Archive: August 2008

We’ve been spending a lot of time working on our requirements document template here at SolutionSet.  My previous post about methodology mentions that the purpose of the define phase is to describe “what” the project is.  The final deliverable from the design phase is the Requirements document.  In this article, I will examine the table of contents of our requirements document and why each section is important.

One thing to keep in mind is that this requirements document is slightly different than if you were writing one for in house use.  When presenting any document to a client in a consulting relationship, it’s important to call out what is in scope and what is out of scope.  The requirements phase is when those involved in digital project start really thinking of “what” they want the project to be.  The problem lies in the fact that when you start thinking of “what would be good to have”, scope has a way of increasing with imagination.  So this table of content is meant to show what is included in a project, but also to be a tool that both parties can agree to in order to keep scope reasonable on the project.

Table of Contents from a sample requirements document:

1. Introduction  - an overview into what this document is about and also the objective and scope.
   1. Business Overview - the business objective should state why this project is being undertaken from a business point of view.  Also included should be any objective  measures and success criteria.
   2. Project Scope - a re-iteration of the project scope and what is to be done with this project and what is to be left for future projects.  This should contain as much detail as possible and should include a matrix of key pages to be worked on during design.  This includes all pages to be wire-framed, designed, copy written, and sample HTML is to be produced.  Sometimes these are the only deliverables (if the project stops at HTML), but more often than not these “key pages” will be used to inform the rest of the site.  Setting key pages during requirements forces the joint team to focus on what’s important and re-iterates scope in terms of final deliverables in the design phase.
2. User Analysis - provides a high level overview of who the users of the digital property are and what they might be doing on once they arrive.
   1. Audience - looks at who the various audiences are and why they would be coming to the site.  Included should be the various high level take aways that the audiences will walk away from the project with.
   2. Personas - defines some sample users of the site.  Typically will include some demographic / psychographic information about the persona, why they would be using the site, and what some common tasks they might try to achieve when coming to the site.
   3. Use cases - define how the various personas would interact with the site.  This will show how the users would actually navigate within the site, what functions they would expect to find, and what the expected result would be.  This allows for the creation of user flows by the UI team to explain what series of screens the user would interact with and what they would be able to do on each screen.
3. User Experience Requirements - shows how the users will experience and interact with the site.
   1. Site map - shows the organization or “bucketing” of information into primary, secondary, and tertiary navigation items.  The site map will label and identify each page and get the entire team on the same page as to what the navigation choices and names are.  This also informs creative when designing the pages.
   2. Use flows - the use flows show certain decision paths as outlined by the use cases.  The user flows are meant to show how a user (admin or end user) will interact with the site.  Use flows are tightly tied into the site map as ever screen the user interacts with in the use flows is identified in the site map.
   3. Key page wireframes - for those pages considered “key” to the design, wireframes will be produced.  The wireframes are used to build final consensus as to what functions and information each page will contain.  They ensure that everyone knows what elements are on the pages, their relative heirarchy, and a suggestion as to layout.
4. Creative / Brand Requirements  - The creative and brand requirements are a supplement to and summary of the Creative Brief if the project is large enough to merit it’s own creative brief (perhaps covered in a different post).  In all projects however, it must speak to both Brand and Creative requirements.  For each, the document should describe how the current brand and creative should influence the site.  The brand requirements should restate the major points of the brand platform to be used.  The creative requirements will further list out all the requirements for inclusion and exclusion from a visual perspective.  The purpose of the creative and brand requirements should be to inform all parties as to the framework upon which the content and creative will be produced.  The requirements should set limits and areas for exploration and will be the guiding principles for the visual design and content creation.
   1. In Scope requirements - The in scope requirements are items that are specifically called out in the SOW or proposal.  These items will all be included within the scope of the current project.
   2. Requested enhancements - Requested enhancements are items that the customer or team has requested be part of scope, but which are not called for in the SOW or proposal.  These items may trigger cost changes depending on the size of the request and the overall flexibility of the budget.  The client and consultant must agree upon the cost (even if $0) of these enhancements or they will be considered out of scope.
   3. Future enhancements - Future enhancements are items that should be documented and taken into account when designing the site, architecture, technology, etc.  However, they are explicitly out of scope and the client and consultant have agreed that these items are for reference only.
5. Marketing requirements - The marketing requirements will define how the users will be brought to the site and messaged.  The marketing requirements covers the types of campaigns to be conducted (Print, media, Ad words, banner adds, SEO, etc.) and what the desired spends are for each.  The marketing requirements also define what the requirements are for the site in terms of SEO compatibility, landing pages, and tracking and analysis of the data.  The purpose of the marketing requirements section is to give all parties a full understanding of what online and offline marketing campaign will be conducted by the consultant and what the requirements of the property to support the marketing campaigns will be.
   1. In Scope requirements
   2. Requested enhancements
   3. Future enhancements
