Lessons Learned — Redesigning macromedia.com
 Tony Lopez

Every web developer and designer faces the same issue - how do you create a site that balances the needs of your client while providing a great user experience?

As Executive Producer of macromedia.com, I am constantly faced with this issue. I'm responsible for guiding the design, information architecture, and overall user experience on macromedia.com — and ultimately, for finding the balance between business and user goals.

Four months ago we set out to rebuild macromedia.com to coincide with the launch of the MX 2004 products. We had six weeks to do it... Not a lot of time given that macromedia.com comprises more than 40K pages.

On top of meeting a crazy deadline, we were under pressure — more than ever — to strike a balance between business and end-user goals. We decided to employ several different tactics, and in the end, this approach helped us achieve what I believe to be the best version of macromedia.com ever released.

I want to share a few tips with you — tips that helped us score the highest-ever ranking with Forrester Research's Site Review, and helped us score big with our customers.

Tip #1: Spend Sufficient Time on the Discovery Process
One natural impulse of clients, designers, and developers is to move through the discovery period of a project too quickly. The discovery phase is perhaps the most important phase; this is where you determine goals and define the criteria for achieving those goals.

I've had many internal clients come to me with a URL and a plea of: "just build it like this site." And this redesign was no different. However, this time, my team and I took more time to understand the client's goals. We asked the client and ourselves several key questions and, of course, did our research.

  • Who is the target audience? Be as specific as possible and then prioritize those audiences if there is more than one (and there usually is). For example, in the case of the initial phase of the MX 2004 launch, it was important that we focus on the upgrade audience (those who are eligible to upgrade from a former version to the MX 2004 version of a product).
  • What do you want the audience to walk away with? What are the key message(s) that you want your audience to hear and remember? Building on the MX 2004 upgraders example, it was important for us to convey the differences between the MX and MX 2004 products.
  • What task is the user trying to accomplish? Do they have specific questions they are trying to answer, or are they seeking specific information? We have found that our upgrade audience is particularly interested in test driving new software, so we plastered the site with easy access to trials.
  • What are the main goals of the site? The web design and planning process can become incredibly subjective unless you have agreement on the goals ahead of time. This creates the objective criteria against which directions can be measured. The key is to get your client to clearly articulate the business and user goals.

    • After answering these questions we were able to work with the client and find ways to achieve their business goals and, at the same time, provide a better online experience.

    Reminds me of an old colleague of mine who used to say, "It's much easier to get there if you first decide where you are going." Again, restrain your impulse to start schematics and mockups until after you've spent sufficient time in the discovery phase.

    Tip #2: Employ Third-Party Barometers
    Most Internet users fancy themselves web design experts. All too often their instincts take them in some crazy directions. I've found myself in the unenviable position of debating the merits of a design with a client who is paying the bills. How do you keep them happy while taking their site in a direction that they might not have imagined, a direction that their misguided intuition is steering them against?

    One method that we employed on the latest redesign was using third-party barometers. Essentially, this means that you agree upon a neutral third party who helps judge the efficacy of a site. This third party can take many shapes depending on what you are trying to test. Usability testing the site in one-on-one situations is great if you are trying to find issues with information architecture (IA), flow, or usability.

    We employed a novel approach with the recent redesign. One of our stated goals was to get a perfect score on the Forrester Research heuristic testing battery. Heuristic testing is essentially an analysis of the efficacy of a site that is based on an expert's criteria.

    I'm particularly fond of the methodology that Forrester employs because they are constantly evolving it based on the latest HCI research, the evolving concerns of web audiences, as well the best practices that they have derived through the meta-analysis. The Forrester methodology is also unique in that it tests a very wide range of aspects of the site. It tests everything from navigation and content, to design, accessibility, and the responsiveness of the site.

    Forrester provided us with a neutral third-party that was a proxy for the user. We would often take the 'Forrester perspective' when debating the merits of a design with internal clients and executives. This allowed us to once again objectify the criteria and bring it out of the realm of subjective debate. In the end, we received the highest score that Forrester had ever awarded a site.

    Tip #3: Evolution, not Revolution
    You've probably heard the old IA story of the boiling frog. The short of it is that a frog will jump out of a pot full of water if you turn up the heat too quickly. If you turn the heat up slowly, the frog won't even realize the temperature change (PETA members, this is just a metaphor for an important lesson that we've learned around here). Users don't like change. As a matter of fact, they tend to hate it when you change something that they have grown accustomed to.

    On this recent redesign we constantly asked ourselves to justify every change that we were making to the site. Was it really going to make a significant positive impact? What problem were we solving in making the change?

    This helped us focus on the crucial aspects of the redesign that were going to markedly improve macromedia.com. Our users appreciated the restraint that we exercised. Redesigns should be about evolving a site, with objective barometers of success. In all but the most extreme cases, redesigns should not be about throwing a site away and starting from scratch.

    There are reasons why you don't see Yahoo or Amazon completely redesigning their sites. People don't like change.

    Tip #4: Use Technology as a Means to an End
    I've been accused of misappropriating technology in certain situations, but I've learned my lesson. When we get to a point where we are deciding whether or not to employ things like Flash, DHTML, or CSS, we always hearken back to the goals that we defined at the onset of the project.

    As many sites have recently done, we have made a major commitment to utilizing CSS on macromedia.com. We did this only after we finished analyzing how it was going to facilitate meeting macromedia.com's goals.

    CSS is interesting because we keep reaping the benefits of our investment. For example, in the most recent redesign, we decided to make some core last-minute design changes. We would not have been able to implement these changes in the past. However, CSS and Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 allowed us to deal with the new design with a minimal amount of pain. CSS also helped us achieve a high score in the usability facet of the Forrester research.

    The Results
    From spending more time on the discovery phase to enlisting third-party barometers, we employed several news tactics with this redesign, and in doing so, achieved positive results — among them a finer balance between business and user goals. In the end, these new tactics helped us achieve what I believe is the best version of macromedia.com ever released.

    Our visitors agree. We've received a lot of positive feedback about the quality of the site, specifically the MX 2004 information. Page-view data indicates that visitors are extensively using this information. The latest revision of the site also helped us achieve critical business goals, such as driving trial downloads. As mentioned above, it also garnered industry recognition. Overall, the redesign went smoothly, and thanks to the MX 2004 suite and CSS, we were able to execute substantial eleventh-hour changes.

    I hope that you'll keep these lessons in mind when you embark on your next project. In the end, it will help keep your client happy and make your life easier.

    Tony Lopez has been part of the Macromedia family since his days as Executive Producer at Shockwave.com. He is now Executive Producer of macromedia.com, where he leads the design, usability, producer, and production teams.