No, not “Apple” as in the computer company, but rather “apples” as in ‘one a day keeps the doctor away.’ I recently saw this quote…

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”
– George Bernard Shaw

I got to thinking how great it is to share good ideas with good people and in the process, make good ideas even better! Reflecting on my past experiences, there have been several times I have wished I didn’t share my ideas with some people – who ended up taking credit for my ideas. (These people know who they are and I’m sure it’ll come back on them.)

But at the end of the day, I can list at least five ideas (oh there have been more!) I’ve been able to make better by sharing my idea with someone else. There are some extremely creative people out there, and you should NEVER be scared to ask for their input.

“Good people” always want to help you make your idea better – not steal it away.

All of us want to be popular. To be the girl with the pretty smile and great laugh. To be the guy with charm and charisma girls fawn over. To be the one with the most points at the end of the game. (Okay, maybe the last one is just me…) Even if it isn’t said out loud, everyone wants people to like them.

The point is, everyone wants to be popular.

And it is obvious by Google’s and Bing’s SEO updates that popularity means something…BIG. Otherwise, search engine results would still be solely driven by a boring, mixed equation of key words and strategic alt-tag placements, instead of social acceptance adding bonus points to search engine rankings. (Yay! Bonus points!!)

Today, as Bing releases their response to Google’s February Panda update you may wonder what this means for your organic search engine rankings.

There are two things that you should instinctively think of with these new SEO updates:

• Social Media
• Content Relevance

With what appears to be the preferred method of information gathering of the masses, we are obviously knee deep in the social media craze, and it isn’t going anywhere any time soon. The question is: how do I keep up?

1. Social Media

I said it. Social Media. There are people who still cringe at the sound of this phrase, mostly because they do not understand what it is or its implications. The truth is, we are at a detrimental time in the SEO life-cycle to be embracing social media as a communication channel, and not just a way to waste valuable time Facebook-stalking or Farmville harvesting.

…we are at a detrimental time in the SEO life-cycle to be embracing social media as a communication channel…

Obviously, social media is going to start playing a major role in your search engine results by blasting you higher in the rankings based on the amount of Likes your content has. Now, the more social acceptance you, your site, or your content has the more popular you are in the rankings.

This leads me to my next point…

2. Relevant Content

If your content is not fresh, constantly updated, and most of all, relevant, then no one is going to Like you. A strong content foundation is best established with several layers:

• Static Content – Content that always remains the same and is always relevant. Example: contact information, rules and policies, business/service information (no longer product information, since social media is now affecting the way we shop), and any information that will not change any time soon.
• Dynamic Content – Content that is automatically updated in order to always be timely. Example: product information, contests, coupons and any information that can expire.
• Social Media (including blogs) – Content that is driven by a person and not by a process or data. This content is the most relevant because it deals with general, daily issues or topics and is always changing in relevancy, thus the importance of it being consistently updated and managed.

Now, post-SEO enhancements, there is an emphasis on the last item: social media.

If your content is not fresh, constantly updated, and most of all, relevant, then no one is going to Like you.

The SEO Bottom Line

Fresh, relevant content makes people Like you. Likes make you popular. Popularity wins in the SEO world. Period.

I want to address the idea of mood boards and concepts. For those who do not know what a mood board is, it is basically a visual conception of a feeling or mood.

Consumers are driven by two factors: need and want. If you are lucky enough to be in a field that consumers need your product, then half the battle is won (yes, I know it isn’t that easy, but we are speaking in broad terms here). If you are in a field that depends on consumers wanting your product, then the battle is making the consumer think they *need* your product, especially over all other products similar to yours.

In almost every survey of consumers, they say they don’t mind spending money. What they hate is the shopping experience.
- Alan Bush

If a consumer feels like the experience is bad, they associate that feeling with the product. Therefore, the feeling they get when they view your product is very important, if not the most important factor to the success of that product.

Queue The Mood Boards

This is where mood boards come into play. Usually, the best place for mood boards is at the beginning of the life cycle of a product (or brand). What feelings do you want associated with this product? When people hear the name of your product, what do you want them to think of? Is it a serene tropical island experience? A smell? A color? All these questions and more should be addressed in the mood boards and concepts.

Mood Boards and Designers

As a designer, you have the creative eye to put all the desired feelings into a visual aid. It could be as simple as a color palette and as complex to a short presentation artistically illustrating a colorful background for the product. Keep in mind this is only an aid and not meant to be a literal, exact replica of the representation of the product. Mood boards and concepts should invoke the feeling that was identified as being detrimental to the success of the product, and then after presenting the mood boards and concepts the feelings that were felt during that presentation should be examined and compared to the original desired results.

During this process you may find the moods and concepts were spot on, or you may find the need to adjust according to new information revealed from exploring the moods associated with the product. Since this is not an exact science, and this is not the final representation of the product, change is good and should be adamantly explored at this point in the process.

