CHPT 3 Phase 1: Define The Project

Phase I – Define The Project DiscoveryClarificationPlanning Gathering Info with Client Survey ( redesign.com) Determine Overall Site Goals Assign the Team Set Up Staging Area Create a Proposal and Project Plan Understanding your Audience Preparing a Communication Brief Set the Budget Prepare PersonasCreate Schedules Usability Testing Plan Analyzing Your Industry with Competitive Analysis

Understand Your Audience Get information on Client Survey that tells you…  Demographically who the target audience is (who the site visitors are and who they want them to be)  Stats like, HH income, average age, education, home ownership, etc.  Psycho graphically who the target audience is  How do they think  How do they feel about various issues pertinent to the site  If more than one target audience you need to separate these into groups and prioritize

Personas/Profiles Create a general profile for each visitor type and use this in your communication brief. See page 49 for sample persona

Technical Requirements Outline the requirements the client wants/needs to incorporate in the redesign Is this site a front-end redesign or will you be adding in back-end programming?  Are you capable, or do you need a programmer? This will impact time and budget. Project Manager MUST control the Client’s expectations at this point.  Consider timeline  Consider budget

Determine Audience Technical Capabilities Average bandwidth/modem speed of user Average screen size Browser preferences,etc. Site specific stats  Google analytics (if available)  ISP might provide them  Pay for it at: or, Get techs involved with Project Team now if back-end programming is needed.  See tech-check on page 57.

Determine Goals of the Redesign To increase traffic To increase sales To highlight a new project or event To make static into dynamic CMS To decrease calls to customer service To create intuitive navigation To increase Brand awareness To increase donations, volunteerism and membership

Analysing Your Industry Chapter 10 to be discussed next week.

Preparing a Communication Brief Also called Creative Brief Keeps everyone inline with objectives, target audience, timeline, testing, mandates and deliverables. Use provided template or see sample in book on page 63.

Creating a Project Proposal and Project Plan

Difference between the two is:  Both documents outline the overall goals of the project and announce the plan of action  Both contain a budget and a schedule with deliverables clearly defined  The Proposal is a skeletal overview or a starting point and delivered to the client in the form of a contract to be signed.  The Project Plan goes much deeper into details and execution strategy and comes after the signed contract.

Project Plan Project Plan Overview Introduction  Background on the organization and the website  Project overview  Website objective  Technical add on’s needed (database needed)  Static vs. dynamic changes (if any)  Budget breakdown and estimation (see page 67-74)  Go to Lynda.com – Goto – Budgeting and Scope Creep  Scope Creep – Change Order doc on wiki space

Additional Sections  Schedule (see page 75-79)  Portal information/Staging Area (page 80) instructions for client  Communication Brief  Milestones and timeline Target Audience Information (Demographic Definitions only) – personas are in IA assignment Audience technical capabilities User Testing Plan Details and assumptions (see page 66) Line for client signature

Set Up Staging Area (Project Portal Assignmnt 1) Each Team to Present their Portal Review Staging Area Setup on Page 80 then Go Home