With few exceptions, most all of our clients have a pretty solid notion of audience segmentation insofar as who is purchasing their products or services. In fact, it's not unusual for some of these clients to produce impressive documentation detailing demographics, drilling into quite a lot of detail around audiences. Even so, when it comes to the design of websites, it is very common that website navigation, or information architecture (IA), ignores what we know about the end user. Instead, the website often mirrors the organization itself, from departments to products, with navigational labels that reflect the culture and language of the organization. For many reasons, this sort of organization has had appeal for many years...because it may be logical, accurate and convenient. But increasingly, the leadership at companies expect tangible results from websites--whether these results are about increased revenue, engagement or brand loyalty. It begs the question: what is it that we want the end users of our websites to
do anyway?
Who is this website for anyway?
It seems like an obvious place to start, but in addition to understanding the objectives of a website, how about defining who the website is for, and after that, what we want these users to do. A user-centered website design methodology is one that seeks to accommodate the needs and desires of the primary audiences of the website. This methodology can be empowering for the team that practices it, because so much of the emotions and politics of defining navigation are put aside, while content is organized and developed to serve the interests of the user. As a part of this process, user profiles are often developed, which establish "stories" for primary audience members, including likes, dislikes, and a limited set of tasks that he or she wishes to complete on your site. User profiles like these are invaluable during the design process, when subjective feedback starts to pile up. You counter, "Yes, but what would Lisa think of that decision?" The user profile takes on a life of its own and serves as a guide for making good decisions that will yield the right sort of results.
If you are embarking on a website redesign project, we're hoping that this post strikes an intuitive chord. Spend time upfront defining your project objectives, identifying the users of your website, and learn what they want to accomplish once on your website. Make it easy for them to find what they need, and let them get on with their lives. In doing so, there is a good chance that you'll achieve your business objectives as well.