6. End User functional requirements - The end user functional requirements describe what the site visitor is able to do when they interact with the site.  This will be a full inventory of the activities and functions for all the various types of users.  For basic sites, this will typically be limited to finding various types of information, navigating and searching the site, and contacting the host organization.  For more complex sites, this will include login and registration, profile maintenance, shopping functions, advanced searches of various types of data, personalization, data input, queries of public data, interactions and messaging via multiple devices, etc.  All such requirements should be captured and details should be given to each function.  From reading the end user functional requirements, it should be clear what a user can and can’t do.  It is especially important for the in scope, requested enhancements, and future enhancements to be clearly spelled out.  Best practices to be used in this section include references to similar functionality on other sites and reference to the site map and wireframes for specificity.
   1. In Scope requirements
   2. Requested enhancements
   3. Future enhancements
7. Administrative functional requirements - Like the end user, all administrative functions need to be described.  Administrative functions are functions performed by members of the host organization (client) or their affiliates who log in with a password to perform certain actions to maintain the website.  On simple sites, this is typically limited to content management and management of data from the site such as user management or order management (in simple e-commerce sites).  For more complex sites, this will expand to descriptions of all administrative search / filtering that needs to be performed on data, all data input and management functions, all reporting functions.   All such requirements should be captured and details should be given to each function.  From reading the administrative functional requirements, it should be clear what each level of administrator can and can’t do.  It is especially important for the in scope, requested enhancements, and future enhancements to be clearly spelled out.  Best practices to be used in this section include references to similar functionality on other sites and reference to the site map and wireframes for specificity.
   1. In Scope requirements
   2. Requested enhancements
   3. Future enhancements
8. Technical requirements - should spell out what the requirements are for the system, the core software, front end, and tracking and measurement.
   1. In scope requirements
      1. System and  hosting requirements - will spell out how much traffic (number of users, amount of data in the system, concurrent page views, reads vs. writes, etc) the site will be able to handle.  The requirements will state where the site needs to be hosted and on what base architecture (OS, DB, Web Server).  The systems and hosting requirements will also spell out the redundancy and fail-over requirements for the system.
      2. Core packages (CMS, main systems, etc.) - Often times, a project will be based around a core package.  Sometimes that package or packages are known and should be stated.  Other times, the requirements for what functions must be supported should be listed.  If the package(s) are not known, then these requirements can become the base for an CMS or other core system analysis and recommendation.  If a recommendation is reached by the time of writing, it should be included.
      3. Front end & browser requirements - It is crucial to decide what what technologies are supported and what standards must be maintained.  If Javascript or Ajax is to be used for interactions, this should be called out here.  If any rich media or interactive objects (Flash/Flex/Silverlight) are required or allowed, they should be discussed.  Front end coding standards (508 compliance, HTML level, etc.) as well as supported browsers will be listed in this section.  This will serve to inform both client and consultant as to what is in scope in terms of QA and coding standards and what might need to be put off till later phases.
      4. Analytics ant tracking requirements - To be able to determine if the marketing and overall business requirements are being met, the requirements for analytics and tracking should be listed.  For simpler projects, this might just be simple usage and path analysis (often provided by Google Analytics with little effort).  For more complex sites, this often involves setting up custom tracking codes, conversion funnels and goals, and setup and customization of analytics packages (such as Omniture).  The goal of defining these requirements is to ensure that all parties understand what is needed in terms of tracking to satisfy the business goals and know how successful the site is.
   2. Requested enhancements
   3. Future enhancements
9. Content requirements - Setting up content requirements for the site and assigning responsibility will ensure that the site will have the correct content for (re)launch.  The requirements will often refer to the site map and wireframes (in smaller sites) or a content inventory spreadsheet to define what content needs to be produced.  The requirements will speak to the need to re-write or create entirely new content that speaks to the desired brand and works within the new site architecture and look and feel.  This section will also specify who will provide the content for each of the pages (client or consultant) and when the content will be produced.  By clearly defining the required content, the responsible parties, and the required dates all parties should have a clear understanding of one of the key areas of delay for site launches.
   1. In scope requirements
   2. Requested enhancements
   3. Future enhancements
10. Updated project plan - the updated project plan should be provided as the final part of the requirements document.  Any changes from the original plan should be noted and more details should be provided.  The details should include all launch / qa plans, and the specifics of which pages will be delivered from content, UI, visual design, HTML, alpha, beta, etc. with each round of deliverables.  This detailed schedule serves to cement with  the client and the entire team the requirements and how the project will unfold to meet all listed requirements.
11. Appendix A - Assumptions - this will capture all the technical, creative, brand, user, admin, and content assumptions made while creating the proposal and requirements document.  These assumptions will be covered with the entire team and client so everyone can understand what the assumptions made in creating the requirements were.
12. Appendix B - Scope Changes - In a tabular format, this section captures all of the current and future scope changes.  It summarizes each, approximate level of effort (sometimes in people days, sometimes as low, medium and high).  Finally, it lists out what the cost of the change is and whether the change is agreed upon by the client.  This section of the document will be used to create  change order(s) with a price associated with each item.

