It never ceases to amaze me how many business websites out there miss the point when it comes to communicating with the user.
There are so many sites that are still just a regurgitation of a corporate brochure created in 1989. A set of loosely assembled pages that are incoherent and dont provide answers to questions that the user is probably trying to find the answer to at that particular point in their visit.
How many times has your Google search yielded what seems to be a list of highly relevant results that frustratingly lead to some dead-end about us page covering the history of denim when all you wanted to do is buy a pair of jeans. To add insult to injury when you finally find the shop that sells the pair of jeans you wanted, you can’t just “pay and go” you are required to fill in a tax return just to checkout.
How many businesses actually take the time to understand their typical site visitor and how they would want to engage online? Probably not too many is my guess.
More to the point how many digital agencies tell the client that building an effective online presence is more about understanding your potential site visitors and planning out their visit than nice graphics and animation? Probably a small number I would think.
When a business invites a digital agency to look at their online presence they should be looking for someone who is asking about their user profile and not preoccupied with existing content levels, new technology or aesthetics. Yes content and aesthetics are important and so to, is the technology that supports it, but first and foremost should be the desire for agency and client to try to understand the user and their needs.
At Clock we have a simple rule when it comes to digital applications “we don’t do anything until we understand the user”.
We develop this understanding by creating along with the client, a detailed user profile that firstly, highlights and prioritises the types of user that will be visiting the website and secondly highlights the type of questions these users will require answers to during their visit.
Thinking in this way and deriving a site plan from a solid user profile makes sure that we are engaging with the right people, presenting them with relevant content / functionality and as a result produces websites and applications that fit into the client’s broader strategic vision.
