Play at Work
There was a time when “web teams” did whatever colleagues asked for. The web guys were happy to build new, weird and wacky stuff because it was the first time for them. That was 1996, a time when buttons “dimpled”, logos twirled, and the purpose behind most development activity was to: “create an engaging experience”. #hmmpf
This early era was typified by zero demand for ROI. Zero customer insight and it was all about “building from our view of the world, out”. By 1997 budgets were getting significantly larger; more money was eagerly burnt in the quest for more “engaging experiences.” Except, honestly, they weren’t. People realise that brands neither love nor care about them, the consumer. And if they want entertainment they’ll probably watch a box set on Netflix.
Real brand experience now looks more like this.
Yet in 2014, the majority of websites are still constructed in an unfocused manner where the intended audience is “everyone” and the stated purpose stubbornly remains: “we want people to keep coming back….”
I’d suggest the reason for this “muddle-head” approach is simple. Construction commences with opinions masquerading as facts. And personal preferences are used to smuggle solutions to imaginary problems. All the above being led by people incapable of distinguishing contemporary web design from something optimised for I.E 4.0 and best viewed in XGA!
Before you start
Before you start any web development be clear about the business imperatives and the KPIs you’ll report on.
Before you start any web development get acquainted with your audience and their ambitions, drivers and preferences. Differentiate between shoppers and consumers. Example: Lego consumers are kids. Lego shoppers are parents. In higher education, consumers are prospective students but the “shoppers” may be parents and grandparents.
Now combine audience insight with commercial understanding to state what problem(s) you’re trying to fix.
Playtime
It’s time for divergent thinking. Gather ideas and play with problems. Don’t confuse this with solution experimentation stage. The latter involves the convergence and consolidation of ideas. It involves focus and single-mindedness, some might say “dogmatic” behaviour. It’s not. If you want to play, join the game at an earlier phase, in this case, the previous step.
It’s my experience that colleagues prefer to play with solutions to imaginary problems and this leads to an endless loop of Fire, Ready, Aim where no real headway is made and where web developments are treated as ephemeral exercises rather than products that need constant improvement.
“If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” ― Ken Robinson
If you’re going to be “wrong”, it’s best to confine that to playtime. Experiment with facts, and then build with confidence. It’s less costly for you and more rewarding for customers, consumers and shoppers who, incidentally, use your website for utility, not entertainment.
