by Roger C. Parker

Before you begin designing (or redesigning) your Web site, start by writing several short stories identifying typical visitors to your site and the information needs that brought them to your Web site. The time spent writing these scenarios will help you avoid myopia. Instead of creating your Web site from your point of view, scenarios help you focus your site's content and navigation on your Web site visitors' needs, making it easier for you to create a more successful site.

• Why Web sites fail: Your Web site is doomed to failure unless it satisfies your visitors' information needs.
• What are scenarios? Scenarios are single-page stories written about your visitors and identifying their information needs.
• Six steps to success: A step-by-step guide to creating scenarios.
• A different perspective: Seeing things from your visitor's POV.
• Example: How a scenario can influence what goes into, and what gets left out of, a Web site.
• Conclusion: How scenarios can help you.
• For more information: Where to learn more about creating scenarios.

Why Web sites fail

Many Web sites don't fail from just the obvious reasons, such as home pages with huge, slow-loading graphics, long lines of hard-to-read text, or cluttered backgrounds. Most Web sites fail because they are written from the site creator's perspective rather than from the Web site visitor's perspective. These myopic "brag and boast" sites emphasize the firm's accomplishments but don't present information in a language or structure that visitors can easily relate to.

To create an effective Web site, you must struggle to overcome the challenge of myopia. You must create your Web site—and present your message—from your visitors' perspective instead of your own. You must "put yourself in your visitors' shoes" and "think like your visitors" to design a Web site that presents your message in the way that best reflects their needs.

Visitors are selfish. That's just human nature. They are not interested in you and your business except insofar as you and your business can help them achieve a goal. Visitors are at your site because they have a problem they hope you can solve.

Scenarios help you identify your visitors' goals by helping you develop a better idea of their problems and how they relate to your firm's solutions. Scenarios make it easy for you to get a better idea of your Web site visitors' information needs, so you can better provide the information they need (That happens to involve buying your product or service!).

Your goal is to identify the "sweet spot" that indicates the overlap between the marketing message you want to communicate and the information visitors need to solve their problems.

What are scenarios?

Scenarios are short, detailed, fictional stories you write describing typical visitors to your Web site, the challenges they face and the information they need to be persuaded to buy your firm's product or service.

Ideally, you should create a series of four or five scenarios, each describing a typical buyer for each category of product or service you offer. Share these with your co-workers and invite them to contribute additional details that will flesh-out your stories. Use the first draft of your scenarios as a catalyst to "brainstorming" sessions, during which you and your co-workers or staff develop creative, "outside the box" solutions to your client or firm's problems.

The more details included in your scenarios, the better you'll be able to satisfy your visitors' needs. Details bring your story alive, helping you get a better understanding of your visitors' information needs. Names, ages, job titles, times when they visit your Web site and specific challenges all humanize, or personalize, your visitors. Instead of thinking of your visitors as a "faceless mass," scenarios help you think of your visitors as unique individuals with specific needs.

Limit your scenarios to one page. This makes them easy to create, easy to read and review, easy to photocopy, easy to share, and easy to arrange in the right order. A one-page limit forces you to write as tightly as possible, avoiding the temptation to "fluff up" your scenarios with unnecessary words. Three or four paragraphs should be enough for each scenario. Instead of editing your scenarios as you write them, immediately move on to the next. This encourages the creative, free flow of ideas, and the process will gain momentum quickly.

Six steps to success

There are six steps to creating successful scenarios. Here's an example, based on a visitor looking for a service, in this case, an event-planner looking for a keynote speaker.