Just A Gut Feeling

It will be hard, to say the least, to remind the stakeholders that the mood boards are only meant to invoke a feeling, and are not meant to be taken as anything more than that. Even as a designer, you may find yourself falling victim to the same fault. A good practice is to constantly ask yourself, and your stakeholders: how does that make you feel? (Ex. “I’m glad you like the blue. How does it make you feel when you see the blue associated with our product?”)

Words All Marketers Should Live By

To conclude, I am going to leave you with this quote from Stanley Marcus (of Neiman Marcus), to help guide you through the mood board process and get you in the right frame of mind:

Consumers are statistics. Customers are people.
- Stanley Marcus

What is a stakeholder? A stakeholder is someone who has an investment whether it is money, time, or any sort of claim to something. In the world of the web, a stakeholder can be the owner of a company who has to answer for all dealings of the company, the legal department who has to answer to the law, or the financial department who has to answer to the bank.

It is important to identify who these stakeholders are in order to properly gather information for a website. As a designer or developer, you may work with a project manager or the owner of the company, and though they may have an idea of what they want or need, you are the expert in this field and it is up to you to help drive them to the right decisions that help them meet their requirements.

Gathering information by using tools like the Internal Stakeholder Questionnaire is one way of accomplishing this, but you may find face-to-face interviews, strings of emails, mood boards or even wire frames may be what work best for you. Without knowing who your stakeholders are, these methods are obsolete.

Stakeholders Are Designers/Developers Too

Not really. But they like to think they know a thing or two about websites. Browsing websites and building websites give you two different perspectives on what makes a good website tick. So don’t discount what they have to say, because chances are, they’ve been doing a lot of browsing in order to gather what sort of features they like or don’t like. You may have to educate them on what it takes to get the sort of effect they like.

Insert Reference Here: I love A List Apart, and they always have great articles. Here is a good article regarding educating your stakeholders.

Who Are These Supposed Stakeholders, and How Do I Know If I’ve Met One?

We’ve covered who a stake holder can be (owner, project manager, financial director, creative director, etc.), but how do you know if this person is the RIGHT stakeholder?

There are no right or wrong stakeholders, only stakeholders with more or less to lose. Determining which stakeholders you should spend your time with could be determined by how much they have at stake if this website does not go well. Keep in mind, that there are people who may not have a lot to lose, but know a lot more about what they need than the stakeholders who have a lot to lose.

For example, the owner of a company may have a lot to lose, but his marketing director may know best what sort of website is needed, and which audience they are trying to reach.

So, What You’re Saying Is…

So, what I’m saying is, if you cannot identify out-right who the stakeholders are, then you have to ask. It may be up to you to help your client identify who these stakeholders are, and you may end up being the driver in the conversations that follow.

Just don’t lose sight of the fact that there are usually more stakeholders than are initially presented. Be sure to seek out the rest in order to cover your requirement bases. This also helps save on scope creeping later on.

I’ve been doing graphic designing and web work for the last ten-or-so years (yikes, I feel old) and it wasn’t until recently that I came across this saying and it really struck me deep into the core of my graphic designing soul:

A camel is a horse designed by committee.

Graphic designers who have had to work on designing for anyone other than themselves knows this feeling. You envision this great stallion with mighty flanks and a flowing mane, haloed in a soft light of hope, ready to lead people away from misery and plight. A savior amongst all other designs. And somehow after one meeting with the stakeholders, you come away with plans for a donkey with saddle bags.

It can be frustrating for a designer to be “limited” by the needs of a client, however, it is a necessary evil.

The Stakeholder Questionnaire

As a graphic designer or web guru, you may know a lot about typography, usability, and aesthetics, however, your stakeholders know a lot about their own fields, responsibilities, and requirements. As the designer, it is up to you to be the middle man that finds the balance between meeting everyone’s needs, and not becoming this guy. Wowza.

Part of finding out what your clients need is by asking questions. No one is going to ask the right questions every time, but if you don’t ask anything, then you are more likely to fail at meeting their expectations. Some people may find a check list helps insure all aspects of the web design are covered, and I agree – I am the queen of making lists. Some may find a face-to-face interview is the best because they can gauge the importance of items by the reaction of the client.

No one is going to ask the right questions every time

Regardless of how you execute it, gathering requirements is the basic foundation to a successful web design (or any project, for that matter). So, I am going to share a document I recently created for a redesign I am currently working on for a higher education organization.

• Internal Stakeholder Request Template (.xlsx)

This internal stakeholder questionnaire is specific to this organization’s needs mainly from a technological and regulatory standpoint. Feel free to tweak it to suit your needs. Keep in mind, this is not the first step in gathering information, but it is an important one to keep in mind as you being your project.

Next, I will cover how to identify who the stakeholders are and how to prioritize stakeholder requests.