Web Design and Marketing – Week 5 – Lecture Notes

Knowing the Customer

Market Research and Methodology

Marketing Research

Like the IT department, the marketing department does ‘requirement gathering’. In order for the web site to a success you will need to know who the user is and what they want. We also need to know what their environment is (Broadband v. dial up for example) as well as how much experience they may have.

Why get to know the user?

The better you know the user, the better the site can be made to be able to meet their needs as ell as give them the information that they are looking for, and the perceive that you are meeting their needs.

If you know about the limited knowledge of users you can keep the site simple and easy to navigate. If you know they have older machines then you can limit the bells and whistles so that they can navigate it without slowing down the computer with add ons.  The quicker the pages can load, the less chance that your user will not think their is  a problem in the page and move onto another one.

Knowing your user will allow you to use metaphors (or terms) that the user understands.

Market research

Along with demographic information, domain knowledge, and the users computers experience and environment we will need to know what brings them to your site and be able to give them that content.

Age can easily determine what colors the site should be to attract people.  You would want to use male themes to attract men if your users would be male. Know who and what your users are.

Domain knowledge would deal with the knowledge of the person you will be dealing with. Site for scientist would not be laid out like ones for homemakers, nor would they use the same words and jargon. What is the experience of your users in using the web? Are they new users or are they web 2.0 users?  Know what they are used to experiencing.  Use questions to find this out when you are doing marketing research for the site. 

User computing environment

Know your users computing environment as well. The age of the computer reflects how fast it is. Are they on dial up or broadband. These will influence how you build the site.  Know the browsers that they use as each has special ways that they work.

Web site redesign

Redesigns have some information for you already. Guest books and purchases can give some clues. Logs can give you browser information as well as parts of the site that are popular. 

Methods for Market Research

The way that you survey your users can vary from site to site. They consist of Paper/electronic surveys, focus groups and interviews.While focus groups can give you good information, the geographic limitations of your group, if they are widespread, may not allow for it. Phone/email/postal surveys may be necessary.

Surveys can allow for quick collection of data with closed questions and are easy to chart. While it can have open ended questions they can be hard to chart but can give answers that had not been thought of before.  Ranking allows for determining what is important. Scales allow for telling how much a user would like an idea. Surveys have a better chance of being answered if users know information is confidential as well as the purpose of the survey and the qualifications of the person doing it. 

If doing electronic survey first create them on paper and then transfer them. Email surveys can be problems as users may not know how to view attachments. Web based surveys can be better as the end user does not have attachments.  In either case have people test them first to make sure they work.

Interviews are open ended as well and can be difficult to chart the results. They are better suited for gathering information on how you are going to construct a survey. Prepare ahead of time the questions that you will use or run risk of getting bad data and wasting your and the interviewee’s time.  Phone interviews can reduce the time needed to get a full set done especially if the group knows that you will be calling.

Focus groups get more information but from fewer people and questions that are open ended. They are generally 4 to 12 people and conducted like an interview.  The moderator will lead the group.  People in the group tend to help each other with ideas. The challenge here is to get all the people together at one time and place. The group may be dominated by a leader emerging in the group or even by the moderator. Many may choose not to answer or give ‘me too’ answers.

 

Conducting Research Surveys Via E-Mail and The Web