9. Check cross browser compatibility - Minor things can make web pages look drastically different across various browsers. Content shifted off pages, backgrounds not lined up, even entire containers of graphics or text overlaid over other items or pushed into places they shouldn't be. I frequently use IE7 and FireFox so the differences that show up between websites can be shocking. Every website should be checked for IE6, IE7, FireFox, Safari, and Opera at a minimum. You will be surprised at what you find.
8. Optimize your images for smaller file sizes and lower object counts - Run a speed test on your site here. How fast does your page load on dialup and how large are your file and image sizes? For some websites I have reduced the download speed from 2 minutes to 20 seconds on 56K just by optimizing the images with no visible loss in quality. Where possible images should be combined, 20 images can become 1 used throughout the site. Your website will load faster, your bandwidth usage faster, and pages will render quicker even on broadband.
7. In page search engine optimization (even if you paid for it!) - Your title tags and h1 tags should all use keywords that accurately describe your page, and the words should vary on each page. Your title tag is the main thing that shows up in search engine results to users; make sure it tells them why they should visit your site. Not some abstract company motto.
6. Validate ALL of your links - How professional does your website look when main links in your menu don't even work? This is especially bad when that was the one page on your site that the user was looking for.
5. Check for bugs - The catch all for number 10, 9, and 6. I frequently find websites with broken forms, horrible usability mistakes, and spelling/grammar mistakes. Websites are no different from any other software, bugs happen and you need to thoroughly test to catch them.
4. Provide documentation and support (unless you pay) - Any website project should at least include some documentation, support, and/or guarantee. If you find broken links and bugs after the project ends will the company fix them? Did you get documentation on where your forms get sent to, how to use that back end management section, or the content management system?
3. Get your advice - Did you have any say in your website design project? Sometimes it is better for the designer to ignore the client, after all the designer does this for a living, they probably know more about composition and color choices. However, how can someone design a theme or include the appropriate information and functionality if they don't know the target audience. You probably know who your customers are better than the website company you hired.
2. Conduct user research - Websites are advertising/informational tools or they provide functionality for users to accomplish some task. Everything is user based, yet I am always amazed at the lack of user research in website design. Many website budgets are small, but if you are spending thousands of dollars on a website, shouldn't you also invest at least some time and money into finding out what you users want from your site?
1. Design for users - Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a huge proponent of user experience and user centered design, and for good reason. Users are your clients and customers. Your website is for them, so design it for them. Find out what they want to do on your website and make it incredibly easy to find those things and present it in a way that is appealing.
So why don't people think about their websites the same way? You invest a lot of money into designing a flashy website and advertising to get traffic, but you only through up some text and marketing materials quickly. In my opinion graphics and ad campaigns for your website are just part of the equation. What really matters is the actual content and what website users can do and learn on your site.
Most of the websites I work on are for customers that are trying to promote their company's products or services but they do not directly sell through their website. Their website is meant to be an informational tool about the company to get potential customers to contact the company directly either be email, phone, or in person. This is exactly what radio, TV, and newspaper ads are meant to do. The great thing about websites are that you have free reign over what it looks like and you can provide a lot more information to the customer. The downside is that users do not come to your website and spend hours looking through your content, they spend a few minutes.
So what can you do? Put time and effort into writing the content that gets put onto your website. Make sure that the images that you use are related to the message you are trying to convey, use your entire website as a canvas to convey your targeted message to the user. Of course you should also make sure that your website is well organized so that users can quickly find exactly what they came there for. Some users need to find a location, search for something in your inventory, find a phone number or an email address. Ensure that you have all of the information and content that users expect to find on your website and that they can find it in one or two clicks.
]]>You need web analytics to help figure out how many people are coming to your website and how often. Most web hosting packages include some type of analytics application; just about every website host I have used provides Webalizer by default. The problem with Webalizer is that it includes traffic from search engine bots, so it may look like you have a lot of traffic when you may actually only be getting 1 or 2 real users. Another problem is that the data is poorly presented and you have to do a lot of analysis on your own. For small business customers I often recommend Google Analytics. It is free, it provides powerful information, it only gives you statistics on actual website users, and it can be configured to email regular reports, so you don't need to worry about going to check the tool. Your webmaster can setup Google Analytics and set it to email you the information you would like to know about on a weekly or monthly basis.
