Ideation: The Key to Creating a Competitive Advantage With Your New Website

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, “ideation” is “the formation of ideas or concepts”. Good designers get this. We understand that brainstorming helps us “think outside the box”. It’s the springboard for innovation and it gives our clients a competitive advantage. So, we listen to our clients (to define the problem); we search for inspiration (to help us solve the problem), and we sketch (to quickly visualize solutions that solve the problem).

But Why Hire a Web Designer to Think?

As one client put it: “We already know what we want you to do— can’t you just do it? And besides, can you actually guarantee that all of this ‘thinking’ is going to yield a higher return on our investment?”

Well, unfortunately, I can’t read minds (assuming a client always knows what’s best), and no, I can’t guarantee a higher return on investment (too many variables), but I can point to some very successful companies like Apple, BMW, Dyson, Herman Miller, and others, who embrace ideation. They value the design process and as a result, have done quite well. There are also many authors— from Tom Peters to Roger Martin who do a great job of justifying the design process for skeptical business leaders.

Otherwise, the reasons my clients hire me to “think” are:

• To help them compete more effectively;
• To better serve those who will visit/use the website;
• To clarify and better communicate what their brand stands for;
• To better differentiate products and services; and
• To make the design and production process more time- and cost-efficient.

So, What Exactly Do You “Think” About?

First, it’s important to keep in mind that design firms rarely employ the same techniques. So, it is wise to ask about and understand their process before hiring them. Secondly, the creative process isn’t a one-way street from “on high”— I encourage my clients to share their ideas too.

So, in my case, the “Ideation Phase” consists of a document that includes the following:

1. A Competitive Analysis;
2. User Personas and Use-Case Scenarios; and
3. Website Concepts/Themes.

1. The Competitive Analysis

Here, I review, comment on, and present the mission-critical pages (aka “goal” pages) of my client’s Top 3 competitors. This gives us a more accurate representation of what the competition is doing well, and not so well, and from this, we consider ways to capitalize on their strengths and weaknesses. At the end of this section, I include a list of observations and recommendations— in essence, a checklist of content, design attributes, and technical features to consider for inclusion in the new website.

Example: The Competitive Analysis.

2. User Personas and Use Case Scenarios

A User Persona is a one page, fictitious, “day-in-the-life-of” summary of each of the Top 3 targeted visitors/users of the new site. This exercise empowers us to be more user-centered— to see things from the customers’ perspective. I also include a Use Case Scenario to consider ways in which this particular visitor/user might use the website. And then, I include a list of content, design attributes, and technical features to consider for inclusion in the new website. This is an excellent way to encourage innovation among team members. You can learn more about User Personas in one of my previous posts.

Example: User Personas and Use Case Scenarios.

3. Website Concepts/Themes

During this part of my Ideation Phase, I explore and present several possible ways to communicate what the brand stands for— usually via a series of small images and text for each concept. At this point, my goal is to explore ways to appeal to the emotions of the target audience(s) and build a consensus for moving forward with the design process. If, for example, my client wants to say that they are “community leaders”, I explore ways to say this, visually and verbally.

Example: Website Concepts/Themes.

Making the Invisible Visible.

Once a concept/theme has been selected, and our list of content, design attributes, and technical features has been considered and agreed upon, I finalize the Preliminary Sitemap, and then, incorporate this information into a non-functional prototype (aka “mockups”). This information also helps me visually prioritize content and features for each page.

As you can see, ideation allows us to begin with the end in mind, and as a result, it makes the design and production phases flow more efficiently. Without it, it is far more likely that a new website will be little more than self-centered “eye candy” (and/or “whiz-bang” technology) that is completely out of touch with the audience and current market conditions.

Tommy Oddo is a web designer and digital artist who lives in Austin, Texas. Entrepreneurs, marketers, and in-house teams hire him to make their websites and digital products more engaging and easier to use. Follow him on: Linkedin, Quora, Twitter, and Facebook. Subscribe to future articles via RSS and/or Email.