anatomy of an effective website redesign

#IGXUC14 #igxuc14 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com 1

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Embarking on website redesign journey

Daunting process

Strategic and tactical

Sprints, in context of marathon

Cross functional teams with competing

agendas

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Common theme:This stuff is hard!

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Informational

Transactional

Experiential

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No other category of website has a greater range of relevant target audiences than a college or university.

Feel free to tweet this.

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Typical Website Redesign Takes 9-18 Months!

…Once you actually start!

#IGXUC14

See your life somewhere in here?

Website not meeting

expectationsPlan for overhaul

Attempt to accomplish internally

Meet with groups around campus

No one can agree on anything

Consider hiring outside firm

Fight for budget RFP process

Put on hold to wait for new

incoming VP of Marketing

New VP hired

VP puts project on hold to

assess overall needs

Budget reallocated to pressing need

Admission and Alumni teams

scream for help with the website

New VP secures the budget

RFP processOutside firm

#IGXUC14

See your life somewhere in here?

Website not meeting

expectationsPlan for overhaul

Attempt to accomplish internally

Meet with groups around campus

No one can agree on anything

Consider hiring outside firm

Fight for budget RFP process

Put on hold to wait for new

incoming VP of Marketing

New VP hired

VP puts project on hold to

assess overall needs

Budget reallocated to pressing need

Admission and Alumni teams

scream for help with the website

New VP secures the budget

RFP processOutside firm

suddenly a

year has

gone by!

#IGXUC14

All too familiar result…

#IGXUC14 #igxuc14 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com

Foundation for Website Redesign

Where teams should spend

MORE of their time

Where organizations should spend

MORE of their time

Where teams spend MOST of their time

Where organizations spend MOST of their time

Communication

& Content

Strategy

Information

ArchitectureTechnology

Visual Design

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Disclaimer

3 hours of content

Thought provoking

Not a tutorial

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What is most important?

Usable

Desirable

Viable

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VIABLE

Executive

sponsorship

Decision-

making team

Advisory

#IGXUC14

Website of the Future

Business

• Admission

• Advancement

• Academic Reputation

• Mission & Values

• Community

• Expanded Reach

Audience

• Student Engagement

• Influencers

• Brand Ambassadors

#igxuc14 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com

Aligned with strategic objectives

and defining attributes

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Strategic Phase

Fact-finding• Business requirements

• Real differentiators

Vision-creation

• Strategic view

• Drives a tactical roadmap

Consensus-building

• Shared objectives

• Ladders to organizational vision

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Digital Roadmap

User Experience Quality and Focus

ohesio

rentiation

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

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DESIRABLE

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Content and Context Drives Desire

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Content and Context Drives Desire…

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to spend more time figuring it outD

Time Willing to Spend

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www.IGXUC14.com

Offerings

Outcomes

Proof Points

Nuts and Bolts

What How

Informational Transactional

Experiential

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USABLE

The problem is there are no simple “right” answers for most Web design questions (at least not for the important ones).

What works is good, integrated design that fills a need—carefully thought out, well executed, and tested.

― Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

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More navigation does NOT mean more usable

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Often, the structural “bones” are there…

There’s only so many ways to name and

organize these sections

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We’ve forgotten about the reason “they” are here.

To consume, experience and interact with… content!

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…and every page works against itself

Navigation

Contextual

Factoids

thematic

content

AKA: “I read

somewhere

about a 3-click

rule, so lets put

navigation

everywhere”

AKA: “We

have added

too many

things and now

the IA isn’t

intuitive”

AKA: “I know

you came

looking for

something

specific but

maybe click on

me instead”

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Vision and

Requirements

Experience

Design

UI Design/

Wireframing

Visual Design

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Usability =

Empathy for the Site Visitor

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Test early, and as often as possible

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#IGXUC14 37#igxuc14 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com

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Usability is different than like-ability

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LAUNCH-ABLE

Content

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Waterfall

Watergile

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Project Kick Off

Client Provided Data

Stakeholder Interviews, Research

Digital Plan and Scorecard

IA & SEO Strategy

Wireframe Development

Functional Requirements

Visual Design (Look and

Visual Design (Tier Page System)

