1. Iterative Web Redesign
Nick DeNardis
@nickdenardis #psuweb11

2. Who am I?
Associate Director of Web Communications
Wayne State University
http://wayne.edu/
Host of EDU Checkup
http://educheckup.com/
Writer for .eduGuru
http://doteduguru.com/
Curator of EDU Snippits
http://edusnippits.com/

3. Why am I here?
To sympathize

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

5. Agenda
• Reality of a website
• Why redesigns fail
• A better alternative
• Examples
• Tools
• Your turn

6. Websites are not
“projects”
completion dates don’t exist

7. Your website is a
business

8. If you oversee one site
You have no excuse

9. Web departments
Just do your best

10. Your site is launched
Now what?

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

12. Or.. Start making
changes in 2 weeks?
While the committee is still busy announcing the launch

13. Micro Redesigns
Definition:
Taking small deliberate steps to reach a larger goal
(which may be not 100% apparent at the time).

14. Craftsmanship
Your staff didn’t spend four years and $50,000 to do
Kinko’s work

15. Some Examples

16. Wayne State Stories
Goal:
Increase story click-throughs

19. A measly 0.009 %
of ~820,000 visitors per month
= less than 100 click-throughs

20. • Drop the drawer down then up
• Remove categories
• Remove branding images

22. • 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

24. • 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

25. New CTR: 0.8 %
Now ~6,500 click-throughs per month
6400 % improvement

27. © 2011 Higher Ed Experts 22

28. © 2011 Higher Ed Experts 23

29. © 2011 Higher Ed Experts 24

30. © 2011 Higher Ed Experts 25

31. Let’s start the redesign
process!

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

33. “Let’s start looking at
websites we like”

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

35. Business objectives
In the web world

36. 1. Offer something of
value

37. 2. Treat every visitors as
your last

38. 3.Your customer is
always right
Your visitor on the other hand, isn’t.

39. Define the business
objective of your site

40. 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

41. Start now.
Go ahead, yell one out.

42. How are you
measuring?
Go ahead, yell it out.

43. What did we learn?

44. Pick one objective
and measure it

45. Start at the end

46. 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

47. Tools of the trade
• Google Analytics
http://google.com/analytics
• Google Website Optimizer
http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer
• Crazy Egg
http://crazyegg.com
• Click Tale
http://clicktale.com
• Woopra
http://woopra.com
• Websort
http://websort.net/

48. CrazyEgg

49. Woopra

50. Woopra

51. Websort

52. Google Analytics

53. Google Website Optimizer

54. Click Tale

55. Pick a timeline
Two weeks, One Month, One Semester, One Year

56. Take screenshots
Way back machine isn’t reliable

57. One thing at a time

62. Faculty listing
College of Education

68. Apply Now
Homepage call to action
http://j.mp/h8pwej

72. 100 days?
What type of timeline is that?

74. The side effect
“Giving” link

78. Setting up a test
Visiting campus

86. Where can you start?

87. • 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

88. Documenting

89. Thank you!
@nickdenardis
http://www.slideshare.net/nickdenardis