If you’ve actually read this far, I hope you’ve found this TOC with explanations helpful.  Keep in mind the overall goal is for everyone involved to understand what the project is and what the consultant and client responsibilities are in completing the project.  With that goal in mind, and this as on overall framework to structure your thoughts, you should be able to create a meaningful document to share with your clients.

Last week, I had the pleasure to attend some sessions at a fantastic event for anyone involved in or interested in good Web Development, An Event Apart: For People Who Make Websites. (NOTE: SolutionSet is a Sponsor)

An Event Apart is a conference promoting a rational approach to all aspects of the User Experience- User Interface and Visual Design and clean, standards-based coding. Jeffrey Zeldman and Eric Meyer, the founders/hosts of this conference are not strangers to anyone who claims to be at the top of the Web 2.0 game. Jeffrey wrote the book (literally) on Designing with Web Standards and Eric Meyer wrote the book (literally) on CSS: The Definitive Guide.

The conference featured talks by many of the leading advocates of good Web Development. My takeaway wasn’t that I learned any new tricks in better web design or coding practices, but the connection with the Community of people that believes in these ideas.

Sometimes, we feel alone, coming to work in the morning, preaching to our developers not to forget the “user experience” while building out the code, asking the designers to help us by designing clean and implementable visual ideas, and generally promoting the mantra of the UI designers that “The User Comes First!”.

We, at SolutionSet, have been very lucky to build a community of designers and developers who understand that common sense is the best policy with regards all aspects of our business. We have been even more lucky to have clients who not only understand this approach, but, sometimes, even drive us further into it. Just seems like common sense to us.

Anyway, just as I felt from An Event Apart, I am not trying to teach anyone about good web practices in this post, but to let you know that if you try to use common sense in your web practice…you are not alone.

• Teens and back-to-school shopping

• How DM came to the rescue in post-Katrina New Orleans

• “I am very rich. Marry me!” Marketing concepts simplified

• 38 words and phrases to avoid in your proposals

People who have a problem with word play should probably pry into the potency of these parts of speech. Alliteration, rhythm and rhyme can produce extraordinarily memorable marketing campaigns. In an article published on AdAge.com, Lenore Skenazy delves into the tricks of making language memorable. From the source:

“Coca-Cola. I think we can all agree that’s a pretty good brand name, right?

