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TRANSCRIPT
Setting the Stage
You need a website You think you know what to put on that website Do your ideas match your viewers’ needs?
In This Presentation
Strategic Planning Understanding the end user’s needs Prototyping User Testing Website Development and Testing
Pretty vs. Content
Who Is the End User?
Nothing to do with drugs or alcohol! It’s the person you will serve through your business
Know the direction you want your business to take
REALLY get to know your end users Your website should answer the needs of your end user
Exercise 1
Write down the following: Your business mission statement
Everything you know about the kinds of clients you will serve Age, gender, location (near or far)
What problems they encounter that your business will serve
What the rest of their life entails – family, finances, buying methods
Step 1: Research your End Users
Formal Interview (typically 30 minutes) Listen to people who may eventually become your company’s
end users
Ask them what they know about your type of business, what their business/hobby needs are, and their pain points for getting those needs met
Write down what they tell you
How Many Interviews?
As few as five, up to ten The major needs will be identified
It’s a great start that can be modified over time
Try to interview people from different perspectives New to the business
People who have been doing business for years
People who have succeeded and people who have failed in this business
Step 2: Build Personas
“Build” people that represent the collective of the interviews Give each person a name
Give each person background information
Give each person a particular problem that hasn’t yet been solved
How many? Anywhere from 3-6 people depending on the business
Role of the Persona
Reminds your team of the people you’re trying to serve Reminds your team of the humanity and direct needs of
the end users Keeps your team focused on what your end user needs
Prevents feature creep Keeps the team on task
Tara Jenkins, Nurse
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Nursing
Goal: Start a home-based aquaponics business while keeping her expenses as low as possible
Family Life: Has two dogs and one horse at home plus a spouse that probably won’t be part of the aquaponics business. “Have your husband do this…” is not an option for setup or maintenance.
Communication Style: Spends a lot of time reading and learning online
Jenny Smith, Freelance Writer
Education: Technical College Business degree
Goal: Learn everything about aquaponics. Submit an article and photo about aquaponics for publication
Family Life: Has three sons, two daughters, a husband who travels all week and is home on weekends
Communication Style: Prefers e-mails to anything else, as she is on the go a lot
Step 3: Create Scenarios
Start with the Persona Add a story about what that persona is going through Specifically identify at least one of the pain points
identified during the interviews
Role of the Scenarios
Focuses on the pain points your end users feel Focuses on how your business can relieve or avoid
those pain points Use throughout your business
Website and social media content and delivery Emphasis on service that’s needed most
Emphasis on customer relations and outreach
Tara Jenkins, NurseEducation: Bachelor’s degree in Nursing
Goal: Start a home-based aquaponics business while keeping her expenses as low as possible
Family Life: Has one child and two dogs at home, plus a spouse that won’t be part of the aquaponics business. “Have your husband do this…” is not an option for setup or maintenance.
Communication Style: Spends a lot of time reading and learning online, including online classes. Prefers phone calls to companies when she has questions.
Scenario: Tara works full time as a nurse at the local hospital. Her work schedule varies a lot, so she can never count on having the same day, or same time of day, available every week. She’d like to start her own business, but it has to be something that can fit into her schedule. She also has no family resources for help in setup and maintenance. If she makes an equipment purchase, Tara will work on her home setup as much as possible and will hire professional help if needed.
Jenny Smith, Freelance WriterEducation: Associate Degree in Marketing
Goal: Submit an article and photo for publication
Family Life: Has three sons, two daughters, a husband who travels all week and is home on weekends
Communication Style: Prefers e-mails to anything else, as she is on the go a lot
Scenario: Jenny has been writing for a long time, but she has never started her own magazine before. She has been reading a lot of aquaponics-related magazine articles and thinks the aquaponics industry has need for its own business-related magazine. She needs to build a business plan that includes information about aquaponics and related industries, including the advertising methods currently used by people in the industry.
Step 4: Prototype your Website
Organizing Information and Content Paper Prototyping Ease of Use Corporate Branding
Step 5: Create Information and Content
Write what your end user needs, not what you know Testimonials are powerful Stories are powerful Use good photos that support stories
Step 6: Organize your Content
Articles Photos Advertising space Branding
Step 7: Prototype your Website
Get into your end user’s brain Learn how your end users organize things
Products in an e-commerce store
Questions in an FAQ section Articles or blog posts
Step 7: Prototype your Website
Online search for “website paper prototype” Click on Images
Card Sorting Exercises
Low-tech (aka low fidelity) Post-it notes
3x5” cards
Sheets of notebook paper
Complex Card Sorting
Online: Optimal Workshop’s Treejack and OptimalSort (https://www.optimalworkshop.com/features)
Online: SimpleCardSort (https://goo.gl/kVoDSb) Online: Usabilitest(http://www.usabilitest.com/)
By Sage Ross (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http
Photo by Sage Ross (Own work) CC BY-SA 4.0
Test your Customer Journey
Think of a task your end user might need to do Equipment sales: Your end user might need to learn more about
variety of aquaponics sets in a price range
Aquaponics education: Your end user might need to locate a list of classes available in his/her area
Food service sales: Your end user might need to learn when and how much product you can deliver on a weekly basis
Write down the task. Be as specific as possible.
Test your Customer Journey
Ask your end user how he/she would go about completing that task. Allow the person to be general at first
Get more specific as you start to understand your end user’s experience
Ask what has caused problems with getting this product or information in the past
Write everything down!
Research your End Users
Identify the Pain Points What things went well, what things didn’t?
What issues convinced the end user to stop shopping on your website?
What issues prevented the end user to not close the sale?
Look back at your business plan How can your business specifically eliminate those pain points?
How can your website’s content and layout help your end user?
Tara Jenkins, NurseQuestions to ask Tara:
1. You want to investigate ___________ on this website.Here’s the home page. Find the information in the website that pertains to __________.
2. Now you want to see if this company sells a certain item of equipment. We’re back on the home page. Where would you go to find out if/where the company sells this product?
Listen, watch, take notes
Make your Changes
You haven’t spent much time or money It’s easy to change things now It gets a lot harder and more expensive later
Next Steps
Organize your information for your developer Decide how complex a website you really need
Calculator?
Videos? Sign-up? (Be careful about this one!)
Online store?
Next Steps
Be realistic about your web design and development skills hire someone
use pre-designed sites
Work with (and listen to) an experienced web developer Stay true to, and repeat, your research and testing as you
build the site
