Tip 2: Start sketching out your website design

Yup, we are now ready to bring your website to life. This next bit is the easiest of it all. This is where we go with the standard stuff – logo, menu bars, footer, main area and the lot.

And, this is the time to add in those extra bits – a wee bit of news, a link to twitter perhaps and maybe a helpful little search box on top.

Once that is taken care of, it is time for our post-its to make their entry. A few dotted lines, a bit of scissor work…pretty much like ol’ Blue Peter…and we have a rough skeleton of the new concept shaping up.

Now then, don’t you expect to get all the things right in the very first go. You might need to move things around a bit, and maybe even start from scratch again! And then of course, there would be the stake holders all along, itching to add in their two pennies worth.

Anyway to cut a long story short, after a few sketches, and some rework you will find yourself in a position to tidy things up. Adobe’s fireworks is what we use for this. They have a nice set of tools and you can easily export to a PDF file. We usually ping these out to clients to show a tidied up version to confirm meeting notes and ensure that all issues were discussed.

This is where we introduce the concept of a grey box. The image below is the same stuff as the sketches, just tidied up a little.

The grey box process in fact relies on open thinking. We might easily get to the design at this point. You can almost see it, can’t you?  But then this is the stage where feedback is all important. Take the time out, make sure all angles are covered and you have gotten in all that you would want, and the effort will definitely pay off at the end. These are the critical initial stages. People are at their most creative, ideas are flowing and no one is bound by limits of nice looking designs that rail road you into one way of thinking. Above all, costs are low. If you don’t like how things are going, you simply bin them and just start all over again. No hassle there.

Now when you finally have the rough sketch, go home, show the wife, the kids, anyone you like. (And, when it comes to the comment part, remember the wife’s bit is not to be discarded lightly! They might not be the ultimate authority on web site design or eMarketing.  But that is one important source to be relied on for strong opinions of what a site should be like, and what designs are cool. Squeezing out a few minutes in between the baby’s nap and the day’s washing for a quick recipe from Jamie Oliver’s cookery blog, while whisking through eBay and netmums – count on them for some practical opinion on what a quick surfer would want from a site.)

Time for a quick PC disclaimer! The third party opinion does not have to be limited to ‘the wife’ alone. It could be your partner, your mum, your dad or a web savvy neighbour- just about anyone. Basically what we are saying is this – show people. A few extra pairs of eyeballs to spot flaws that you might have missed – a great internet thing called ‘crowdsourcing’. Well, this opinion bit is not based on any solid survey or poll, just anecdotal stuff that was discussed in the office and has been testified as quite an effective tool.

Are you still there with us on this?

• No? Good luck, we wish you well.
• Yes? We really are going to get on! Call us.

P.S. Did you spot the ol’ post-it note in the grey box? It managed to stick on this far. Bet you the designer will get rid of it in the next stage!

Tip 1a: Still banging on about Post-it Notes

Post tip1 and pre tip2

Right, you gave me all that twaddle about post-it notes. Point taken Mr Owner, Director, Marketing manager, IT dude who has just inherited this web thing. But incidentally my competitors are right now shelling out fortunes on their new websites.  Ahem…I hear Jones and Jones diggers are spending nothing short of 50K on their new one! All I know is I want a new website, and it simply has to be the best in the industry.

Well, all of the above have actually been said to me, apart from the word twaddle. Ha, I bet this is yet to figure even in the Enriched Teen’s Vocabulary Edition!

Coming to Scissors, paper, pens and post-its… I know they don’t exactly sound like the newest in technology, and doesn’t really come across as the best piece of professional advice in the age of Twitter and the iPad.

But, surprisingly the entire process is actually quite thorough and looks something like this:

•    Simple tools such as post-it notes to capture, check  requirements and priorities
•    Initial sketches / grey boxing to echo back
•    Click-able prototype to confirm that we are going to deliver something that was wanted in the first place
•    Design
•    Build
•    QA / Test / Training
•    Go Live

The technology and techno babble in fact comes in only later. We can’t possibly “give you” a website at the very outset. We don’t know your business, your clients or your products. Our job at this point is just to get you talking. We could put on a German accent, use a desk lamp and turn a bright shining light on to you.  “You vill talk”. Now, before you get the politically correct police on to us… we don’t do that and we love Germany, especially Heidelberg.

