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How to Redesign a Site
Posted by bud_caddell on March 26, 2008
Warning: The title of this post is blatant false advertising –if you came here looking for some kind of 10 step guide, easy answer, or just a reassuring black and white perspective. None of those can be found here.
Maybe you’ve heard that Imaginepub.com is undergoing a drastic overhaul. Go check it out if you haven’t. Before you can even address how to redesign a site, you have to confront the ‘why.’
Here’s our why:
*Our clients’ businesses have radically changed. *How we work with them has radically changed. *The landscape has radically changed. *We’re not the only ones that have noticed it. *We preach to our clients the need for constant revision online, and we like it when we practice what we preach. *We got tired of the photos of us in the oversized sweatshirts.
In the last year, digital media has had a huge impact on our customers. It offers each of them new challenges and opens new doors and presents new opportunities. Digital media has also had an impact on Imagination. It now accounts for nearly half of the work we do for our clients, and a large part of our workforce. That same website which still referenced such emerging technologies as ‘digimags’ couldn’t keep up with what we were doing. Think of it like this, our website was in 1998 and we are leading our clients into 2010.
This site redesign is very much a work in progress. We decided to open up the process to the public, including our clients, and address the change publicly as well. We encourage feedback; which also includes internal feedback.
The most recent update to the site was this" piece of video content, and from an internal perspective, we have mixed feelings. First, let’s be honest, we’re wading through somewhat uncharted waters. Most agencies would gnaw off their own limbs before opening up their process. We’re glad we’re not like most agencies. We just don’t know if this video communicated that. We can be more like human beings than this. We certainly don’t go home and use that voice with our friends and loved ones. And since we want you to care at all about what we’re doing, we’re working very hard to stop interrupting you with marketing speak.
In any marketing communication, there are usually two voices: the truth, and the brand. The bigger the chasm between the two, the more dissonant the message and unwelcome on the web. I certainly don’t want the truth to be drowned out here–that we’re committed to seeing this through the right way. In doing any work for ourselves, there’s the obvious hurdle of the paying clients and projects that must be served and accomplished. But at the end of this, we have to stand on our own feet and review what we’ve done.
Stick around. We’ve got more up our sleeves. But we need feedback from you. You will help decide where this goes, because the world doesn’t need another brochure-site and we don’t need to waste our efforts on delivering anything that isn’t useful to our customers.
—Bud Caddell
Tagged with: change, imagination, marketing, redesign, website
Possibly related posts:
- What's Next in Marketing >
- What Imagination Looks Like, Part 2 >
- What Imagination Looks Like on Twitter >
Comment
Bud Caddell said on March 28, 2008, 08:17 PM
To your point Erin, you only get out of social media what you put in. if you just 'dip your toe,' you're probably not doing enough for it to be meaningful to you or your customers.
Having a clear purpose helps to keep things in check, but unless authenticity/truth is part of that purpose, you're setting yourself up to fail. (plus, truth is easier to market than fabrication)
Jill said on March 29, 2008, 01:40 AM
I commend IP for taking this step forward. I think the biggest challenge here is the commitment to changing the way things have been done in the past, and the way it's still being done in a large portion of the industry. And it seems that that is also the roadblock for most companies "dipping their toes" in the social/collaborative marketing revolution. It will be exciting to see this project as it unfolds, and will serve as ten times the case study you could have ever drummed up from more traditional methods. Good luck!! I'll be checking in!
Jill said on March 29, 2008, 01:41 AM
P.S. I got a little tear in my eye when you bashed the sweatshits. It was really cutting edge for it's time. :)
Jill said on March 29, 2008, 01:43 AM
sweatSHIRTS. Sorry for the typo (or Freudian slip!!!!
Bud Caddell said on March 31, 2008, 01:30 AM
Hey Jill,
It's great to hear from you. Thanks for your comments. And yeah, that was totally a subconscious slip :)
The more and more I think about the ultimate goal of the IP site, I feel it should be to question the purpose of an agency's site. What do current customers and employees, potential customers and employees CARE about. If it doesn't provide utility, if it isn't entertaining, and it isn't social, then its a flat waste of everyone's time. Let's be as honest about that with ourselves as we are to our clients.
imaginepub said on March 31, 2008, 05:41 PM
Bud,
We are questioning what we do for our clients. That's one of the drivers of this whole process. We are not yet going to the larger question of questioning what an agency does for a customer, but ARE questioning what we do.
And I think we're finding mostly good and some bad in the answers. Bring it on. :)
That being said, I do not agree with you that if a site isn't entertaining it is a waste of time. I want to create experiences and interactions that enable conversation, inspire, empower & provide utility,
But mostly, I want to meet the business objectives of my client and the goals and needs of their customers.
If "entertainment" is included in either of those, I'll entertain! But only if. And when.
Until then, we will continue to push ourselves, and our clients, as we create relevant, targeted exchanges and build relationships.
Laura
Bud Caddell said on March 31, 2008, 06:02 PM
Perhaps I should have said if it's not useful OR social OR entertaining.
But I find conversation entertaining, in fact it takes those things you listed for me to be entertained, otherwise its just noise I've left on in the background.
You make a good point. We should probably list OUR OWN business objectives and goals. Smells like a new post by Laura Chavoen. :)
imaginepub said on March 31, 2008, 10:46 PM
Jill---easter eggs? :)
Laura
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Erin S. said on March 28, 2008, 06:20 PM
It's an interesting challenge, isn't it? Communicating the authentic over what can seem like an entirely impersonal medium. It's not, but I firmly believe that interaction and social media bridge that gap and clarify the muddled message.
Now you must officially get off of my case, Bud. :)