So why should you configure Google Analytics? You can use it to collect powerful information about how many people are visiting your site, what they are looking at, and how long they are staying there. You can also find out what links they are clicking on to get to your site and what keywords they are searching for. When doing an organic keyword search campaign it is very important to take a look at the keywords users are using to find your site so you can work towards improving your ranking for those keywords and adding your site to search results for related keywords as well. This way you can compare to see if your "search engine optimization" did really improve your traffic.
How can you tell if your search engine optimization is actually paying off? Well with Google Analytics you will be able to see if you have an increase in traffic and how many of those are unique visitors. You can also track how many users are coming to your site from various keyword searches or from referring URLs. Of course if you don't want to bother with using the tool yourself you can ask your webmaster to create custom reports or summarize the data that you want.
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When I took a look at their company's current website I couldn't find any evidence of search engine optimization, in fact some of the site design actually hurt the search engine optimization. One of the most basic in page search engine optimizations you can do is correctly target the title tag of your website. This is what customers see as the link to your website in search results and it tells the search engine a lot about the content of the page. In this particular instance every page of the website was only part of the name of the company and a slogan that was completely unrelated to the product they sold. After checking for external links for the website and keywords customers had used to find the website I discovered the only way people were finding the site was typing the company's name almost exactly. Most likely those customers already know about the website. Keywords related to the product company sold did not even put the company in the search results at all. I plan to report on the effectiveness of our organic search campaign for this website in the near future.
The main point is there are a lot of company's out there that claim to do search engine optimization, but unless you get information about the results you may be paying for nothing. When customers do a search engine optimization with Convenient Solutions they receive detailed information on their past traffic as a baseline and ongoing reports in the future and detailed information on the improvements in search engine rankings for targeted keywords and conversions of those searches into visits to the customer's website.
]]>I started out by giving a quick definition of user experience: usability, usefulness, and desirability. Usability means can people use your product, is it error free for users to complete the intended tasks. Usefulness is does your product perform a useful function. Desirability means people wanting your product. Of course this all applies to website design, but also to all products in particular whether it is a can opener or an iPod.
Then I covered a design process that I use that I have collected some several different methodologies. This process is planning - research - modeling - development - integration - refinement - support.
The planning phase involves setting scope, budget, strategy, timeline and resources. In this part of the project you are collecting initial information. For website design work this usually involves forming an agreement with the client, signing contracts and a quote, and nailing down the goals of the project. The next phase is research, an important part of the design process that many seem to skip, especially in small website design projects. Research can be focus groups, interviewing current and potential users, observational studies, and surveys. As part of research you should develop personas, target users that are representations of the people that would use your product based on actual data you have collected.
The third phase is modeling, which can include storyboarding, wireframes, mockups, sitemaps, specs, prototypes, and all sorts of diagrams. The purpose of this phase is to come up with a plan for what you are building and how it will work. With those details worked out you can move on to the design phase, picking what colors and fonts to use, how people will interact with the product, where features will be positioned. There are lots of documents, diagrams, and specifications that can come of the modeling and design phase and it is very important to get this information written down so everyone working on the project can refer to it and submit feedback.
Now onto the fun stuff, writing the code, making the product, or creating the product samples. Everyone involved with the project should understand the design and the personas that are being targeted. Testing should be done through this phase to catch bugs early. You can also conduct internal usability tests to validate design assumptions. Then it is on to integration (although this may largely be a phase for software engineering). At this point the main code is done and it is time to get everything working together. Most of the work is on fixing bugs, not creating new features.
Now comes the content phase. I place this phase at this point, but it is often and should be around the planning phase. The content is really what mattes when creating a website so the development and design should really be based around the message you want to convey. Now with most of the work done it is on to refinement where you make everything ready for actual customers. It is time to start beta tests with customers, conduct demonstrations to get feedback, and take care of remaining issues. The final phase is support. If you are making a website I hope you have a plan for support and maintenance of it. Customers will be using that website, are you going to update content? How will you do it? Pay a web master or do you have a content management system that employees know how to use?
The actual presentation was an hour long so this is definitely a condensed version, but this should give you some insight into the design process that I use.
Working solely by email can be very difficult. I can send off an email with one important question and have it never get responded to or I can fire off 10 questions in one email and maybe get a response back on the first question I asked. It isn't my fault or the clients. Many people that you deal with are likely to be very busy and a website is just additional overhead on their time. Most customers are happy to spend time discussing an investment in their business, but you need to schedule that time. Not everyone responds is exhaustively thorough with emails like some of us are.
