Redesigning Your Website? Ask These 3 Questions First

If you are thinking of redesigning your website I came across an article from Inc.com contributed by Amy Buckner Chowdhry that will you get started in the right direction.

Amy is chief executive and co-founder of AnswerLab, a digital experience research consultancy in San Francisco. In 2011,


Amy received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Woman Award. She also serves on the advisory board for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Before you even begin a website redesign, you should answer several questions to help you get it right. From my years in website user experience and design, I've whittled these down to three key questions, and also mapped out a scientific way to go about answering them

First, you need to know the profile of the people who visit your site. If your intended target market isn't currently on the site, you'll need to revisit your online marketing efforts. Knowing who is on the site will help reveal the mindsets of those visitors, and how your design can support their goals. Tailoring your website to their objectives might result in different paths from the home page, each serving content differentiated for user needs. For example, the Wells Fargo retirement website has three paths for exploring information based on your age range, and stage of saving toward retirement. Demographic information about your site visitors can also influence design decisions. If you serve an older demographic, for instance, the website should have options for increasing font size for easy reading.

2. What do your website visitors look for?

Many companies incorrectly optimize their websites for the content they have, rather than aligning their web content around what customers need. A classic case of this is automotive manufacturer websites. Consumers consistently want more information on future technologies, future vehicles not yet on the market, and car comparisons to older model years. But many automotive companies continue to plug only current model year content, leaving a large portion of site visitors dissatisfied. When setting your web strategy, find out what information online visitors are seeking—and then shape the content strategy around what users need.

3. Are they able to find it? If not, why?

Your site may offer the information users need but–if it's poorly organized–they will never find it. In studies we've conducted at my digital research consultancy, AnswerLab, we found on average 30 percent to 40 percent of site visitors are unable to find all the information they're seeking on a website. Common causes: poor navigation, unclear link names, site errors, and technical issues. Consumers don't like to have to play around to uncover the information they need. Eliminating basic usability issues can increase online acquisition and retention efforts dramatically.

Grasp the current experience on your website

To answer these three key questions, and set the strategy for your entire website redesign effort, consider using what we call an "intercept survey."

Here’s how it works: Upon reaching your website, users receive an invitation to answer a few questions about why they’re visiting. After completing their intended tasks on your site, they answer a few follow-up questions about the overall experience. The survey is extremely short—around 10 questions—so you can keep customers focused on the task at hand. In addition to gathering profile information, surveys like these often measure ease of use, brand impression, and the ability of the site to drive key calls to action—like talking with a doctor, visiting a dealer, contacting the company, or signing up for more information.

By running the survey again post-redesign, you'll then be able to confirm if the project had an impact, and gather additional insights to inform future improvements. In work like this, we recently found a pharmaceutical company had improved its online satisfaction scores by 15 percent simply by moving the links to important drug information to be in a more prominent place on the website.

And, of course, evidence of improvement in customer satisfaction and brand impression motivates everyone involved.

10 Great Ideas for your New Year's Resolutions

How well did you do on your New Year's Resolution last year? And the previous year? Don't feel too bad most people I know did just about average. So I thought about putting a different twist on New Years Resolutions for next year in the hopes of sharing with you ideas and to positively give you an extra nudge to make you DO IT! Hopefully :)

I have divided these 10 ideas into 3 areas.
Area 1: Personal
Area 2: Financial
Area 3: Career

I am a firm believer in "balance." Taking care all areas of our life is not only healthy but smart and sound wouldn't you agree? You don't have to follow these suggestions exactly the way it is. My goal is to hopefully tap into your creative mind. YOU - decide for yourself what is best for you. and what works for you.

So let's get started.

Section 1:
4 Ideas for Personal Development:
A. Set health goals - They say health is wealth." It doesn't matter if you are as rich as Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. If you don't have your health we won't be able to enjoy life anyway.

So on health goals think about your eating habits. You might have to make hard choices and eat smart. That means cutting on red meat and junk foods. Minimizing on your soda intake and sweets. Eat more poultry, fish & vegetables. In others words, a truly balanced diet.

Increase physical activity like exercise. Jog, walk or simply dance to your favorite music at the comfort of your home. No need to join ta gym and pay monthly dues. Make sure you know your ideal weight for your height and mass. Consult your doctor first and ideally talk to a nutritionist about your diet.

