People, People, Lots of People!

People are good for a multitude of things.  One of those things is intelligently reading webpages for their needs.  Redish describes how “Writing Web Content That Works” is crucial in creating a webpage.  The audience is hands down the most important part when making a webpage so you must understand them before you start.

Seven steps to understanding your audiences: (3)

1. List your major audiences.
2. Gather information about your audiences.
3. List major characteristics for each audience.
4.  Gather your audiences’ questions, tasks, and stories.
5. Use your information to create personas.
6. Include the persona’s goals and tasks.
7. Use your information to write scenarios for your site. 

Above is a homepage from Epic PR Group based in Alexandria, Virginia.  Originally, I sought the webpage because it wasn’t very functional, was difficult to navigate, and was extremely hard to find what you were looking for.  But to my surprise, the website has completely been redone since I have interned for the public relations firm.  The navigation bar at the top of the page provides shortcuts titled ‘Who We Are,’ ‘What We Do,’ ‘What We Think,’ ‘What You Need to Know,’ and ‘Contact Us.’  Overall, I think the redesign is mainly positive.  What else does the site do well?  

Despite a redesign, I still think their website could use a bit more of a user-friendly interface.  There is no search bar and it isn’t obvious at a first glance that Epic is a public relations firm.  They do provide a unique ‘Stay Informed’ form at the bottom, but who knows what you’re really signing up for?  What other improvements do you think Epic could have made?