{"id":70159,"date":"2021-11-09T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acscreative.com\/?p=70159"},"modified":"2021-11-09T10:00:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T15:00:27","slug":"using-research-to-create-impactful-websites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/?p=70159","title":{"rendered":"Using Research to Create Impactful Websites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeffrey Zeldman was a featured speaker at An Event Apart in Washing, D.C. and gave a presentation called \u201cFrom Research to Redesign<\/a>.\u201d It got us think about the ways we counsel our clients when redesigning their websites.<\/p>\n

Zeldman, who you may recognize as the founder of e-magazine \u201cA List Apart\u201d is an acknowledged leader in all things websites: coding, design, US, accessibility, copy, SEO, etc. so when he said \u201cresearch\u201d BEFORE redesign, we sat up and listened.<\/p>\n

Whether we\u2019re creating a brilliant new website or designing holiday postcards for a client, research<\/strong> is the key to success. Learning, planning, and preparation determine the success of any project or campaign.<\/p>\n

Understanding your market better than your competitors is key to becoming the solution to your audience\u2019s pain points. Here\u2019s a simple overview of what you need to ask before beginning your next website update:<\/p>\n

Know Your Audience<\/strong><\/p>\n

Where are they at today and where do they want to be tomorrow? What is preventing them from moving? What do they value? Based on your quantitative analytics from applications like Hotjar<\/a> and Google Analytics develop qualitative questions to understand their website user behavior.<\/p>\n

Listen and Ask Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Effective communication is more about listening than speaking. Hold a focus group and have ask open-ended questions that allow for a free flow of discussion among your stakeholders. You\u2019ll gain valuable insights from their organic responses. As Zeldman says, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be an expert to have a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Define Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is it you really want for your business? You can\u2019t develop an effective website if you\u2019re focused solely on its features. A website is a business tool to help you achieve your larger business goals. If you don\u2019t know where you want your business to go, your website won\u2019t take you anywhere.<\/p>\n

Clear Direction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work on that beautiful new website. You\u2019ve gathered insightful information and established clear goals. Let\u2019s figure out exactly how to put that information to work for you.<\/p>\n

Measurement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before you ever launch your website, you need to establish metrics. How will you know if your website is delivering for you? When, and how often, will you measure? How will you measure specific campaigns? These are all important measurements to take on a regular basis to ensure your website remains a vital business investment.<\/p>\n

Zeldman\u2019 s three-day conferences are an annual event and bring to life what you read about in \u201cA List Apart\u201d through engaging speakers and presentations. We originally attended an event in July 2018, and have since updated this post reflect current trends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Work with a design firm who understands the value of research. Getting to know your key stakeholders and their relationship with your brand, will lead to valuable results in both relationship-building as well as your bottom line. It keeps the horse in front of the cart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}