When first starting out a project take some time to lay out a project plan and discuss details such as timeline, deliverables, goals and non-goals, and what success will look like for the project. Collect any design ideas, graphics, and content from the client. Many clients want to provide content after the project is over, I do not recommend this for websites. The content is what users will read, the website should be designed for and around what will be presented. Collect as much information as possible upfront before or while you are working on initial designs. If possible try and have an initial meeting in person or at least by phone to address what you need from the client, and then follow up with all of the details and action items in an email. Then schedule another meeting or phone call during or after receiving the initial items that you need.
When working on a website I often move very quickly. I often finish a medium sized project in a week or two, which can pretty fast for a busy business owner inundated with business decisions. This means that a client may barely start working on action items when I am already trying to finish. Set timeframes and deadlines and send updates to your client so they know what you are working on and when and how they can best assist you. It shouldn't take too much effort to convince a client to work with you, after all this is how you will make them a website they and their users will be happy with.
If you aren't getting the information you need don't be afraid to call or schedule an in person meeting to discuss what you need to work on the project. In person communication is extremely important so try and do it when and where it makes sense. If not, try scheduling a conference call using online conferencing tools so you can show customers what you are working on. Use visualizations to demonstrate ideas and get approval from your customers. The final delivered website should definitely not surprise your customers.
]]>In order to begin conducting a systems analysis a problem must be identified. During this step a scope statement is generally created to outline the purpose of the project. As a consultant I generally meet with clients during this step to discuss their needs and identify problems that they are trying to solve. For the second step you should identify what the current methods or technologies are being used. An example is copying and faxing carbon copies from a remote office to a central office. The problem is that there is a high cost associated with making copies and faxing the documents. The current method is a copier, fax machine, and labor from employees. Alternative solutions are purchasing a digital sender to scan and email the documents, or to handle the documents electronically. All possible solutions to the problem should be looked at and information gathered on a variety of products that can potentially solve the problem.
Step three is the fact finding phase, although much of this may occur during phase one and two. The fact finding phase is gathering documentation and conducting interviews to collect information about the current problem. This is an incredibly important step that should not be skipped. In order to select the correct solution you must thoroughly investigate what is currently involved with the problem or you may miss key procedures or problems during candidate solution selection. Fact finding can consist of interviews with managers and key stakeholders, questionnaires, and documentation gathering.
Step four consists of analyzing the data that has been collected. During this phase it is useful to create diagrams to show how processes and stakeholder groups interact and are involved with the problem. Use cases of current process can be an excellent way of organizing policies and procedures with the current method of handling the problem and use cases of how the processes will be with the different candidate solutions. During this step I usually create a use case model diagram that shows how the current method and candidate solutions will work. In addition I create stakeholder diagrams and context diagrams to show the actors and processes involved with the problem.
The final step is evaluation. In order to make the proper decision the financial benefits as well as qualitative benefits of each solution must be measured and compared to the current method of handing the problem. It is important to look at a variety of low cost and high cost solutions to the problem, you may be surprised at the results. During the analysis of a mobile GPS tracking system for a trucking fleet that I conducted we were surprised to discover that one of the most expensive options actually resulted in the highest return on investment with a relatively quick time to payback. A candidate systems matrix should be used to evaluate the benefits of each solution and a feasibility analysis matrix should be used to measure different categories of feasibility such as operational, technical, economic, and schedule. To show economic benefit and feasibility I find it important to measure net present value, time to payback, and return on investment.
Conducting a systems analysis right will give you a side by side comparison of the different features, benefits, and feasibility of different solutions for a problem. The benefit of a good systems analysis is that a complex problem and even more complex solutions to that problem can be easily communicated in a short report. An in depth analysis can be hundreds of pages, but the information needed for management to make a decision can be put into a report less than ten pages of mostly tables and charts. Using weighted rankings for different categories of features and feasibility provide management with a few simple numbers that show which candidate solution stands above the rest and why.
In order to fully utilize a knowledge management system, an organization must first answer the question, how do we gather knowledge? Often times, this is tacit knowledge, or knowledge that is intuitive and difficult to express without putting the knowledge into action. In Cisco's case, they wanted to capture the knowledge of their existing SSMs in how to deal with customers and other best practices. In other cases organizations may want to gather the knowledge of members who are leaving or to share knowledge and practices between different branches.
