[thelist] http://www.webskeleton.com - site review for all browsers

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Lots of good stuff from Richard. I've got a couple of additional builds:


To:   thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject:  Re: [thelist] http://www.webskeleton.com - site review for all
      browsers


>"Our design philosophy is to create a final product"
>So you don't do on-going contracts, or allow the website to grow as the
>customers business does?

Absolutely. And thinking from a client's perspective, what they're looking
for
is at a higher level - perhaps your design philosophy should be to support
the
client's objectives..?

Realistically, most clients are looking for two things:
1) Completeness of vision - understanding the client's needs and how that
works
   in this medium
2) Capability to deliver against that vision.
(similarities to Gartner's Magic Quadrant purely intentional)

You want to demonstrate that you score well in both. So a portfolio has not
only
to show capable technical delivery (ie the site has to look good and work
well),
but also how it solved each client's issues... bearing in mind that the
client may
not want those issues published.

It's helpful to keep not so much a comprehensive portfolio but a carefully
selected
list of reference sites - places where a potential client can go and talk
to past clients.
Ideally each reference site should emphasise a particular element of your
offering.

Who are your target audience for the site? Is it the end owner of the site?
Or is
it an intermediary (say a business strategy agency who's looking for a
partner
to take to the party)?

If it's the former, why would they care about Flash demos, or simple (much
reduced
so you don't see the subtlety) screenshots?

While once apon a 1999, clients bought anything that looked swish, taking a
punt on
things which may or may not increase revenue. These days, they're
increasingly
focused on cost-justification: "This issue costs me £x. Can you solve it
for less than
the benefit? Prove it."

This doesn't mean that work always go to the cheapest bidder, but you need
to
demonstrate that you add more value than your fees cost, not just while
you're
pitching for the work, but while you're carrying it out too.

>"you need someone like us"
>Why not "we will help you" or something like that to tell the customer why
>they should choose you, over one of the others?

Yes, because while "not having a site at all" is a competitor, more
significant
ones are "other agencies in our space" and "you current staff".
So the key message is not "you need someone *like* us", but "you need
*us*... because we have the vision and can deliver it with better value
than
anyone else"
Cheers
Martin

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