The point we are making is this. A process is needed to capture all the requirements. There will be a lot of sorting, rejecting and change of focus. When the client takes the post-its out of our hands, we know that we are onto a winner. The client is engaging, they are starting to own the process. They are starting to build the site. That is exactly what we want, a partnership approach that will lead to a win-win scenario.

If you think you don’t have to be put through all this hassle for a new website, let’s be honest, we know you could spend 50 quid and get your site done in Mumbai or Jakarta. Heck, you can even go to WordPress.com and get a site for free! (and sometimes that is the right thing to do.)

I hope you are still there with us after all this? Good, in that case we are going to get on quite well and I see a winning website shaping up in the horizon.

Hmmm, this stuff works for Social Media also?

Tip1: You don’t want a website!

What? I don’t want a website? Well, if that’s the best piece of advice you can offer, I might as well not waste my time on this…

Wait! Before you make up your mind, let me explain., There are times when you feel your current website is not quite up to the mark and you might think a brand new one might do the trick, Well, the truth is you are probably better off without a new one right now!

You would not believe the number of times we have seen this typical scenario of a client coming in with the wish list:

• I need to have a new website
• I need to have it done yesterday
• It’s just a few pages
• And do remember to keep it cheap

It would then be followed by a few typical questions from our side, like:

• What is the new website for?
• Do you already have one? What is wrong with it?
• Where is your business heading? New products? New services?

It soon becomes very clear that there is a bit of a muddle going on. There are conflicting requirements, desires, needs and perhaps a vision that is a little on the cloudy side. Usually it is the sales team that are banging on the table. Absolutely normal for they are front line and need to look good with the client. But are they the only ones that need to be satisfied? Do we need a lick of paint, a patch up job and a few pics of happy smiley people? Maybe.

The truth is that if you get it wrong, the website will only reflect the internal lack of vision going on within your company. And the last things you want your potential clients to be thinking when they look at your website would be:

• I can’t find a thing!!!
• This looks like it hasn’t seen an update in ages (Are they on the ropes? Cutting back?)
• Hmmm…“Findmywidgetco and sons” seem to be far better than this crowd; Better get back to their site…

So, do you want a website right now, this second? Probably not.

Where do we go from here? Luckily the answer is not a multimillion dollar decision support system that is going to need McKinsey Co consultants being parachuted in.

The solution is in fact quite simple.  All you need to do is gather some post-it notes, a little common sense and all your stake holders around the table.  And, before you know it, you will see the website begin to take shape right in front of your eyes.

Simple.

Got a round table?

Keep the ideas coming.

Start sorting and grouping, your ideal website is almost there.

2009 Recession busters?

Ran in into Alan King, who we have blogged about before, and he was a bit full of gloom and doom. We all get a bit like this don’t we? Alan has many many contacts in Banking, Industry and Engineering…… as far as he can tell, we are all a bit “stuffed”, and possibly for a long time to come.

It can’t be all that bad? Can it?

So it was time for some Google research to find out who will be surviving the recession. Below you will find, I think, some very interesting resources. A “wordle” was a new idea for me

• Small biz will do well
• A recession buster wordle!!!  (A Wordle?)
• A very good explanation of sector, stock market and economic interplay via a visual and graphs.
• Five sectors that can survive. (Not what I expected!)
• Online ad sector should do well
• An Indian perspective
• A discussion on Linked-in

mebeli
So whilst we are being “stuffed” some “stuff” is actually happening. My view on all of this?

We need to be more like speed boats than oil tankers. By this I mean, small and nimble, always flexible, always adapting and most importantly we need to be able to demonstrate value to our clients.

Resource: Social Media Marketing slideshow

Brilliant! After a few twitter conversations, received this slideshow which puts all the web, web2.0, social media stuff into perspective.

Thanks Jo, thanks CJ

Twitter and productivity?

There is an old joke that talks about the creation of Europe. It goes something like this.

1. The French wanted a Europe to stop the Germans from constantly invading.
2. The Germans needed a Europe due to Panzers being out of fashion.
3. The Brits wanted to join Europe after being kicked out of all the colonies.
4. The Irish wanted to join because the  Brits must have known something!

