Client Needs Analysis & Competitors

Overview Gathering Client Information Establishing Goals and Objectives Client Relations Concepts Usability Requirements Competitive Analysis

Gathering Client Information Who is the client? If you are part of an in-house development team, the ‘client’ is your boss (or his/her boss) If you are an outside developer, it is the individual(s) that hired you or your company to develop a website or web application Plan for a number of client meetings Having a question checklist helps Don’t just ‘wing it’ in the meetings

Your Questions to the Client What is the vision and purpose of the site? What are the short term and long term business goals of the site? Product Sales Image Customer Support Online Services What criteria will determine the site’s success?

Your Questions to the Client Who are the users / audiences? What content should (and should not) be part of the site? Who are your competitors? What functionality and technologies will be involved in developing the site? What are the target platform(s)?

Client-Supplied Materials The client should provide: Business model and strategy Branding (logo, fonts / typefaces, colors) Marketing literature for the company Marketing plan for the website If you are redesigning an existing website: Web analytics data Site architecture Any usability studies

What are Goals and Objectives? Goals are high-level statements about what the client wants to achieve Objectives are lower-level outcomes that support each goal. Sample goal and objective supporting goal: Goal: To become more cost-efficient Objective: In the first year following site launch reduce call volume by 40%.

Developing Goals & Objectives Goals do not provide details; they indicate a general direction only. Objectives, on the other hand, are: Measurable (otherwise how do you know you were successful?) Time-limited (typically in month or quarter increments with 1 year as the maximum; this tells you when to measure)

Client Chooses Goals/Objectives The client needs to set these goals and objectives If you set them and are too optimistic, the client may perceive your work to be a failure If the client sets them and they are not met, the repercussions are less severe (for you) Ultimately it is the client’s website and they know their industry the best

Sample Goals & Objectives Goal: Become more profitable Objective: Increase online sales revenue 25% in 6 months Goal: Become more cost-efficient Objective: Reduce mailing costs 15% in 6 months

Sample Goals & Objectives Goal: Improve brand image Objective: Improve average brand quality to a 4 or above (on a 1-5 scale) using multiple focus groups over a 1 year period Goal: Increase website awareness Objective: Increase the number of unique visitors by at least 20% within 3 months

Determining Goals For a banking website (e.g., National City Bank, Key Bank, TCF Bank) For an educational institution website (e.g., WCC, EMU, UM) For a computer manufacturer / seller website (e.g., Dell, Apple)

Balancing Client and User Needs Look for the overlap between what client needs and user needs Always look for convergence in the data If more than one data source is giving the same recommendation, you feel more confident in implementing it However, keep in mind the time, cost, and resource constraints of the project

Client Relations Concepts Stakeholders Deliverable Buy-In Scope-Creep

Stakeholders Anyone with a valid interest in the project Stakeholder test: Does your project impact their work? If the answer is yes, they are a stakeholder

Deliverable Anything tangible provided to the client User Personas during the Requirements Analysis Phase Site Diagrams and Site Outlines during the Conceptual Design Phase And many more

Buy-In Approval and support of project direction and decisions from individuals in the client organization Get buy-in from high-level decision makers. Strong support from lower-level managers is of no value when their boss disagrees or is unaware of the project. User experience recommendations often fail to be implemented because buy-in is missing.

Scope-Creep Work occurs outside the established scope For example, you have developed 4 personas for the client. This is the number specified in the contract. Later on the client asks for another 2 personas to be developed, based on some of their latest thinking about the project. Scope-creep pushes you over on time and also pushes you over on budget.

Usability Requirements These are the standards for the site to meet in testing with users If the requirements are met, you feel more confident launching the site Requirements are typically created for: Completion rates for tasks Time to complete tasks Number of errors users make How satisfied users feel after using the site

Sample Usability Requirements 90% of users will successfully place an order 90% of users will complete the account registration process in 5 minutes or less 80% of first-time users will locate a desired product within 3 minutes

Why Examine Competitors? Sometimes the client does not have all the answers or is debating between various approaches. You may need a baseline to compare the new or redesigned website against later, especially for showing return on investment (ROI).

Competitive Analysis User experience professionals explore multiple competitor websites to determine: Ideas for content and functionality (and what is commonly included for these) Approaches to structuring / labeling content Indications of target audiences that have been overlooked Interface ideas (although these will not be acted upon until Mockups & Prototyping)

Our Focus Our competitive analysis will focus on documenting and analyzing content and functionality, although a competitive analysis could address any aspect of a website or web application