I’ve been reading a lot about Agile Software Development recently. At its core is the concept of repeatedly slicing projects (sashimi) into “increments of functionality” (see Schwaber and Beedle’s Agile Software Development with Scrum (2002)).

I’ll write more about Agile in future posts but for now, I’m busy. Our project queue is full of web site iterations.

Helvetica and Vanilla Ice Cream

synoppsys: Try going a day without Helvetica.

I watched a great documentary tonight called “Helvetica.” If you are like me, you have your own favorite type face–the first font you choose when typing a document. Trebuchet is mine. It’s my default font in Word. I bet your favorite is NOT Helvetica. Or at least you wouldn’t admit it. I have always felt that Helvetica is the vanilla ice cream of type faces. Who knew it had such a fascinating history: with camps of graphic designers on both sides of the Helvetica “movement.” What was most eye-opening from watching this movie was how ubiquitous Helvetica really is: it is everywhere, and I haven’t even noticed. I challenge you to look carefully at brands and signs and stores and web sites for a week and count how many times you see that “vanilla” font. Not so vanilla after all!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 101

synoppsys: You can improve visitation to your site by applying simple and free SEO techniques.

SEO involves using tools and techniques to increase the likelihood that the pages of your site will be “crawled” by search engine “robots” (specialized software) and given a higher “page rank” than your competitors. We’ll focus on Google here, since roughly 50% of searches are performed at Google (or other sites who use the same algorithms).

Why is it important to optimize your site for Google? Because a lot of traffic through your site will come from keyword searches through Google.

SEO takes experimentation (Google’s algorithms are top secret) and patience (you might not see results for months). It is a complicated subject (you can buy 300 page books on the subject)–it is a little bit of science and a little bit of an art form.

First, let’s dispel a common assumption. Google pretty much ignores meta data tags on your pages. Those are tags at the top of your html pages that look like this: <meta name=”keywords” content=”OSU, Ohio State, Ohio State University, The Ohio State University, Big 10, Buckeyes, College, University, Scarlet and Gray, Ohio”>

Even though we really aren’t sure how Google’s algorithms work, we know a lot of the factors that they consider important. Here are 10 easy and free (“organic”) SEO tips. We’ll describe these in future posts in the context of our Africa Network case study.

Africa Network: Case Study in Search Engine Optimization (Part 1)

synoppsys: I describe a web site we will use as a case study to later demonstrate SEO techniques.

My office hosts a web site for the Africa Network–an important initiative of the Executive Dean’s Office. It was recently discovered that googling “africa network” does not produce a match on the first page of search results. (A different organization, africanetwork.org, is #1). Africa Network at Ohio State appears on the 3rd page. People rarely page past the first page of Google search results. In fact, they tend to immediately click on that #1 search result. That’s why for most web sites, especially e-commerce sites, a Google #1 rank is the ultimate goal to maximize the number of visitors (and potential customers). If I refine my search to “africa network ohio state” (no quotes) at Google, I get a #1 search result. The problem is that I would have to know that our Africa Network is at Ohio State.

Now let’s take a look at the traffic on the Africa Network site when we discovered that we had a search engine problem: from Oct 1, 2007 to Oct 31, 2007, there had been 43 unique visitors to the site. (These data are from Google Analytics, a topic for another post.)

Clearly we have some work to do to inform people about the Africa Network via the web. Our goal: a #1 rank on Google search for the keywords “africa network,” resulting in more visitors to our site.

In the next post, I will provide an overview of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and ultimately describe steps we have taken to improve our search ranking for Africa Network.

Thinking in the Right Terms: 7 Components for a Successful Web Site Redesign

synoppsys: Jared Spool describes seven characteristics of teams that support successful web site overhauls.

By Jared M. Spool

Originally published: Aug 30, 2007

Lately, we’ve had a flurry of clients contacting us about their latest redesign project, wanting to know what advice we can give them. We talk to them, discussing their team’s needs and what is driving the redesign effort.

In many cases, we discover the team is thinking only in the short term. Of course, because they have immediate deadlines and resources to manage, they need to focus on what’s happening right now. The short term, after all, is where we all live day-to-day.

We’ve spent the last five years studying teams involved in major redesign efforts. Some teams regularly produce innovative, user-satisfying enhancements to their sites. Other teams work hard, but their efforts result in expensive changes that, after all is said and done, don’t really enhance the user’s experience or help the business.

As we analyze the difference between these two types of teams, we’ve noticed a pattern: teams who focus on the long term are far more likely to create designs that really pay off for the organization. Short-term thinking gets the design done, but the team ends up doing it all over again months down the road. Long-term thinking deals with the inevitability of changes and turns the site into a living, breathing entity that grows with the organization’s needs.

In our research, we’ve uncovered seven essential long-term components to reach a successful redesign project.