I designed the site, how did I do?

How do you know that the site you designed is fantastic when the user hasn’t even taken the time to email you personally to say how much fun they’ve had filling out their latest online form to pay their latest electricity bill?

It can be difficult sometimes to be sure when you ask your colleagues.

Management “you did good, they got AJAX so they must be happy”.
Development “you did good, the bill got submitted”.
Human Resources “we don’t know”.

Feedback can be ambiguous to the client when the response after a bout of user testing is that the site was “ok to use” and that “The user would use the site again because they have to pay a similar bill next month”. Clients can sometimes be hesitant to voice their opinions when they are not exactly sure what they are reviewing.

It seems to be that an IA (viewed by client or colleague) does something, the site gets built and then the IA moves on without any true review to mark their success or failure. Web statistics may prove that “something” once the site goes live but this is far too late in the process.

Educating clients and colleagues in information architecture is a must as our discipline still has that “unknown” factor. Presenting sitemaps, wireframes and prototypes must be complimented with:

· The reasons behind your IA decisions
· The value they have to the business and customer
· How a decision made now will affect the success of the end goal
· Brief descriptions of other solutions (and why the solution you chose is the correct one to use)

Better understanding of the IA process will build client confidence, which in turn will encourage them to take active roles in site reviews and user testing activities. The same goes for your project team as this may also help colleagues support your decisions and help fight your corner in times of need.

The idea is that the non-IA’s in a project environment can give fair and constructive feedback on your designs and user-test results.

What are your thoughts on this……?

Dr Pepper