Have you ever been in the following situation?
You've just spent weeks nutting out a content strategy and site map for your beloved employers brand new website. You and your colleagues have ground it out, meeting after meeting, and through draft revision after draft revision. At last, you feel like you've got the solution sorted. Only one thing left to do and that is to pitch it to the bosses.
Should be a snap, after all you know the project inside and out. You and your little web team have thought of everything – from what you your target audience needs from the site to the organisational goals of the business. So What could go wrong?
And then it happens. Your winding up your pitch and calling for questions from the room and someone drops the following bombshell on your big moment:
"That all sounds fab'o but I don't like the way the main menu is labelled, and.... (wait for it) wouldn't it be more logical if the page about 'blah blah' was under the main menu item labelled 'Blah'?"
Silence. (Oh dear.)
In the seconds that follow you suddenly doubt whether "Um, because we have thought about this really, really hard for ages" will be a sufficient enough response to halt this party pooper in their tracks. But you say it anyway.
What follows is a painful dismantling and reorganisation of your solution that sends you and your team back to the drawing board to ponder a way forward.
How could this have been avoided?
The answer is simple. User research. If your content strategy and site map solution is based on what you and your colleagues think is required, your only hope is that the people your pitching to take your word for it. There is no way to prove with any real clout that you know what your target users need if you haven't asked them.
On the other hand if you can map your decisions about menu labels, site map structure and content back to real users needs, your response to that bombshell question might sound like this:
"Well [Insert part pooper's name], I'm glad you asked. After contextual interviews with members of our target audience who were interested in 'blah blah', we found out that 80% of those users would be more likely to look for this sort of content under a menu item labelled 'Blah'. The findings from our user research and subsequent recommendations for content and taxonomy can be found in Appendix A of the documents in front of you."
All of a sudden your bullet proof. Now wouldn't that be satisfying. So if your planning a website for the organisation you work for, or for a client, don't forget to talk to real users and factor their needs and requirements into your plans.
Being able to logically map your strategic decisions back to key user needs will not only make you look good, it will ensure your website solution will work better for your business.
And the bosses will love you for that.
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