May 03, 2004

Fun with Design Tools: Strategic Definition Documents

This is the first in a set of entries detailing different tools I use when designing a website, and how I'm applying those tools to the design of this website, Inspired Nonsense.

Strategic Definition Documents

Cousin Joe-Bob calls from his pizza stand and decides he needs a website because Pizza Hut has one and he thinks its "the bomb". You say, "sure thing Joe-Bob" only you have no idea what's involved in the pizza business other than 10 bucks and a phone call gets you pie in 45 minutes or less. So, where do you begin?

The concept behind a Strategic Definition document is to help you and the person you're building the website for, define three core elements (Audience, Site Objectives, User Needs) with as much clarity as possible so that they can serve as the guide for the rest of the design process.

Audience
Who exactly are you building this site for anyway? "Everyone and Anyone" is not an answer unless your client is Google. Keep in mind that your website's audience is not just your target audience, but others that may happen across your site so be sure to write down any secondary and teritiary possibilities you can think of.
Site Objectives
Every website exists because someone (or a group of someones) had a need or desire that was fulfilled by creating it. Ask, cajole, and persuade your client to reveal what he/she wants from the site (this can be a lot tougher than it sounds because most clients have no idea what they want from a site). Once you start getting some answers, go deeper. Its very important to be as specific as possible, and define where the hard, actual benefits are for the site owner. This will help eliminate bad objectives while providing a basis for measuring success on the rest.
User Needs
Your audience has needs. Anticipate your user's needs, and they just might come back to your site in the future. Research, ask, beg, and empathize with the audience and you'll start getting an idea of what those needs are. Also be as specific as possible here, it will benefit you greatly when doing usability testing down the road.
Strategy for Inspired Nonsense

Since this is a personal site, the strategic definition for this was really fairly easy:

Audience
Primary: Web Design Community. My peers, comrades & acquaintances, novices, possible employers.
Secondary: Family & Friends (the non-web designer types).
Tertiary: Damn near anyone.
Site Objectives
Share my opinions and knowledge as a web designer with the web design community.
Create a place for me to rant and get things off my chest I can't always express at work without getting written up, or worse...
User Needs
New concepts and ideas. Brilliant insight into all things web related.
"How to" articles. How did I do this, that, or the other thing. Preferably with a good description.

That's pretty skimpy to start from, but that's the beauty of the strategy document because its never done (plus, its a personal site, so the only true metric is the value I get out of writing it and whatever value you get out of reading it).

Needs change, businesses go in new directions, and it all usually happens right in the middle of your process, so be flexible. Update this document when every you feel there is a need, and then assess how it affects the decisions on the rest of your design. Its always better for your brand and the user's experience to fix what you can before you put something live.

Props

Resources and further reading on user experience design and strategy documents:

Next up

Content Maps!! Savior or bane of the project, depending on your personality type.

Posted in:
Design Tools, Web Design

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