User-focused design

Reading Mark Hurst's white paper on his customer experience methodology (CEM), I was struck by the simple fact that Web site redesign should begin with watching people use the existing site. How often does that happen?

The CEM posits that strategic change (vs. tactical change) can fundamentally improve the customer experience. To do that, you need to know what customers want, and how your current site prevents them from getting it.

What customers want is, in all likelihood, something quite different from what the CEO or marcomm department wants. The company wants sales. Customers want solutions. How do you design a Web site that delivers solutions in a way that makes customers happy?

Hurst's approach suggests these steps:

1. Review the company's business goals and the Web site's role in fulfilling them.
2. Watch people use the site to capture strategic and tactical insights.
3. Identify one defining idea that will improve the customer experience.
4. Design a prototype (wireframe) that shows how the major elements fit together.
5. Test the prototype to validate the customer experience strategy.
6. Build out the site, faithfully reproducing the strategy at every level.

Do it right, and you deliver sound solutions and a good experience, all in an affordable package. That's a tall order.