Iterative Website Redesign: Micro Goals in Action

Nick DeNardis

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/

@nickdenardis

Higher ed web work is hard

aka conferences..

Today’s Topics

• Motivations behind full redesigns

• The “non full redesign” option

• Creating effective feedback loops

• Communicating changes

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

Churn and Burn

The Redesign Truths

• Everyone strives for “something different”

• Your users are not sick of your site

• Large focus on visual appearance

• Old and new websites have completely incomparable experiences

Reasons to Redesign

• Users goals not being met

• Bring the site into a central identity

• Institution or department has new goals/initiatives

• Reaction to a change in the marketplace

Micro Redesigns

Definition:Taking small deliberate steps to reach a larger goal

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

Websites are not projects

Encourage Craftsmanship

Let designers design, writers write, developers program.

Micro Ideas

• Reduce redundancy

• Clearer calls to action

• Reduce path length

• Remove a silo

• Integrate external information

Micro Changes

• Grouping content

• Visual style tweaks

• Combining CSS/JS/Image files

• Menu item label changes

• Microcopy changes

Homepage Stories

0.009 % CTR

Less than 100 click-throughs per month

Trial and Error

0.01 % CTR

Less than 150 click-throughs per month

New CTR: 0.8 %

Now ~6,500 click-throughs per month

6400 % improvement!

Campus Tour

A/B TestGoogle Website Optimizer

Option 1 Option 2

Goal

A/B Test

Goal Conversion

Faculty Profiles

Apply NowHomepage call to action

http://j.mp/h8pwej

100 days?What type of timeline is that?

Side EffectsBe on the lookout

An Evolutionwayne.edu

37 SignalsEvolution

OpportunitiesEveryone has an eye for challenges

Feedback Loops

• Interacting with the actual users

• Can be subjective

• Solution may not be perfect for everyone

• Needs to be documented

• Think of the scientific method

Communicating ChangesBuilding support

Blogging is story telling

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

Dream BigThink Small

Thank youhttp://slideshare.net/nickdenardis

http://blogs.wayne.edu/web/

Photo Credits

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/1198663035/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsnortheast/5473321885/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/wynnie/6393444439/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/drift-words/10434156/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjornmeansbear/5081930704/