HTML Build, QA

CMS BuildApplication

DevelopmentQA/Testing

Content Migration

Launch

Process & Context

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High Level Timeline

Deliverable M 1 M 2 M 3 M 4 M 5 M 6 M 7 M 8 M 9 M 10 M 11 M 12

Project Planning

Technical

Requirements

Recommendation

Research and

Discovery

Digital and Content

Strategy

Design

Content

Development

HTML Buildout

wCMS Buildout

Testing and Go-

#IGXUC14

And there’s this thing called: SEO

Page Element

Meta Titles

Meta Descriptions

Site Content

Navigation & URL Structure

Social Media

Sitemaps & Robot.txt

Headers (h1, h2,h3)

Images

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And the oft-forgotten 301 redirects

Content

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MANAGEABLE

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Technology will never solve an organizational challenge.

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The Governance Pendulum

Decentralized

No single owner

Organic technology and procedures

Distributed content ownership

Often the Wild West

Federated

Single owner backed by a ‘central services’ team

Centralized technology, templates and policies

Combine Dept. SMEs with Content and Visibility Specialists

Builds on what’s working in current state

Centralized

Single owner or cross functional team owner

Centralized technology, templates and policies

Centralized content ownership

Too controlling and bureaucratic to enable participation/usage

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Move to a Modular Framework

Balance evergreen and fresh content.

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Shift to content “modules”

Utilize a balance of evergreen and fresh content to create a modular site experience.

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SUSTAINABLE

Preserving the Home page from promotional overload requires constant vigilance, since it usually happens gradually, with the slow, inexorable addition of just...one...more...thing.

― Steve Krug, Don‘t Make Me Think Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd Edition)

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Avoid iterating back to the starting point

Starting

Vision

9-12 months of

blood, sweat and tears

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Less Org Chart.More Content-Centric.

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Project Management

Process Model

Vision and Leadership

ContentWeb Print

Social

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Subject Matter Experts and Storytellers

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SME and Storyteller

Storyteller

“Service Line Editor”

Marketing Team

Subject Matter Expert

Service Line

SME Name

Subject Matter Expert

Service Line

SME Name

Organization

Marketing

Web Content

Syndication, SEO, Social

Content Direction

Content Standards & Support

Content Development

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Content Strategy[TM]

140 Characters

140 Words

140 Sentences

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1403 Content Strategy

Bite-sized

Mid-sized

Super-sized

• 30-60 seconds

• 1-2 minutes

• 5+ minutes

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Top Level

Deep Level

Mid Size

Super Size

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CONSUMABLE

Small, digestible chunks of content are most

frequently clicked

Direct headlines resonate with users

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2 minute storytelling

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Pulling in, vs. pushing away

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Pulling feeds in, not pushing away

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Social Hashboard

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Responsive Design

Content optimized across devices.

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Adaptive approach

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Anticipating the next wave

1 Social

2 Mobile

3 Accessibility

http://www.theprimacy.com/blog/changes-in-web-accessibility/

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CUSTOMIZABLE

Content is king (queen).

Context is heir to the throne.

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Allow visitors to:

“explore” on their terms

“discover” with your guidance

75#igxuc14 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com

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Geo-Targeted Content

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Aggregated topical content

In the topic area

In News

Any other place in the site

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Contextually relevant throughout experience

Conveniently, all wired and ready

to go for DMS

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Using high-value “journey” stages

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Empathetic anticipation

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Audience-focused, high-value navigation

Audience selector

changes links in menu

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Work toward “super-personalized”

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MEASUREABLE

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MEASURING SUCCESS

Identify measures at the outset

Activity-based Measures

Performance-based

Activity-based

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It’s not a page.It’s not a website.

It is a digital platform.

It is the hub for all communications.

#IGXUC14 #igxuc14 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com

60 rc/visit

rc/apply

rc/studyabroad

Landing Pages are effective router pages Road Piece

Vanity URL Visits New Users

Ave. Time on Page

Pages/VisitAve.

