Digital White Papers

32 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER MARKETING TECHNOLOGY Roadmap for Your Next Website Redesign Phase One: Assess Questions that need to be answered: Why are we doing this, and why now? What are our objectives? Who is our site trying to reach? CHECKLIST: » Identify core project team and extended teams (project lead, those that need to provide input and/or approval) » Hold internal kickoff with core project team PRO TIP: Chances are your decision makers – probably your Executive Committee or Marketing Partner – will ask you how long this will take and how much it will cost. You should say that it all depends on the outcomes from Phase One. Do NOT guess at these things, because you truly don't know yet. » Hold wider informational meetings with key stakeholders such as your IT department – they may or may not need to be involved, but they certainly will want to be informed » Set up a project management tool such as Basecamp or Trello and determine how you will collaborate on documents » Define business objectives that clearly state what you want to achieve with this redesign, including measurable goals that can be reported on later (e.g., conversions, bounce rates) » Conduct an expert review to get a snapshot of the current state of your site, what works and what needs to be fixed/removed/ added. This should include a deep dive into your analytics, stakeholder interviews (include clients whenever possible), development of personas and journey maps, and a content audit. I've seen projects where the stakeholder meetings, persona development, and journey mapping are held during Phase Two, and this can work if the current site is in decent shape and the firm is comfortable that they have a solid understanding of their users and site requirements. But my preference is to conduct this research early on. It's a good idea to hire an outside agency or consultant to conduct this expert review and provide independent analysis from a fresh set of eyes with the experience needed to do the research and interviews » At this point, some firms realize that their branding needs a refresh to go along with the website redesign. If this is the case H I G H L E V E L W E B S I T E R E D E S I G N P R O J E C T P L A N Assess Get a clear understanding of why you are doing this, what you hope to achieve, who needs to be involved, and what the scope of the project is. Significant research is done in this phase. Design & Build The meat of the project, designing the look and feel and building it in such a way that the user experience is optimized (both for external users and for the users of the content management system.) Maintain Ongoing support of the site, including governance and new content owner training. Equally important are managing enhancements and reporting on the site analytics. 1 2 3 Define business objectives that clearly state what you want to achieve with this redesign, including measurable goals that can be reported on later (e.g., conversions, bounce rates)

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