The problems which I have seen clients come to me with include;

• an under-performing website,

• a very small amount of user traffic,

• low return on their marketing investments,

• personal dissatisfaction with website (both design and functionality),

• the inability for their website to grow (extensibility issues),

• their website becoming increasingly complex,

• dissatisfaction with their current web design agency.

And for new projects;

• uncertainty about what they really want for their website,

• uncertainty about what their users (if they even know them) really need,

• the scope of the project (how big a job is it really?).

Fortunately, approaching the design of a website from the perspective of a user, solves most of these problems effectively.

I feel it is important to quickly note the alternative at this stage;

• conduct meetings with the client to decide what they want,
• decide on convenient technology to implement the functionality,
• create a User Interface that the client likes.

This sounds brief, but it is the traditional approach that many agencies use when in the business of releasing as many websites for as many clients as possible. Which is fine, that’s business.
However, this will not solve most of the problems listed above and will leave both the client and the designers with a less-than perfect website that they will inevitably want to change.

The solution is to spend an appropriate amount of time analysing what the client truly wants, then defining the potential (or existing) stereotypical user of the website, and then finally aligning this research to meet everyones objectives.

This process, although time consuming, is essential to designing and developing a perfected product. It has been said that good design is invisible. However you can spot good design by the lack of frustration that you might feel when using a website. You will find that what you need is always easy to find, and that you know that the website has been made with you in mind.

For examples of a website designed with a user in mind check out Apple.com, AIB.ie, and a previous project of mine, BrightwaterSupport.com.