Session Duration

rc/studyabroad 1,340 470 0:28 5.8 6:22

rc/academics 274 31 0:25 35.9 5:14

rc/visit 261 112 1:33 2.5 3:26

rc/studentactivities 162 18 0:48 17.4 3:13

rc/apply 94 33 1:17 1.9 2:14

rc/netprice 22 12 0:26 6 5:43

Total 2,153 676 0:49 11.6 4:22

Users tend to spend little time on the

landing page but navigate to other pages

Ave. site duration and pages/visit are

high, inferring that users are engaged

passed the initial page

#IGXUC14

Email remains an effective marketing channel

Source VisitsBounce

RatePages / Visit

Avg. Visit Duration

Application Start (Goal 1

Conversion Rate)

Application Start (Goal 1

Completions)

Regis University Employees 7,850 49.5% 3.3 04:53 0.04% 3

ruffalocody 3,022 47.2% 3.0 02:01 0.83% 25

Eloqua 3,008 45.9% 4.2 06:47 0.00% 0

visit 1,839 66.2% 2.5 02:54 0.11% 2

Humanities and Social Sciences 1,808 67.6% 2.4 02:47 0.00% 0

apply 1,078 50.8% 4.2 05:31 3.71% 40

Admissions 488 43.7% 4.3 03:48 0.00% 0

hs_email 363 51.5% 3.1 04:46 0.00% 0

accept 235 49.4% 4.6 05:39 0.00% 0

committed_students 114 78.1% 2.0 01:46 0.00% 0

application_started 39 100.0% 1.0 00:00 0.00% 0

January 28th 2014 21 57.1% 1.6 03:24 0.00% 0

regisreport 18 55.6% 4.1 08:49 0.00% 0

SB-CompTIAEB 14 14.3% 6.3 05:14 0.00% 0

survey 14 100.0% 1.0 00:00 0.00% 0

Primacy Emails

Delivered: 130,943

Open Rate: 32.4%

CTR: 5.2%

Visits from All Email Efforts: 19,376

Website V

isits fro

#IGXUC14

Even tangible, dimensional aspects…

#IGXUC14

…can drive social initiatives

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Business Objectives

1. Enrollment:

Increase conversion

and *qualified

enrollments

*%enrollments that fulfills financial

commitment

2. Awareness & Perception:

Enhance brand

awareness and

perception

3. Satisfaction:

Increase visitor

satisfaction

Success Definition

Increase in Task completion

rates by Audience (b)

Lift in Visitor Satisfaction

ratings by Audience (a)

Increase in Return Visit Share

Reduction in exit rates for key

content pages

Increase in Engagement rate (visit

depth and duration)

Increase in Enrollments (b)

Increase in %enrollments that

fulfill financial commitment (b)

Increase in Application submissions

online

Increase in Inquiries to main

recruiting number

Increase in visits to Prospective

Students content areas

Increase in Website Visits (b)

Increase in organic branded

search visits (b)

Increase in overall and

positive social mentions (b)

Increase in visits from target

geographies

Lift in NPS score

― (a) = attitudinal (e.g., social monitoring, consumer satisfaction/ visitor survey)

― (b) = behavioral (e.g., Google Analytics, Student database)

― (f) = financial (e.g., Organization)

Digital ScorecardData

Sources

‐ Google

Analytics

‐ Student

database

Current

Performance

xx,xxxenroll

XX%% app

Benchmark

xx,xxxenroll

XX%%app

2015 Target

‐ Google

Analytics

‐ Google

‐ Social

Monitoring

4.4MMmonthly/ visits

xx,xxxmonthly/ organic

xx,xxxmonthly/ visits

xx,xxxmonthly/ organic

‐ Google

Analytics

‐ Visitor

Surveys

XX%task rate

xx%visitor sat

XX% task rate

xx% visitor sat

#IGXUC14

more inquiries – up 13% more applications – up 7%more campus visits – up 57%more deposits – up 42%

great feedback from focus groupsgreat feedback from parentsgreat feedback from campus great feedback from awards shows

#IGXUC14

ViableDesirableUsableLaunch-ableManageableSustainableConsumableCustomizableMeasureable

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Are you ready and “able”?

#IGXUC14

QUESTIONS ?

#IGXUC14

THANK YOU

@thePrimacy

@ZigZagJeff

Jeff.Johnson@theprimacy.com

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