Forum Moderators: phranque
i just got my first job as a webmaster! i have my first board meeting tomorrow and was looking for some advice or something from someone with experience dealing with non-technical people about the homepage.
background:: on a scale of 1 to 10 the people at this company are about a 2 (they can find the power switch and use email) and i've been told there has been lots of fighting between the many departments over the homepage. there has never been anyone in charge of the website and it's grown HUGE all created by temps and freelancers - all voted on/controlled by commitees. so all the departments have their own sub-websites, none of which resemble each other.
how can i convince them that if they don't have every link on the homepage, that it's not the end of the world. they seem to think every page that is created should go on the home page....
thanks for any advice you can give me :)
- IPfreely
(yehaaw! i'm a webmaster now!)
Even the classic pointy headed boss was taught somewhere in school that form follows function.
Good luck, and I hope they are paying you well...
WBF
Take a look through tedster's excellent write-ups on information architecture:
Glad you posted them.
WBF
Priorities need to be established and vanity/ego issues need to be addressed between individuals/departments..
Since you are the new "kid" on the block you will be tested and probed ... you know that the organization has problems (all do)...it will be your job to quickly assess things and promote the business advantages of a well organized site..
good luck..sounds like a tough job..there's nothing worse than dealing with people's egos / stupidity / comfort zones...
and be able to wrap their mind around the total business model and industry sector that represents the organization....
How true. I'm just wrapping up a project with a client who's been great to work with. But I wasn't able to do a good job for him until I fully understood his business model. It took that understanding to be able to deliver a product that would meet his needs.
The web is a lot more complex now than a simple "About Us" and "Contact Us" page, with maybe a flashy "Enter Site" homepage and a page of links. You can't create a decent website without knowing what its purpose will be, and that purpose should be very well defined before you begin.
- Read those tedster posts for starters.
- Clearly identify your audience
- Remind yourself that the website is for your audience, they need to be ones who are able to find what they want.
- Keep good statistics. Properly presented stats/log analysis can keep everyone happy.
- Take care of the site first, sections second.
If you do those things, it should get you started. One thing that made my life easier was a boss who would go to bat for me. It was clearly stated and agreed upon by the higher-ups that I had the final say on our site. Don't know if you'll be lucky enough to get such a broad consensus, but it certainly gives you the confidence to make the tough decisions if you have it.
Go find an information architecture book or two. In the first bunch of pages you'll find a prominent line that says something to the effect of "your website should not reflect your internal organizations structure". This is both important for you to remember and is important to comunicate to these departments that will give you trouble.
Another tool you may want to use if these departments continue to give you trouble is to find a competitor's site that you think is well done or that they think is successful. There are enough good sites out there these days that you should be able to find one. Their front page will probably not include most of what they want. This is an extra that can help out with those who don't quite understand what you're talking about when you say "what's best for the user".
Your stats are your best friend. If you can show that the tough decisions you make now increase traffic/conversions for your organization six months later, you'll have tons of leverage to keep doing what's right for the site. Also, if you can show that their traffic hasn't dropped when they were moved off of the homepage (since you'll probably increase traffic overall and it'll balance itself out), then people won't mind being booted off the homepage quite as much.
Just remember, your visitors are #1, #2 and #3 on the list of important people. That's what's going to help you make the right choices through these tough meetings.
P.S. If you want to discuss any specifics, feel free to sticky me.
Much of what I would suggest has already been said, but I'd like to emphasize one point: design by committee just doesn't work - you can discuss objectives and the rest of it, but a website needs strong leadership to succeed. If you are new to the company or not in a high position, you need to find a senior person in the company to act as a manager and who can cut through the committee dross and impose the right decisions. The department personnel won't look at the larger picture, or the view from the outside.
The other danger too is the current situation - separate sections of the site for each internal department. Don't forget that someone outside the company doesn't know the company structure - you need to engineer the site around tasks not departments.
Good luck in your new post!
bill i'm reading through those links now - looks like something to commit to memory! i'll be dealing with alot of egos here, but fortunately the CEO was wise enough to see that coming and gave me executive authority, answering to no one but her. i will definitely need references, examples and statistics to back up my "expertise".
karmov - you sound like my twin or something! i have a ceo to back me and have been told stats are my best friend here... can you recommend any good books on information architecture? i'm not sure i understand why "your website should not reflect your internal organizations structure"
KPIs could be as simple as clicks on elements to proper calculation of profit that a particular element brought to the site.
Come up with some clear policies about how to organize the site. In a buisiness, "policy" is your number one CYA defense :)
