Buying a website – taking the user’s perspective

When I work with a client who wants a new (or redesigned) website, they often start from the perspective of what they want to achieve with the site – more sales, new product lines, growing a network, attracting donors… That’s important. Knowing what you want to get out of it means you can be clear about what are the success criteria for you. But it’s even more important to see it from the user’s perspective. What do they want to achieve when they come to your site? What will make it easier for them to do that? What will get in their way? What’s relevant to their goals? (Chances are that reading your organisation’s history is not high on their agenda…)

An exercise I regularly use with my clients is to ask them to think of 3 websites they hate to use and 3 that they love, then we talk about why the love them or hate them. Reasons for hating websites regularly include poor performance (why does the web site spend ages loading ads when all I want to do it find out when the train times are?), how hard it can be to find what you are looking for and just plain poor design. A classic was an insurance comparison site that would not allow you to change your post code because “that might change the quotations you have” – doh, yes, I’ve moved so I actually want new quotations! Reasons for loving sites include their simplicity, remembering what you have done or read or saved (so you don’t have to do it all again) and being positively useful. All of that helps clients think about what their users will find useful, helpful, easy and so on.

Another exercise, involving a little more work, is to to ask your own clients what they like or hate about your existing website if you have one (useful responses include “I’ve never looked at it”, especially if you follow up with questions about why that is the case). Apart from anything else, asking about your website is a good reason to make contact with past clients and to remind them of your existence. If they have the time, clients are very often pleased to be asked what they would find of value on your website.

If you want to take the users’ perspective, someone well worth reading is Gerry McGovern – his newsletters are a regular reminder not to stray from what keeps users happy, productive and coming back for more.

Getting the basics right

Today I joined a group of fundraisers at a workshop organised by the Institute of Fundraising on using the web for fundraising. It was given by Howard Lake of UK Fundraising, a hugely valuable resource (not least for its rich collection of news and articles pulled together from across the web).

Lots of food for thought during the day, but Howard rightly spent a fair amount of time encouraging folk to get the basics right – think about what your website needs to do (for you and your readers) and do that well. Look for web developers who will provide you with a content management system that takes care of the basics: consistent branding & formatting, accessibility, site maps, good navigation, generation of information that helps search engines, and so on. Make sure you have set aside the time & resources to keep content fresh and relevant. And never forget the “ask” (for money, time, expertise or whatever) from your supporters.

In many ways, it’s not so very different from what’s needed from commercial websites, just a different application. For “customers”, read “supporters”. Instead of sales, look for donations (or both!), but in all cases, make it easy for people. As with e-commerce sites, don’t put barriers in their way, don’t mislead them or confuse them.

Did you know that online supporters generally give 25% more than offline supporters? Or that DEC’s Tsunami appeal made it into the Guinness Book of Records for donations in a 24-hour period? Or that some of the most innovative & successful online ideas come from charities (like Oxfam’s Unwrapped)? It’s worth paying attention to what the “third sector” is doing with the web – they may well have things to teach the commercial world.