@keljar @guidecreative Your website is more than just a pretty picture.  It should be created for your unique audience as a tool to engage, and ultimately inspire action.  Artistic talent alone is not enough, you need a web design rooted in a clear strategy and driven by results.

1. presents
Kill The Noise
Prioritize your Website with Wireframes and Strategic
Information Architecture
Hosted by
Kelley Jarrett, Marketing Manager and Web Strategist, GUIDE Creative
Guest Panelist: Anthony Harris, Interactive Design Manager, GUIDE Creative

2. Why is Visual Strategy Important?
YOUR WEBSITE MAY SAY SO MUCH IT SAYS NOTHING AT ALL
PROVIDES AUDIENCE-CENTRIC CONTENT AND NAVIGATION
PROMOTES CLARITY AND FOCUS

3. The Importance of Prioritizing Your Content

4. Prepare to Reduce the Noise:
REVIEW YOUR WEBSITE AND ASK YOURSELF:
What three user tasks are the highest priority for your organization?
Are you giving that user task the loudest voice?
Are less important tasks competing with your critical tasks?

5. Visual Prioritization
YOUR WEBSITE YOUR AUDIENCE

6. Wireframes Help Prioritize
SHOULD BE COMPLETED AFTER AUDIENCE ANALYSIS AND BEFORE VISUAL
DESIGN
HELP TAKE YOUR WEBSITE FROM SUBJECTIVE TO OBJECTIVE.

7. Wireframes Help Prioritize
IDENTIFY THE TOP
10 TASKS AND PRIORITIZE
IMPORTANCE
WHEN CREATING A
WIREFRAME, CONSIDER:
Position
Size
Contrast
Calls to Action
DOCUMENT WHY DECISIONS WERE
MADE. PREVENTS COMPETITION
AND “CONTENT CREEP”

8. Audience-Centric Navigation
YOUR WEBSITE YOUR AUDIENCE

9. Online Card Sorting
Online Card Sorting gives your team the ability to determine
the ideal structure of your new navigation by grouping pages and
tasks into common categories and sorted by importance. This data
can be used to create a new sitemap and to drive the visual design
of the new interface of your site.

10. Onsite Card Sorting
The Onsite Card Sorting allows us
to work side by side with your team
in developing the navigation and
interface of your site. Unlike the
Online Card Sort, conducting the
exercise in person can lead to
revealing conversations about the
nature of your audience and the
deficiencies of your current navigation
scheme that can be solved by a
effective card sort.

11. Site Map
From the Onsite Card Sorting exercise, a new Site
Map is generated. This site map takes all the data
gathered during the card sort and compiles it into a
diagram of your site’s new navigation scheme,
allowing you to visualize how the user will navigate
through your content. This site map also acts as a
guide for the interface that is developed during the
Visual Design process.

12. Content
YOUR WEBSITE YOUR AUDIENCE

13. Analyze Your Content
ANALYZE CURRENT CONTENT
Active Pages
Broken Links
# of pages
Most commonly accessed
Least accessed
2 Clicks to Key tasks
DETERMINE KEEPERS AND TRASH
What can you leave behind?
What should you optimize with Calls to Action?

14. Plan Your Content Strategy
ANALYZE CURRENT STATE
DETERMINE WEAKNESSES

15. Recap
ANALYZE YOUR AUDIENCE
PRIORITIZE TASKS
CREATE A VISUAL HIERARCHY THROUGH WIREFRAMES
FORM AN AUDIENCE-CENTRIC NAVIGATION
ANALYZE YOUR CONTENT
DEFINE YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY

16. Next Session
THE ART AND THE MAGIC
BEAUTIFUL DESIGN BASED ON SOLID STRATEGY

17. WHILE AUDIENCE-CENTRIC DESIGN IS KEY, YOU MUST NOT FORGET
ABOUT YOUR GOALS AND WORK THEM INTO THE DESIGN.
YOUR AUDIENCE’S GOALS + YOUR ORGANIZATION GOALS = WELL
PRIORITIZED SITE
REDUCING THE NOISE

18. Recap
IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE
ANALYZE BEHAVIOR
CREATE PERSONAS
PRIORITIZE
OUTLINE YOUR TOP THREE GOALS
GET BUY-IN TO REDUCE THE NOISE

19. How Can You Learn More?
5 Tips to Strengthen Your Website’s Core Message (Blog by GUIDE Designer,
Ben German)
Get Better Results from Your Website (Blog by GUIDE Creative Designer,
Katherine Till)
The Importance of Strategic Web Design (Blog, webinar recordings and slide
downloads) – Kelley Jarrett
Kill the Noise – the Importance of Wireframes for Website Prioritization – Blog by
Ben Wong, Interactive Design Manager
Audience-Centric Design - How to Get There – Blog by Andrew Fort, Interactive
Design Manager

20. The GUIDE Series Continues…