When embarking on a web design project, we often give importance to user interviews. But there's another form of interview that's equally important: stakeholder interviews. Mayra, a UX researcher at Edgar Allan, shares her expertise on why they're crucial and how they shape the success of a project.
As Mayra explains, "At the outset of our website projects, we aim to understand what the website should do. Whether it's to replace existing online processes or to support offline operations, these insights emerge from stakeholder interviews." This is the project's bedrock, balancing user needs with business goals.
When we start a new website project, the first thing we figure out is what the website should do. Some websites are meant to replace web-based things, like an online marketplace. But marketing websites are a bit different — they're there to support what happens offline.
Stakeholder interviews are our guiding principles or north stars, a way of making sure we're on the right track. They help us take big business ideas and turn them into practical website user-centric goals. So, we make sure the website does what it's supposed to do and meets the needs and expectations of the people using it.
But it doesn't stop there. Stakeholder interviews are key to help us shapes the entire project. The insights we gain inform not just the website's design, but also its user experience, content strategy, brand messaging, and virtually every aspect within the project's scope.
So, what do we learn from a stakeholder interview? "Five insights," says Mayra, "understanding the website's primary purpose, identifying the audience, assessing the competitive landscape, identifying audience discovery channels, and prioritizing relevant content." These crucial insights shape the project, providing a clear picture of the website's goals, its intended audience, its position amidst competitors, how clients find it, and what content resonates most.
Let's dive in to the five big insights that guide the entire project:
Interviews are successful when the stakeholders know where their company stands out in their industry's competitive landscape.
During a recent stakeholder interview, one key question that stood out was understanding where the client positioned themselves on the competitive landscape. Despite being a newer firm, it was crucial to showcase their expertise and experience on the website. By highlighting their team members with the most experience and focusing on qualitative aspects of their portfolio, we were able to convey their strong partnerships and unique advantages. It was important to bridge the gap with longer-standing industry competitors and emphasize their best features on the website.
In essence, stakeholder interviews are not an optional exercise. They are instrumental in forming the guiding principles for the entire project. "These interviews contribute significantly to the design, content, and strategy, resulting in a website rooted in business goals and audience needs," Mayra concludes. So, next time you're embarking on a web project, remember the value of stakeholder interviews. They may be just the tool you need to help guide the whole website design/re-design process.
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