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If you have no explicit purpose and audience for your web site, it can only become a web site about yourself, and a web site for yourself. The only way to turn your site into one that is "user-led" (i.e. suits the needs of the user) rather than "provider-led" (i.e. designed from the perspective of yourself) is to spend time thinking about who the site is for and the reasons they might have for visiting.
What does "user-led" mean?
People mean different things when they profess to be user-led,
depending on their differering understanding of the term.
Some will attempt to categorise people and provide information
on the basis of a (mis)understanding of "what they should
know". Although the approach is outlined by type of user,
the approach is still provider-led as the web site content
is determined by what the web site designer wants to tell
users, rather than being determined by what the user is trying
to achieve on the web site.
A more reliable way to meet user needs is to focus on the
reasons that (any) user might have for visiting your web site.
By concentrating on the purpose of their visit, you are more
likely to provide what they need to complete their task. It
helps to consider who the users are to start with, and then
to take that further by exploring when and why they might
want to visit your web site.
Identifying users
Start by writing down as many different audiences as you can
(e.g. potential undergraduate students). Don't forget to include
the ones you're not intentionally designing for, but who might
be visiting your site (especially relevant for those working
in potentially contentious areas). Next, build two or three
imaginary user profiles in each category to help bring them
alive as real people with real needs. You might develop a
picture of a mature potential undergraduate student looking
to see if you provide part-time study opportunities etc. Think
about their context for using the web and what their expectations
of your site may be (these could include mistaken expectations
about the services provided by you, but services which are
important to them - e.g. childcare).
Identifying why users are visiting
Now develop some scenarios for what these people might have
a purpose for contacting your School / Unit. To make this
really authentic, find some members of your target audiences
and ask them why they would visit your site. They are likely
to come up with reasons you hadn't thought of, and even reasons
that you might not think appropriate for what you provide.
Note these ones down too as you may have to include content
to point them in a suitable direction, if these reasons for
visiting represent a misunderstanding of what you provide.
Write down as many reasons as you can for each visitor to
come to your site. Try to state the reasons beginning with
the word "to"; for example, "to check on ..." or "to compare
...". If you think a different visitor may have the same reason
to visit, write it down twice - or once for each visitor.
This is because the result of their visit may be different.
Identify results for each visitor
Now that you have a list of visitors and their reasons for
contacting your School / Dept, you can complete the visitor
/ reason pairs with their possible actions and the results.
Don't restrict yourself to assuming they will visit the web
site to meet their aims, they may prefer to phone instead
and you need to recognise this. The results of the visitors
actions (if they are satisfactory to the visitor) will tell
you the information or services that you can provide to meet
their particular needs.
You should end up with a number of statements to guide the site design process in a way that will ensure you are user-led (user-purpose led) in your design. For example,
- "Potential collaborators (visitors) will visit
the web site to check whether we study X (purpose)
and will find the groups' recent publications (result)."
- "Potential research students (visitors) will visit to see what we study (purpose) and will find research project outlines (result)".
These statements will then inform your identification of
web site content and how it might be arranged on the site.
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