1. Start by giving each scenario a fictional name and position at a fictional association or corporation: i.e., "Betsy Kaplan is the program chairman for the Roger Parker Software Collaborative in Dover, New Hampshire."
2. Then, present the challenge or problem that the individual is facing : "Betsy Kaplan's problem is that she needs a keynote speaker for her firm's forthcoming User Group Conference at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Hyatt Regency Hotel on June 14, 2000."
3. Provide as many details as appropriate. "Approximately 400 users will be arriving from throughout the United States. The keynote speaker must be an entertaining, high-energy individual who can begin the conference with an enthusiastic, fast-paced, 45-minute presentation outlining the progress the firm has made in improving customer service during the past year."
4. Identify the characteristics of a successful solution. "The keynote speaker must be familiar with our software and the problems it solves—or be a "fast learner." To build interest in the conference, the keynote speaker must be a high-visibility individual, a recognized and respected authority, familiar to the target audience, perhaps through published books and articles, etc. The speaker must also be able to document his or her experience comfortably in front of large groups. Letters of recommendation and evaluations from previous speaking engagements should contain terms such as dependable, entertaining, and responsible."
5. Complete the "sales" job by providing additional detailed information. Answer the question: "Is he or she really good and are they available?" The program chairman can't take a chance on an unknown quantity: The keynote address is crucial to the success of the conference. To satisfy the visitor's fear factor, the Web site could include a list of the speaker's previous keynote speech topics or workshop presentations plus a list of previous clients.
   A list of references or copies of attendee evaluations would enhance the speaker's credibility. Other supporting evidence would include a picture of the speaker plus an offer to order a video of one of the their previous presentations. A list of current and future speaking engagements would provide further evidence that the speaker is a currently active, successful speaker in high demand.
6. Close the deal. This involves answering the following questions. First, "What does he or she actually look and sound like?" An audio/video clip on the Web site would make it easy to immediately preview the speaker's style. If this is not possible, the Web site should make it easy for the conference chairman to order a video of the speaker. Second, "Is he or she available on June 14, 2000, and how much does he or she charge?" The Web site should make it as easy as possible for the visitor to contact the speaker and find out availability and—most important—terms.
   Finally, "How can I contact the speaker?" Each page should contain e-mail, fax, and telephone numbers or an Information Request form to simplify communications so the visitor doesn't have to return to the home page or "contact us" page to contact the speaker.

Different Perspective

As the above example shows, scenarios force you to view your firm's information from a different perspective than the typical "brag and boast" Web site. Scenarios make it easier to provide answers to the "real world" questions your visitors are asking from the visitors' perspective, using language and providing information in a sequence that reflects the visitors' approach to the problem. After analyzing the above scenario, you will probably find yourself thinking differently about the types of information you place on your Web site and the way you present it.

By creating scenarios addressing the major product or service categories you are promoting on your Web site, your Web site will inevitably present information in a different way than if you write it from an impersonal, chronological point of view, i.e., "About Us," "Our Products," "Company History," "FAQs," and "Contact Us." By identifying the information needs of your "prototype," or typical Web site visitor, you will likely present your information in a more empathetic way, more in tune with your visitors' needs.

Someone looking for products

Written scenarios are likely to influence both the information you present and your Web site's navigation. Let's consider another scenario, this time for a Web site for a mail order hobby shop that sells brass model railroad locomotives.

"Christopher Parker is a pension fund manager for Jones River Paper, a major employer in Stilton, New Hampshire. He earns between $50,000 and $75,000 a year. Christopher spends most of his time on the Web tracking his firm's pension investments. Christopher's hobby is model railroading. He checks out model railroad sites from his office, in between checking stock prices.

"Christopher collects O-scale painted brass locomotives and cars, particularly those imported by Overland Models. (O-scale refers to the size of the models.) These are handmade and imported in extremely small quantities. He is particularly interested in modeling the Santa Fe railroad during the early 1990s. He needs only a few models to complete his collection. He currently owns several models of steam engines for other railroads. These engines, bought several years ago, are rarely used as they are not appropriate for the railroad or time period he is modeling. He is particularly interested in obtaining a Santa Fe caboose and observation car for the end of his 12-car passenger train.

"Since there are no hobby shops in his area, Christopher is forced to make most of his purchases by mail or through the Internet. Once a year, however, he combines his vacation with one of the national model railroad shows held in various cities around the country, bringing several models to sell or trade—and coming home with several new models.

