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We
thought we were pretty savvy about web
projects. After all, we've worked with numerous
clients on their re-launches and we thought
we'd learned from their mistakes. So why was
our own re-launch as slow and painful as giving
birth to a baby elephant? It turns out there
was still plenty to learn. We've made it
up the steep learning curve, and we're proud to
announce the new and improved
E-WRITE site. Our re-launch
had three goals: - Update our
web image. Our look was WAY dated and tired.
Plus, our original one- column page design
limited how we could display
information.
- Streamline
and expand our content. We needed to improve
the organization of our article archive,
eliminate dated articles, and update some
articles. We also wanted to offer new content:
a better resource list, downloadable conference
presentations, and new web writing
tools.
- Easily manage
our content. We were ready to use a content
management system to make the web publishing
process easier.
A simple and
realistic agenda, so why did it take so much
time and effort? And what did we learn that is
relevant to small-sized as well as mega
websites? Here's a list of the lessons we
learned the hard way plus our suggestions for
ways to make your re-launch
easier. 1. Graphic Designers
And Content Writers May Use The Same Words
Without Speaking The Same
Language
In talking with our talented
designer about a new look for our site, we said
we wanted a design that was contemporary,
uncluttered, bold. We wanted an image that
would express who we are and what we do. So
should we have been surprised when our designer
developed a contemporary, uncluttered image of
a fountain pen? A traditional image for
writers, but trite for our tastes. Two designs
later, we were all frustrated but no closer to
a satisfactory design.
Lessons
learned about working with a
designer: - Identify at
least three sites you like and be very specific
about why you like the graphic design. We broke
the design stalemate when we commented in
detail on why our model sites worked for us:
"We like the navigation in site A, the
geometric design at site B, the 2-column format
for interior pages at site
C."
- Choose colors
from a palette. Our designer pulled us out of a
swamp when it came to describing which colors
we meant when we said bold. ("We like blue, but
not that blue.") She sent us a dozen four-color
palettes and asked us to select one.
2. It's
Hard To Get Rid Of Content You've Invested In,
Even When You Know It's Past Its
Prime
Our re-launch
gave us the opportunity (and responsibility) to
reevaluate our content and replace anything
out-of-date or underused with content our users
genuinely want. Emotionally, this is a
difficult task. It's hard to let go of content
you've invested time and energy to develop,
even when you know it's
dated. Lessons
learned about developing content for a
re-launched
site: - Use hard data
to make good content decisions. Even if you
can't afford a fancy report by an expensive
analyst, you can probably draw on user surveys,
site feedback, customer requests, page views,
click-throughs, etc. to help you decide what to
keep and what to cut.
- Repurpose old
content in new ways. Some of that old content
deserves to be put out to pasture, but some of
it can be repurposed and reused in a new
format. Recycle your old content creatively.
Update the still-useful portions, combine them,
and publish a white paper. Or select the best
of your old content and include it in a
"where-we've-been and where-we're going"
presentation.
3. The Percentage Of
Tedium Will Be Much Higher Than The Percentage
Of Creativity
We thought
our re-launch would be all about "the vision
thing"—recreating
ourselves online. And, of course, we did plenty
of creative work in our re-launch. But as we
look back on how we spent most of our time, we
were doing very tedious tasks: making sure
headings were the right font, color, and size;
cleaning up and updating the many articles
we've posted, developing a web style guide and
editing our work to comply with
it. Lessons
learned about the web housekeeping demanded by
a re-launch: - Budget your
time appropriately. Much of your time will be
spent on web housekeeping, so make sure you
have enough time to do it before launch. We
probably spent three-quarters of our re-launch
time editing, updating links, checking various
browsers, etc.
- Develop a web
style guide and follow it faithfully. Web
tedium will overtake your life completely if
you try a re-launch without a style guide. At
the very least, make sure your style guide
covers the tedious writing issues: punctuation,
capitalization, and usage. Also include
information that will make the formatting
consistent: how to use bullets, how to write
heads and subheads, and how long
paragraphs should be.
4. Technology Has Its
Limitations.
Our CMS was a
relatively new tool that uses open source
applications. Sometimes it seemed as crotchety
as an elderly uncle. For example, our CMS
didn't play nicely with Word, which created
formatting glitches onscreen. And it didn't
completely eliminate our dependence on our web
developer: we still need her help when we want
to update or edit our online registration form.
Learning the capabilities and limitations of
our CMS was like navigating a city without
street signs. Sometimes we went in circles.
Needless to say, we invested lots of creative
energy developing work-arounds and spent lots
of time ranting about how the CMS was driving
us crazy. Lessons
learned about adopting new
technology: - Test-drive
your CMS before you buy: use it to create
prototype web content. We previewed the
features of the system by looking at the demo,
and we talked to others who were using it. Our
developer invited us to log on to another
client's site and take a look around. But we
should have actually used the system to publish
content. If we had, we'd have been able to
identify the features that didn't work for us,
find out whether the system could be adapted,
and decide whether the efficiencies outweighed
the deficiencies.
- Learn to use
the CMS before you begin reworking your site.
It's too hard to learn a new publishing tool
while making high-level decisions about what to
publish and how.
- Designate an
expert CMS problem-solver, or make sure your
vendor supplies one. Don't buy a CMS unless it
comes with unlimited access to help. You'll
need it.
So we are
older and wiser. And in the end we got what we
wanted. We have a new design that reflects our
image and business, we've streamlined our
content, and we have a content management
system that puts us in control of most of our
content. What does this mean for our clients
and readers? A more vibrant site: fresh
content, frequent updates and reasons to come
back for another look. Most importantly, we can
use what we learned from our mistakes to help
our clients when they re-launch. President
Harry Truman got it right: "The only things
worth learning are the things you learn after
you know it all."
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