Once an organization has gathered knowledge, it must then ask how can we make it usable? How can this information be accessed quickly and easily? In the case of Cisco getting information out in a timely and effective manner to reduce training time and prevent new employees from repeating the mistakes of those with more experience was a high priority. With the help of VisionCor, a knowledge management solutions provider, Cisco developed effective categorizations and knowledge objects to create a knowledge portal to share this information. Answering the question of making knowledge usable depends on the organization and how the content is going to be used.
Once an organization has decided the format in which they want to gather, store and disseminate knowledge, they must investigate what the best tools are for the job. Intranets, wikis, forums, knowledge databases and many others are all options for an organization. Cisco worked very closely with VisionCor to determine that developing a knowledge portal based on the current corporate Intranet was the best option. The vast array of choices and combinations make this a difficult question that can have many possible answers.
Finally, the last question an organization must investigate is how to best implement a knowledge management system. In order to make the knowledge management system a success there must be a well thought out plan for system implementation and long term support. Employees must be motivated to use the new knowledge management system and business processes may need to be changed. If an organization cannot discover the best practices required for proper use of a knowledge management system, then the system is useless.
References
Schneble, John (May, 2002). Case Study: Knowledge Portal at Cisco. Retrieved May 5,
2007, from http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/may2002/schneble.html
Capturing, disseminating, and attaching value to knowledge, along with the reasons for doing those things are some of the most important aspects of knowledge management. Knowledge management can reduce costs and increase productivity in organizations but its value can be difficult to quantify. Ultimately knowledge management systems are not a silver bullet for all of an organization’s problems, but they can be an important factor for success in today’s information economy. Effective knowledge management consists of understanding the different types of knowledge and how to gather it, sharing the knowledge, selecting the proper tools for the job, and proper implementation of the system. By understanding these knowledge management issues organizations can make knowledge management work for them.
Creating a knowledge portal for employees can be an excellent way of disseminating information among employees. A knowledge portal can be organized by job type and contain electronic versions of company documents, policies, and procedures. This provides employees with a place they can receive answers to questions for which they would normally need to search through paper documents, ask their manager, or speak to human resources. A knowledge portal can contain training materials for new employees. A great addition to a knowledge portal can be a user created content system such as commenting, discussion boards, blogging, or a wiki. User created content systems allow your employees to contribute ideas and solutions to problems they have solved to help others in the future.
In addition to creating and sharing information electronically you can also use a corporate intranet to digitize and automate procedures. You may have a form that salespeople need to fill out to get reimbursed for travel expenses, with a form on your intranet they could submit these directly to whoever handles reimbursements without having to mail or drop off a paper version in person. Using web based forms and databases can reduce the time it takes to process items and reduces the expenses associated with paper and printing.
Using a corporate intranet presents many opportunities and solutions to problems, but can also create their own problems. Employee efficiency and productivity can be increased because they can receive answers to questions by searching online instead of asking managers and take care of business processes digitally. However, there are issues of security and motivating employees to use and contribute to your corporate intranet. A corporate intranet can benefit small businesses, especially ones that have travelling employees or remote offices. A basic corporate intranet can be developed for a relatively low cost. Small businesses interested in a company intranet must evaluate various options and evaluate how they can reduce costs and what their return on investment will be.
According to the Australian Standard on knowledge management, knowledge management has four parts. These include people, processes, technology and content (Robertson, 2007). Knowledge management is often thought of as technology solutions such as a database. However, knowledge management does not necessarily need to be technology based. Knowledge management can include training and mentoring programs, communities of practice, workshops, and seminars. Knowledge management consists of a range of practices used to identify, develop, store, and share knowledge for training, reuse, and sharing across an organization. Knowledge management helps organizations train employees, collaborate across great distances, and share the best methods for accomplishing and managing tasks.
Knowledge management can provide organizations with competitive advantage through the sharing of best practices, better training programs, and provision of easy access to information. In order to increase efficiency and reduce costs, organizations can assist employees by promoting knowledge sharing throughout its ranks. Knowledge management can also support the retention of knowledge from experienced workers that are leaving the organization as a result of turnover or retirement. Knowledge about the failures and successes of past projects can be stored and shared so the results of successes can be repeated and failures can be avoided. In order to make the best use of knowledge management it is necessary for organizations to understand what problems knowledge management will solve and the benefits it will provide for their specific organization.
References
Derr, Kenneth (1999). Proceedings from Knowledge Management World Summit
Managing Knowledge the Chevron Way. San Francisco, CA.
Robertson, James (March 5, 2007). There are no “KM Systems” . Retrieved April 28,
2007, from www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_kmsystems/pdf/CMb_KMSystems.pdf.