As far as Social Media goes I am a bit like the Irish.  I have been watching the dudes from the Social Media Mafia as I think they must know something. If the Irish can join Europe, well then I can join Twitter.

BUT – my biggest worry about all of this stuff has been around productivity. So I asked that question on Twitter and this is what I got back:

loudmouthman @audio yes education and insight, when applied to process and motivation is excellent tool to do things well, rather than more. 28 minutes ago from web in reply to audio

So I held these beliefs that Social Media must have a huge cost. Loudmouthman put a spanner in this line of thought only after a few seconds of me having raised the issue.

If you have read Clive Woodward’s book on winning, you will know that rather than trying to raise performance by 100%, using one method, you are much better off improving 100 things by 1%. In terms of Social Media the maths may actually look more like this:

audio RT @i_paul @audio One person loses say 10% but a hundred people gain by one or two percent? The bar moves up for everyone. Thats cool 39 minutes ago from web

So time to be more like the Social Media Mafia peeps. Time to engage and take action.

What will the year 2009 bring? Good news?

Tell *Auntie to shut up!

Diane Morrison, based upon Neilsen data, suggests that UK mobile internet usage is growing at 8 times the wired usage rate, rising from 5.8 million to 7.3 million.

The EMarketeer is projecting steady year on year internet usage growth all the way up to 2012.

According to the Office for National Statistics internet sales rose by 30% in 2007, the first part of 2008 showed even better figures.

After considering all of the above, are we still in the deflation camp? What other wisdoms can we garner from Google searches?

• Ten upsides for CIOs to consider. I like the off shoring comment. Because of deflation, you are actually better off keeping the work here! Did we not all worry that the UK was going to be turned into one giant theme park for Chindian visitors?
• Feedback 3.0. I love this one. You can now nail someone at a party who is blathering on about web II. Yes, bring this one on. About time the likes of DABS and Ryan air got a feel for what people think f them.
• Become an Information Entrepreneur, Mr Hillel Porath says that this will be “hot”.
• SaaS is the way forward. Even Larry Ellison of Oracle fame apparently thinks so.
• Virtualization is real. The data protection market is going to grow.
• What smart companies must do? The executive summary is this: Work hard on your website.
• Business tips for 2009
• Web marketing tips, not a 2009 thing, but well worth the read.

In my view there are many positive ideas here. Instead of letting the Beeb fill our heads with terminal decline, we can actually find somethings that are moving ahead.

The messages that I am picking up are all about change, focus, efficiencies, innovation and taking action. If a herd of bulls are stampeding towards you, what are you going to do? It is human nature to get an adrenaline rush and to take action. The broadcasts from the media would have us believe that we are all like lemmings and that we should all just follow each other into the depths of an uncomfortable place.

Now is the time for action, you can start by turning down *Auntie’s volume. 

*”Auntie” is an affectionate name for the BBC

Here’s to a great 2009

Paul Imre

P.S. I do like the BBC. But in my view some of journalists do enjoy the misery a bit too much. (eg. Mr Robert Peston)

“Where will your marketing take you?” – asks Isocube.co.uk

It has been a real pleasure working with Marcus Potts, but boy was it damn hard. We got there in the end, with lots of ideas, real partnership in terms of working through the issues and the good old Expression Engine.

As Marcus says, “where will your marketing take you?” What an interesting question. Do we ever think about this?  Often we state what we would like or need:

• I want a website
• I need a website
• I need a logo
• I want a logo

Really? So why? How will any of this help my business?

To make progress we might tighten up our requirements:

• I need brand consistency (so a logo on my website, brochures and business cards)
• I need to grow my sales (ah, use the web as a means of communicating your offer and to reach more people perhaps?)

Ok cool, now we are getting somewhere and this leads us to the big question. I as the potential client want a website, but this must be formulated into brand consistency and wanting to grow sales.  By now we should be beginning to see a huge gap. Mr business man is running around putting out fires, delivering to clients, fighting cash flow, paying Gordon, and at some point he or she must take time out to think and to make that mental leap from want or need to having a vision for the framework that is needed to solve the real problem.