Ever think about why?

It’s not just the billions of ad bucks behind it. It’s all the K-sounds — three of them in quick, cute, clever succession — not to mention two soft A’s. In other words, Coca-Cola is a name bubbling over with mnemonic devices: alliteration and rhyme

Does it seem to you that more and more general advertising agencies, advertisers and press are talking about direct response? From this article in USA Today a few weeks ago, to this article in Adweek today (and a few in between), it seems that many advertisers and their agencies are exploring—and some clients are even demanding–direct marketing channels. This is likely because of the relatively low cost of entry and of course because of the accountability—no surprise in a recessionary economy.

But beyond smart budgeting, there is something really interesting going on: addressing the new digital DM consumer. It is going to be incredibly exciting to be amongst the direct marketers who are developing the contact strategies, the messages and the calls-to-action for a generation that was born with a cell phone in one hand and a laptop in the other. Since they’re always connected, in theory, they are wired for responding.

Will there be new buttons to push and levers to pull? What offers will drive them to respond? How will we measure the value of a response?

We’re looking forward to testing our way into the answers to these and many other questions.

According to the Kansas State University website, Dr. Michael Wesch is “a cultural anthropologist and media ecologist exploring the impacts of new media on human interaction”. In other words, Wesch studies how the internet has changed the way we live. The above video captures his presentation at The Library of Congress, in which he takes an academic—yet entertaining—approach to the YouTube phenomenon. Wesch breaks down the nearly hour long video into chapters on his blog. For marketers who want to know more about “virality” and “viral potential”, this is a can’t miss video.

I don’t drink coffee, just too much Diet Coke. However, I really enjoy having meetings at Starbucks. I buy the “whole product” of Starbucks, which is the environment and the experience of being at Starbucks – I just find something else to drink beside coffee. Experience rules. Gilmore and Pine’s excellent book The Experience IS the Marketing makes a powerful point by extending Drucker’s observation that “the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous” to “the aim of experiences is to make marketing superfluous”!

Experience, interactivity, and user-centric design are taking center stage in the evolution of how companies are transforming their web strategies. Adobe promotes the idea that “interaction is the new business mandate” and Microsoft promotes their development tools as “creating experiences with new levels of usability.” And of course it is not just these market leaders who are creating tools to create these new experiences – Web 2.0 has become a critical check-list item for the huge number of start-ups hoping to benefit from this need.

These rich options provided by technology practically mandate that technical expertise is an integral part to implementing great brand online brand experiences in much the same way that environmental design for Starbucks is critical to implementing their brand experience.

Since Web 2.0 gets you great interactive experiences with your customers, partners, and employees, what does it really mean to elevate to being a business mandate? The business mandate is centered on the core idea that the very nature of the brand experience is changing. Where discussions about “Web 2.0” tend to center on the technologies and enabling interaction, the business discussion really needs to be around a new 2.0: Brand 2.0.

Brand 2.0

The audience goal has moved from just a popular website to a creating an engaging brand.

Rather than just building an audience, you can now build authenticators and ultimately advocates for your products.

With this high level of interaction and engagement also comes the challenge of moving from inauthentic, top-down messages to authentic, 3rd party-validated and far more conversational messaging…that is of course highly targeted and relevant.

The brand itself evolves from the brand image to an overall brand experience.

I am off to Starbucks for a meeting…check back to our blog to learn more about Brand 2.0 and how SolutionSet is working with leading companies to build great brand experiences.

As we all know, Facebook is in the process of rolling out a new user experience design in order to reduce the clutter that has been generated by the inclusion of apps and new armies of users which all have their own demands from the platform. Facebook established its brand by offering members a defined but refined interface with minimal customization, the opposite approach to the leading hero, MySpace. The Facebook interface was known for its clean design, ample white space, and color palette limited to shades of blue and grey. MySpace made itself by allowing its members to directly communicate between friends but also to stylistically customize their profiles to the point of chaos.

