What’s one of the biggest problems to getting your website up and running? No one knows the roles to play.
If you’ve ever developed a website, you know what I am talking about. It’s that moment when you say, “Now what?”
No, not THAT type of role-playing, the regular kind where you assign website development roles to people.
If no one knows their specific roles, then know one knows how and what to provide for content.
Hey, you’re not alone. We’ve had the same problem, too, many times. That content has to come from someone, and the quality has to be high.
Content is one of the biggest factors in website rankings. In fact, you can say that content is the direct cause or rankings.
So you have to create a system by which content is built.
But you can’t stop there. You have to make sure that things get done. That means project management. You have to assign your goals and needs to someone and help (or make) them stick to it.
Therefore, you have to assign all the tasks to somebody, whether 1, 3 or 12 people.
That means role-playing. But what I’ve found is that as long as you assign the responsibility to someone, it gets done.
Sometimes people wear many hats (and sometimes all 9!)
But what if you have a small company, with only a few people?
Sometimes I work with very small businesses - 1-10 people. That means only a few have to wear many hats.
But at least if you can identify the roles, you can assign the hats.
It really doesn’t matter if there are a few or many working on the web project – as long as everything gets done. And always remember, that whether you’re a large or small company, with a simple or complex website, each role is critical.
What do I mean by ‘critical’? That means that even if you take only 30 minutes on a particular role, you should go through the motions to check if your website has the elements described below. You’ll make a much more complete website – and it will take you less time overall in revisions and mistakes.
What are the web team roles?
The Content Expert asks the question, "What really needs to be on the website?"
1. Content Expert, “Vision Control”
- Strengths: Knowledge of customer and content of website.
- Role: Vision leader; determine objectives, provide content.
- Famous Quotes: “This is what we have to say.”
The content expert both knows and provides the content necessary to flesh out the site. They have this role because they know the customer, and therefore content for the customer, better than anyone else.
In some ways, this person is an overseer of whether the website is “on track” in terms of vision. They must determine if any component that ‘sells’ is missing.
2. Project Manager, “Quality Control”
- Strengths: Coordination skills.
- Role: Manage others; coordination of team members and technical development.
- Famous Quotes: “This is by what date we have to say it.”
The project manager takes all the humans and technical stuff and puts them together into a well-oiled machine, then oversees the process from start to finish.
This role is also responsible for budgeting, time frame and trouble-shooting. More on the project manager later (this role is super important – and often where we come in!)
3. Information architect, “Layout”
- Strengths: Organizing stuff.
- Role: Determine layout based on UCD (see below), organize content.
- Famous Quotes: “This is how visitors are going to get to that piece of information.”
After the content has been created, it has to be organized; you can’t just spit it out and hope for the best. So much of how we navigate websites is through scanning quickly. Menu design, navigation – it has to make sense for the users of the site (your customers).
UCD, or User-Centered Design, is critical for the logical layout of the website. UCD states that form follows function – so you must design for the end-user in mind.
The educator makes sure that the content is easy to understand and apply to the customer's situation..
4. Information designer, “Educator”
- Strengths: Message clarity.
- Role: Educator; take content and turn it into something easy to understand.
- Famous Quotes: “This is where we put that piece of information on the page, and this is how we’re going to say it so they understand.”
The info designer takes little bits or whole pages and turns that into easy-to-digest language. This might sound redundant with the “Layout” guy above, but really it’s more at the paragraph or sentence level than the page or site level. The ‘architect’ puts a chair in a room; the Educator arranges that piece of furniture to work with other pieces of furniture.
The information designer is responsible for the process through which information is configured for effective communication. Information design helps make information understandable and easy to use by incorporating good-practice issues of graphic design, typography, systems and usability.
5. Instructional designer, “Engager” or “Stickiness Expert”
- Strengths: Understanding what sticks and customer trust issues.
- Role: Engage the user, build trust; create engaging content that draws the eye
- Famous Quotes: “This is how we’re going to draw attention and get people to believe it.”
You can get all the traffic to your website you want, but if it doesn’t keep people on the website (i.e. they ‘bounce’ away and go somewhere else) your efforts are in vain.
The Engager is responsible for one of the most important roles; building trust with the customer. Without trust, people don’t see value, and without that, where are you in sales?
Using funnels to understand drop-off in shopping carts (cart abandonment). This is the role of the Interaction Designer, who uses 'calls to action' to keep customers clicking.
6. Interaction designer, “Calls to Action”
- Strengths: Knows how to activate the customer.
- Role: The Caller; creating high-impact calls to action (CTA); buttons and messaging that keep people clicking.
- Famous Quotes: “Can they see that button? Yes? But will they click on it?”
“Buy within the next 15 minutes and you’ll receive a free set of ginsu knives!” You remember the ads, don’t you? Stimulating the customer to buy now as opposed to later (when they’ll probably forget about you) is going to increase your conversion considerably.
The Caller must make sure that the user experience is interactive; that the customer wants to click onto the next piece of information (until they finally give you money).
Also within the sphere of the Caller is a double-check on design to see if the CTAs are visible and easily understood.
