The Art of Communications

Fields of Customer Reality
As the line from the popular movie, Field of Dreams, suggests, “If you build it, they will come”, this is the basis for a successful business plan of growing a loyal customer base. It applies to everything – from building cars, to retail businesses, to designing websites, if you build it right, prospects will want to get to know you, choose you as their supplier, and become loyal customers.

Unlike Henry Ford’s early view of customers, “They can have any color as long as it’s black”, designing your website to satisfy customers’ needs will drive them to your site, and want them to make a return trip.

Technology is not a replacement for good marketing
Quite honestly, I don’t understand all the fuss about the “new” field of information architecture. It is a fundamental marketing principle to develop a communications program, no matter in print or electronic, that speaks to targeted users. It has to be personal, answer their concerns, spark their interest, get them excited about what you do and convince them you are the best company to serve their needs. So why wouldn’t a marketing manager or an information architect do this in designing online marketing communications? When you cross the digital divide, why do the basic principles of selling and buying suddenly morph? When did a seller ever want to complicate the process of luring and capturing a new customer?

As technology advances, it appears that proven marketing principles have taken a backseat to the plethora of state-of-the-art advances in web design. Too many web developers, information architects, content managers, whomever, put technology first, not the user. What you can digitally do is not necessarily what you should do. The first question everyone should always ask is, “how does this benefit the user, the prospect, all the people we want as our customers?”

Camel-a horse designed by committee. Man of War-a horse designed to win.
A company website is a virtual recreation of the products, services and culture of a diverse body of individuals attempting to present a unified image. The challenge in creating this is when you get together all of these people with different agendas in one room. The egos and perceived needs of this diverse group often supercede the needs of the intended external users of the site – prospects and customers.

Politics, rather than good marketing, often takes over the design process. As one in charge of the process or final outcome, you often morph from marcom manager to designer to diplomat at a company version of the U.N. General Assembly. And if left unchaperoned, what this group assembles can lead to visual wars for your targeted users. If visitors to your website are presented with a cluttered, disorganized layout and navigation, it becomes a battle to focus, to find what they are looking for, and to make a purchase.

Everyone in that room should think like a builder, and sharer, of information. Call the person what title you will, if everyone does not think of the user first, then Henry Ford was right. We should all be driving black cars built by one company.

Design for production
In the world of competitive industry, new product development has evolved into a proven science. No longer do designers work in a vacuum where they make the prettiest or most techy products. Instead, the concept of “design for manufacturing” is the accepted standard. Designers must understand upfront, before they put a pencil to paper or do one mouse click, how their design will be produced. They have to know the end before they can begin the design process.

It just makes sense. You can’t have an elaborate design that can’t be easily produced, just like you can’t design a complex website that a user can not easily navigate. So why all the fuss? When did good ole common sense and proven marketing and manufacturing principles not make it into the development of cyberspace?

By thinking like the targeted customers, getting inside their mindset, knowing the demographics, and most importantly dropping your preconceived notions of what you would do, development of a website should be no different then developing a company catalog. Rather than organizing the facts on paper, the information now must be digitally arranged. There are more options, like streaming video, audio, instant updates and up-to-the minute news, but it still must be laid out so that it is useful to the intended user.

No matter what you are building, if you do it right, they will come…

References
Wodke, Christina (2001). Defining information architecture deliverables. Boxes and Arrows.

Hoffman, Allan (2006). Information architects: Web builders with a sales bent. Monster.com.

Wodke, Christina (2006). Are we there yet? Boxes and Arrows. October 2.