Another form of physical activity is rest, relaxation of the mind. Remember, "balance" is key to have a happy and a healthy living. It's a lifestyle change.

B. Set relationship goals - The problem or challenge I should say about relationships is that people get too comfortable sometimes when we know someone really cares about us. There's a tendency to take them for granted, don't we? That is very true in any relationship. Personal or business. Send a card, a text, make a quick phone call. Just stay in touch and to say how much
they mean to you from time to time. Whether it's your parents, kid, friend or someone close to you make sure you give them "quality time." It can be as short as 5-10 minutes. It's not that hard if you really care about them.

Make sure you plan & set vacation or getaway goals for your family. With the current economic conditions, it doesn't have to be a grand vacation unless you can afford it. Although, if you search the web I am sure you will find great deals. Try a picnic, Netflix night, ice cream night, a Sunday BBQ day, a Just Because kind of day... I am sure you can be creative and think about something.

C. Emotional goals: This could be also classified as health goals. But I wanted put it in a section on it's own to emphasize it's importance. We all know that if we don't throw away have our garbage get picked up, our house will smell so rotten it will eventually attract flies, mosquitoes and other yucky stuff.... it will be unhealthy ultimately, we will get sick! I believe that also is true with our emotional garbage. What do I men by that? Any emotions that makes us mad, bitter, hurt, disappointed, discouraged, helpless, hopeless, annoyed, etc,... Justifiably or not, fair or unfair, by the end of the day it is our choice to make not the circumstances or things or others but ourselves...if we don't get over it and change our thinking it will sooner or later make us unhappy no matter how good our life is. It can make you SICK as well.......

Life is TOO SHORT & TOO BEAUTIFUL to waste on matters that doesn't EMPOWER us and makes us SMILE... That's my motto.

Throw that garbage out! Don't let it STINK your life. You deserve better.

D. Spirituality - It's an AWESOME thing to know that in spite of our imperfections, weaknesses and limitations we have a Higher Being which personally I call God who I connect to. But through Him I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Some call it different names. I call mine Jesus. Whatever you call your God, each of us needs that spiritual growth and connection. That spiritual connection and relationship with our God gives us guidance, wisdom, strength, comfort, peace, love and LIFE... Spirituality gives us internal strength, hope and direction in our journey in this life.

Financial Goals:
A. Set Cash Flow ideas/goals - This includes, income from your job or business. Investments. clearing unnecessary clutter from your house and selling it. Start selling stuff at Ebay. Start a part time business at your home. Something that you are passionate about.

B. Liabilities - Try to limit buying "wants" instead focus on buying "needs". Make a list of your buying habits for 30 days. Just buy as you normally do. At the end of the month, see and mark the things that are wants on one side and needs on the other. You will be surprised how much mony you can save. . Start your change there. To help you check out my article on the Three Principles of Personal Finance: All You Need to Know for Financial Success. http://vitalexpressions.blogspot.com/2011/02/three-principles-of-personal-finance.html

c. Smart Choices goals - Make sure you have set aside 6 months of emergency fund for all your total monthly expenses. Open a Christmas Club account. It really works. Setting aside $15-20 each paycheck can come a long way during the holidays. DO IT TODAY :) The great thing about this account is that you won't have to use your credit card during the holidays that is great! You will thank yourself come January.

Invest wisely.
- Take advantage of your 401k. It still works too. But also do your homework on what funds to invest in. It's not that easy but it's not hard either. Diversity is always key. Check out Mint.com they are awesome.
- Planning to buy a home or any major purchase? Set a 5 year goal. Invest in mutual funds.
Check out:
- morningstar.com
- Money.com
- Forbes.com
They all have the best Mutual Fund Reviews.

Make sure you check your credit annually to see if there any inaccuracies. Don't go over your credit limit it lowers your credit score. Don't even come close to your limit it also lowers your credit score.

3. Career goals:
With so many unemployed people out there. The business environment has changed dramatically, It's not just about getting a job and maintaining it but you have to excel and more at what you do.

a. Acquiring more skills and knowledge is essential. Because when a company starts to downsize it is the people with less skills who are the first ones to go. Make sure you retool yourself and go back to school for advanced studies.

b. Make sure if you do something that you love to do. That will help your longevity in your career.

c. Improve yourself. Think and find ways how to be more efficient every day. If you improve just 1% better every day... you will have improved 365% for the year.