WebSite Design

In the systems design projects I work on, user-centred design is important. When we design applications, we need to think about how the user will use the system. We put ourselves in our users' shoes and work on making the system as easy to use as possible. We try to look at everything we do from the user's point of view.

It is very easy for IT professionals to forget about the user and use technology for technology's sake. A lot of web designers think that jazzy Flash websites will blow the socks of visitors but these type of sites may not meet users' needs or get the same level of traffic that non-Flash sites get.

Like any other marketing activity designing a website needs to begin with the customer. A website won't deliver a valuable online experience if customer needs, wants and behaviours have not been considered. Site design is a key part of Internet strategy execution. On the Internet, you website is your brand. The interactive nature of the web means that people don't just see your brand, they experience it. When you are designing a website, you are designing a brand experience.

Web design requires more than just technical skills. It involves design, branding and strategic thinking. The website is the interface to the brand. In digital marketing, branding has to be more integrated. It is about the whole online experience, from the ease with which visitors find information to the speed of pages loading. The fundamental difference between online brands and mass media brands is interactivity. Online brands and websites are about immersing the user in an experience.

Communication, personalisation, interaction, animation and sound are just some of the ways websites can do this. Websites are an experiential communication of brand values. With social media we are seeing this being extended across platforms.

Web design needs to begin with marketing fundamentals. Research your market, discover their needs and wants and develop an online value proposition. An Internet marketing strategy needs to begin with these marketing truths. You need to design your website to deliver an online experience and you need to communicate what this experience is to your users. You cannot properly design or market a website if you have not done the marketing 101.

Story-Centric Marketing

The Power of Storytelling

        Brands can be powerful. In today's society brands carry status associations. Very often people will follow a particular brand because of the values associated with that brand. People often feel emotive connections to brands they purchase. Brands are what distinguish one product from another.

         This is where the power of brand storytelling comes in. The most important function of branding is the creation and communication of a three-dimensional brand character. This has been a recurring subject in my reading. Brand storytelling is about revealing brand truths to the customer and letting them draw their own conclusions. It is about getting customers to understand and connect with your brand.

        I attended a webinar by Brian Seth Hurst on Facebook last week (http://on.fb.me/qM5S5I), who many people consider to be the "father of cross-platform, having coined the term back in 1998. According to Hurst, great brand stories have great plot, great characters, great development and something emotionally at stake for the audience. The most successful brands are those that make the customer feel they have a stake in the brand and they do this by listening, paying attention and responding.

        Social media tools are providing marketers with powerful tools to tell brand stories. A key reason for this is the interactivity of new media that allows the customer to take part. Another is the possibilities for different levels of engagement.

Cross-Platform or Transmedia Storytelling:

        Brian Solis posted an interesting infographic on his blog this week called the Brandsphere (http://bit.ly/qzpMHc) in which he highlights the importance of social media in creating brand stories. He says that with a cross-platform approach, there are different possibilities for engagement and bringing the customer deeper into the story. It is vital then that an integrated approach is taken to going cross-platform. 

        Hurst said that with multi-platform you must begin in the centre. This is something unique about multi-platform, something he calls "story-centric." You need to begin with the story because this is the most important thing, rather than the platforms. This becomes very important as your story spreads across platforms and your fans become co-creators and help you to tell the story. 

        Solis takes a similar approach to Hurst. He starts at the beginning with the story. This is where you define what the brand represents and how it comes alive in social networks. You are shaping how the brand characters in your story will behave and most importantly how they will behave with an interactive audience. A social media style guide will help to ensure consistency of communications and define your brand persona.

        Each of these channels connects differently with people according to Solis and thus requires a dedicated approach. Hurst highlights the importance of beginning where your customers live - whether that is on tablet mobile, PC or TV. If you try to launch on all platforms at once it won't work. You'll divide your audience and they won't know where to go. When you engage your audience, you can watch them, listen to them and see what other platforms they are on. Then you use this information to drive your next platform and allow the customer to go further into the story.

Story-Centric

        I think that old marketing communications theories still apply. The importance of integrated marketing communications is even higher where you are tell a story across diverse channel. With the proliferation of social media, still relatively recent, this must be a body of literature that has not been significantly developed. I think that a possible research topic of interest would be to examine integrated marketing communications in brand storytelling on social media. Hurst and Solis' ideas on story-centric highlight the role of the story as the integrating element. This is the theory anyway. It would be interesting to research how this is happening in reality (or how it is not happening).