The Stylist is the one that makes the pretty images.
7. Visual designer, “Stylist”
- Strengths: Knows programs that manipulate images.
- Role: Visual look and feel; images, buttons, and color design.
- Famous Quotes: “Does that look great, or what?”
All the colors, images, and overall style of the website is the Stylist’s tasks. A graphics designer is a Stylist.
Stylists think about things like cross-browser compatibility of color schemes, image sizes (both on screen and size of file), branding through visuals (like logos and other images) and developing templates in HTML that can make for quick design changes and expansion of the website.
The Stylist is the typical web designer; it’s important because much of the customer’s initial reaction comes from not where to go next, but if the website gives the feel and look that they are hunting for.
You might even consider giving two people the roles of writer.
8. Content developer/web writer, “Writer”
- Strengths: Researching, evaluating, writing.
- Role: Content placement and expansion; researching the content
- Famous Quotes: “I think we need to put some more information here. And are you sure about this paragraph?”
The Writer is the final control on what is said on a page from opening heading to final period.
This person ensures that what is printed makes sense. This is both text and imagery content. They step way back from the website, and try to visualize someone trying to get through that information. Can the customer do it? Should we break that particular page into two pages for easier reading? Is the content, overall, appropriate?
The writer is also responsible for maintaining the website over time as it expands, including the research of future content.
The coder makes sure things work. Also, the role least understood.
9. Programmer, “Coder”
- Strengths: Esoteric programming knowledge.
- Role: Make things come to life; programming and code, feasibility of function.
- Famous Quotes: “I make things work,” or often, “No one understands what I do.”
The coder does all the stuff that most people don’t understand, including working with complex programming languages. They use a ton of tools to make a website work the way it’s supposed to. Want something to spin around when you hover over it? The programmer is the one to talk to.
Often they are involved in project planning because no one really understands if something can be done except the coder, or at least how long it’s going to take. Feed them mucho Mountain Dew and have your late-night restaurants on speed dial for them.
You may also need a…
- Photographer: To take original photographs, emphasis on original. Please don’t put canned photos on your website that everyone else uses. Spend a bit of time and get great shots of your products and services
- Tester: From before the website is finished to after it’s built, someone needs to test whether the website works through usability testing. This is very important, because if you get to the end of the project, and customers don’t understand how to use your website, you’ve wasted time and have a lot of redesign to do. (You know, there’s tools for this user testing stuff.)
- Who’s your cheerleader? Don’t think for a second that a crew of developers can’t benefit from a little input from a rah-rah section of the bleachers. This is especially important if you do usability testing early and often – many times the only feedback developers here is bad news. If you’re developing the website in a hidden area of the web (i.e. www.yourwebsite.com/sekritspot/)* then give a few people access to it and tell them to email the team and give some compliments. You’ll be surprised how far those inspiring words can go.* Would you be our cheerleader? Want to watch our redesign grow? (The site is LIVE!) Nothing there right now, but soon – very soon!
What are the steps?
- Create a list of things that need to get done. Do a brainstorming session and come up with everything you need to put onto the website. List them in loose priority; often you go overtime with development and starting with the things that are critical first ensures you can at least get something up there when the deadline hits.
- Assess the workload. How much is there to do? Try to be as specific as possible. Try to make a project outline of steps – this helps you in ways you cannot imagine right now. It also shows everyone that there is a lot to do, and everyone can plan accordingly.
- Identify the roles. Take your team (even if it’s only two of you) and figure out who has the greatest strengths for each role. Does Bob have some Photoshop skills? Then he should be considered for the role of “Designer” (#7 above.) If you don’t have anyone that covers a particular role, there’s who you hire. Hey, at least you know, now.
- Assign the roles. Who does what? If you have a small company, some are going to wear more than one hat. One person could wear 5 or even all 10. But, as stated before, if you assign the hats, there’s a much greater chance things will get done.
- The project manager is important. Keep in mind that the project manager must be really good at managing. I have done many types of projects in my life (not just web design), and I find that if the project manager can motivate, the team stays on track. Because the project manager is “quality control”, that person sometimes has to tell others they’re doing a crappy job, and make that person like it. So pick an inspiring and organized person.
- Stick to it. Don’t give up! I’ve seen so many websites stop at the 11th hour and give up. If you’re fatiguing, give yourself a break for a few days and then brainstorm with the entire team anew. This gives you “fresh eyes” and sometimes solutions are obvious and easily fixed.
Final way to visualize the 9 roles.
- The Content expert dreams up the content to be used,
- The Project manager assembles and runs the team,
- The Information architect organizes the content,
- The Information designer makes sure that the content can be read,
- The Instructional designer makes sure that the content can be understood,
- The Interaction designer makes sure that the content is fun,
- The Visual designer makes the website attractive,
- The Content developer/web writer keeps the site fresh and expanding,
- The Programmer makes it all work.
Capiche?
Further reading.
- The seed of this article came from the podcast from Intuitive Websites. Thanks, guys!
- The Ideal Web Team from Peter-Paul Koch gets into the nitty-gritty of technology.