With the inclusion of apps on Facebook, the platform lost its Swiss Aesthetic as users added apps to their profiles in any order and manner they saw fit. Applications started taking over Facebook and user profiles as they started running wild, being obnoxious, and crowding profiles. As a result, the Facebook brand experience started losing its primary differential - clean and efficient communication. As Facebook states, “by cleaning up and simplifying the site, we think the new Facebook makes it even easier to connect and communicate. (1)” Facebook’s new approach is a return to its interface design roots, clean and simple, the opposite of MySpace, in order to attract and serve a broader range of users.

The new Facebook approach to communication is to divide the profile page into multiple tabs. The key tab is the Wall, which allows you to display your Facebook and other social activity from the web. In such manner, instead of displaying stylistic aptitudes, you are projecting personal interests and activities with the ability to customize your wall message by its breadth or its existence. As far as your previous applications are concerned, they have been largely moved to an oddly titled tab, Boxes. The move allows the Wall to continuously highlight Apps that promote your and your friends activities instead of allowing Apps to stake out valuable real estate and hold it regardless of whether they are providing any ongoing value. FB sees the Wall as a more democratic field for apps, and by refocusing on communication between users, it is honing in on the key point of Facebook and MySpace, displaying your self and keeping up with the Joneses.

The Facebook platform redeployment is worth watching as far as brand experience in the Web 2.0 space is concerned. As of 04/08, MySpace attracts more than twice as many monthly visitors in the U.S. and twice the amount of ad revenue compared to Facebook (2). The question is will the refined Facebook brand attract new users with their associated eyeballs by offering a well-designed brand and user experience over a brand that allows users to stylistically define their appearance.

(1.) http://blog.new.facebook.com/blog.php?post=24577977130 - login required to view

(2.) http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20922/page2/ - login required to view; see also illustration below

In the olden days, we talked about “above the line” and “below the line” marketing. And you know, that was a pretty good distinction. Above the line meant advertising with the purpose of causing awareness and driving perceptions about a brand. And below the line meant direct marketing with the purpose of causing response, sales and repurchase. That’s a vastly oversimplified version of the story, but you get the drift.

Then somewhere along the line the “above the line/below the line” language was lost. Perhaps as marketing became more complex, it was oversimplified. Or as direct marketers struggled out of the “junk mail” classification, they wanted fancier terminology. Maybe “below the line” was perceived as beneath advertising. Whatever the reason, once that terminology ceased to be mainstream, the roles of the the vehicles became murky and unclear.

So in order to articulate the distinction in a way that marketers are comfortable with, we’re always looking for effective language and analogies. I came across one today in a book called The Complete Guide To Direct Marketing by Chet Meisner. Here’s how he describes it:

“Advertising and PR are generally involved in “getting a message out” to their various audiences, whereas sales promotion, direct marketing, and sales are most generally involved with getting a “response in” from their audiences. Although it is inarguably true that you usually have to get some kind of message out to get a response in, getting a message out is not the primary objective of sales, sales promotion, or direct marketing. None of these three can be said to have succeeded if that is all they accomplish.

Often direct marketers will find themselves faced with situations in which they will be asked (or tempted) to switch gears to the get-a-message-out mode. When these situations arise, you must work very hard to hold your ground. Salespeople who simply get the message out do not last very long And direct marketers who fall into this trap do not succeed very well over the long term either.”

When you’re planning your direct marketing, ask yourself: “Am I setting this up to get the response in? Or have I lost my way by focusing on getting the message out?”

For all you letter lovers out there, TypeNow shakes up a tasty cocktail of font design and pop culture. TypeNow also hosts a massive free forum for font exchange. Other free font sites worthy of note include Abstract Fonts and dafont.

If you’re in the mood to create your own font, sign up for a complimentary account at fontstruct.fontshop.com and get to work on the giant grid. There are loads of tools and effects at your dispose to make you the next Max Miedinger. Helvetica, anyone?