Iterative Web RedesignNick DeNardis

@nickdenardis #psuweb11

Who am I?

Associate Director of Web CommunicationsWayne State Universityhttp://wayne.edu/

Host of EDU Checkuphttp://educheckup.com/

Writer for .eduGuruhttp://doteduguru.com/

Curator of EDU Snippitshttp://edusnippits.com/

Why am I here?To sympathize

Why are you here?Let’s make the Web a better place

Agenda

• Reality of a website

• Why redesigns fail

• A better alternative

• Examples

• Tools

• Your turn

Websites are not “projects”

completion dates don’t exist

Your website is a business

If you oversee one siteYou have no excuse

Web departmentsJust do your best

Your site is launchedNow what?

Wait 2 years, repeat.Forming the committee now...

Or.. Start making changes in 2 weeks?

While the committee is still busy announcing the launch

Micro Redesigns

Definition:Taking small deliberate steps to reach a larger goal

(which may be not 100% apparent at the time).

CraftsmanshipYour staff didn’t spend four years and $50,000 to do

Kinko’s work

Some Examples

Wayne State Stories

Goal:  Increase story click-throughs

A measly 0.009 %

of ~820,000 visitors per month

= less than 100 click-throughs

• Drop the drawer down then up

• Remove categories

• Remove branding images

• Pros

–Story displayed without the visitor clicking

–Auto rotate if visitor is on page too long

• Cons

–Takes up additional height

–Weird spacing in the menu

–Hard to find images that wide

• Pros

–Stories are front and center

–Only some additional height needed

–Easier to find images to fit

–Auto rotate if visitor is on page too long

• Cons

–Less space for story headlines

New CTR: 0.8 %

Now ~6,500 click-throughs per month

6400 % improvement

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Let’s start the redesign process!

“When do we get to see what it looks like?”

“Let’s start looking at websites we like”

“The tabs are going to be at the top right?”

Business objectivesIn the web world

1. Offer something of value

2. Treat every visitors as your last

3. Your customer is always right

Your visitor on the other hand, isn’t.

Define the business objective of your site

To generate requests for more information

To encourage people to visit campus

To reflect positively on XYZ university and increase it’s reputation

The increase the profile of XYZ and it’s faculty, students and alumni

Start now.Go ahead, yell one out.

How are you measuring?

Go ahead, yell it out.

What did we learn?

Pick one objectiveand measure it

Start at the end

Privacy

• Privacy policy is a must

• Tracking via GA must be in it

• Tracking via cookies can be disabled

• Don’t know what third parties are doing

Tools of the trade• Google Analytics

http://google.com/analytics

• Google Website Optimizerhttp://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer

• Crazy Egghttp://crazyegg.com

• Click Talehttp://clicktale.com

• Wooprahttp://woopra.com

• Websorthttp://websort.net/

CrazyEgg

Woopra

Woopra

Websort

Google Analytics

Google Website Optimizer

Click Tale

Pick a timelineTwo weeks, One Month, One Semester, One Year

Take screenshotsWay back machine isn’t reliable

One thing at a time

Faculty listingCollege of Education

Apply NowHomepage call to action

http://j.mp/h8pwej

100 days?What type of timeline is that?

The side effect“Giving” link

Setting up a testVisiting campus

Where can you start?

• Identify a small problem

• Figure out a way to track it

• Propose changes

• Talk about it with some end users

• Implement the most appropriate one

• Review the results

• Document and share

Documenting

Thank you!@nickdenardis

http://www.slideshare.net/nickdenardis