Cool, we got there in the end eh? But, now image that you are Isocube. How do you attract people and take them on a journey from apparent basic needs to an understanding of what should actually be done?

Well, for a start, you need to communicate at all levels:

• I can give you a logo
• I can give you a website
• I can look at your branding
• I can help you with telesales / customer support / CRM etc etc
• Infact, I can help you with almost anything!

When we sat with Isocube and worked thorugh everything that they could deliver to clients we actually ended up with an enormous list of possibilities. (We could have easily defined 70 or 80 services and products that could be sold and delivered either individually or in groups of related items.)

How do you build a website for that? Now factor in the cross relationships and you end up with a massive matrix. Here are some examples:

• Growing sales could mean: 
  • marketing messages
  • testimonials
  • logo design
  • website
  • data
  • telemarketing
  • preventing loss of clients through better service
• A website could involve:
  • logo design
  • marketing massages
  • SEO
  • hosting
  • testimonials

Rome was not built in a day and you certainly can’t change all of your marketing collateral and customer support procedures overnight. BUT Isocube does need to be able to explain to a potential client that there are dependencies and that the client will need to plot a course. In fact a map is needed. EUREKA!

The map concept allows us to come up with a solution.

• Remember that we asked the question “Where is your marketing taking you?”
• We have lots of services
• We have lots of dependencies
• We need a map
• We need to plot a course
• We need to know where we are starting
• We need to know where we are going

The image below perfectly frames all of the possibilities and is infinitely adaptable.

The map can be used to group relevant products into an instantly understandable work shedule. We know where we are and we know what is going to come next. Infact we can hop from on line to another as certain stations allow it. For more details visit the Isocube website.

Now that we have revealed the simple conceptual solution to explaining the Isocube offering, how did we actually implement this as a website? In a word, with the Expression Engine and lots of elbow grease!

Essentially each product is like a datasheet which collects standard “bits” of information, for example:

• Product name
• Short description
• Categories
• Relationships with other products
• Casestudies

These are then put into a database for later display within web pages. The magic is in the details and this is where the Expression Engine comes to the fore via the provision of an easily manipulated framework. Obviously there is a lot more going on behind the scenes, but the essentials are that thought must given to the data design, grey boxing and page flow.

If you can dream it, well then the Expression Engine can be used to accomplish it!

For more details contact us or get in touch with Marcus Potts at Isocube.

Please note that IMRE does not take credit for the Map idea. All credit for this belongs to Isocube, we at Imre provided the “glue” and mechanics to turn the vision into a website.

Education, Education, Education ( MCL2 )

Who said education, education and education?
Well he has moved on, having not sorted out the Uk Education system he decided to meddle in the Israeli-Arab situation and buy a few houses along the way….. thanks Tony

So, forget the Gov and the people with the letters “PM”or “MP” after their names as they are barking up the wrong tree.

If you are into Web, SEO, Social Media, blogs, gaming and all that that other stuff in the soup or if you want to learn more or if you want to network, well  then there is only one thing you need to do.

Get down to the latest Social Media Mafia event on December 13th – it is FREE. ( MCL2)
http://mediacamplondon.pbwiki.com/register

We will be there. If you are not convinced trawl through facebook, flickr and search on Chris Hambly and read our previous posts.

Now this will be Education, Education and Education. (and Fun! Make sure you meet Jo!)

Urban Tickets Click Cart Pro customer starts taking bookings even before the project is complete!

When Biyi Desalu paid us a visit for his Urban Tickets project, we thought what a great idea. We did not really make any judgements, but we could see how the project might work having seen the momentum with another similar client, UrbanStrides.

However, there should have been a little warning for us after Biyi had told us that the Princes Trust had actually mentored him some time ago…….

We agreed to build the site and Biyi set of to work on the business side. Before we could get the site fully finished the bookings started to pour in. Amazing!

If you want a shop project to work, get your web guys to do their bit but don’t be fooled into thinking that you can put your feet up. You need to be out there, on the phones, meeting people, setting up relationships and working damn hard, really hard.

Learn from Biyi, get people to come to your shop and they will buy! Perhaps Biyi could help mentor other businesses?

Pssst! Want to know the secret? Try social media……

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