We are in the process of looking at our existing web presence and one of the first steps is the development of what’s called a microsite but is really just a site map. I’ve been really struggling with this as it seems to be missing the essence of what and who we are.
It dawned on me today that the reason is simple – all connections are shown with the same importance. Each service page is given the same importance as the others. Press Releases are equal to the blog. There is no weight given to what customers most respond to or what we are trying to drive them toward. It’s a summary of who we are without any life.
Relative importance is critical to understand in any online system – whether it be a retail shop, web site or web app. Lack of understanding of importance is how we get airline apps with lots of bells and whistles that don’t actually DO anything for a customer given the use case. Lack of understanding of importance is how you create a 25 page website where the most critical pages are given no more attention than those that are going to get 1 hit per year.
Just something to consider in anything you do. What’s the relative importance of each component you are working on?