"Christopher is an impulse buyer. He knows what he wants and is willing to pay top dollar for it as soon as he locates it. He has been known to spend thousands of dollars at a time when he locates what he wants. He is also willing to place advance deposits on forthcoming models as soon they are announced, up to a year before their actual due date."

What you can learn from this scenario

From this scenario, you can learn a lot about creating a Web site that would best serve Christopher's—and this type of Web site visitor's—needs. Web site design, in terms of appearance and formatting, would be strictly secondary to quick access to the firm's current inventory. Thus, Christopher's needs would be best satisfied by a database-driven Web site with extensive search capabilities. This would make it possible for Christopher to frequently visit the Web site (in between visits to the stock market pages) and quickly search for specific Santa Fe diesel engines or passenger cars imported by Overland Models. Instead of scrolling through a list of every engine and car in stock, for example, he should be able to search for specific models from specific importers, painted for specific railroads.

As a busy, "impulse" buyer checking hobby Web sites from work, in between monitoring pension fund investments, Christopher's time is very limited. As an experienced mail order and Web buyer, the buying experience should be as quick and easy as possible. A shopping cart would make it easy for him to quickly prepare an order (or place a reservation on a forthcoming model). The site should definitely include a secure e-commerce capability and should "remember" his preferred billing and shipping information.

In addition, since Christopher owns models he is no longer interested in, the Web site should make it easy for him to trade or sell these models. The Web site should include information about how the hobby shop handles consignment sales, trades, or outright purchases of models. Since Christopher buys and sells impulsively, an automated on-line quote service (such as the one at www.keh.com, an on-line camera store) would allow the hobby shop to quickly give Christopher an idea of the value of the models he is interested in getting rid of.

Other options could include a free "classified" section where he could list items he wants to sell, allowing other hobbyists to contact him directly. The "classified" section would allow him to advertise his desire to buy certain models as well as see if other modelers are selling models he desires. Another option would be an on-line auction permitting visitors to bid on certain items, with the store receiving a commission on items bought and sold.

The above scenario also influences the design of the Web site. For example, the home page should contain a constantly updated "What's new?" section that will describe forthcoming models and make it easy to reserve them.

Finally, being in Stilton, New Hampshire, Christopher probably has few friends who share his interest. This leads to a certain feeling of loneliness, as he has no one locally to discuss his hobby with. The Web site should contain a question and answer forum that would entice Christopher back to the Web site by allowing him to ask questions and share modeling tips, techniques, and suggestions with other Santa Fe model railroaders around the country.

Notice, as in the Program Chairman example above, once again the scenario transforms the abstract into the concrete, focusing your attention on your visitors' needs.

By identifying a hypothetical Web site visitor's needs in detail, you avoid spending a lot of time and money on text, photographs, and animation that may entertain but don't deliver the specific information visitors immediately desire.

Scenarios keep you focused on what interests your visitors, not yourself.

Conclusion

Too often, Web sites are created from a design, or aesthetic, point of view that places content secondary to "image" and "impact." These Web sites reflect an inward, or myopic, point of view that satisfies the Web site creator's ego but may not satisfy the visitor's information needs.

Scenarios offer an alternative, one that helps you identify the specific information that various categories of visitors are interested in. To the extent that you identify the information your most profitable customers and prospects are interested in and you design your Web site so it provides that information as quickly as possible, your Web site will be increasingly successful.

Best of all, scenarios can be fun to create and discuss, especially in a group environment.

For more information…

Scenarios play an important role in information architecture, the art and science of presenting information in ways that best serve the user. Information architecture and usability are terms that offer a richness far beyond the usual language of colors, fonts, and graphics file formats. For more information about information architecture and scenarios, investigate resources such as those available at the 20,000-member Society for Technical Communication Web site and consider joining and attending STC meetings held in your region (There are eight regions throughout the United States.). The STC also hosts national conferences you might want to consider attending.

You can also investigate resources such as the various conferences presented by User Interface Engineering Inc. Presenters at their yearly conferences frequently discuss the tools involved in creating scenarios.