10 Giant Mistakes I Made This Year

Lorelei Brownlorelei@loreleisays.com

About Me

Making the Internet since 19957 years of consulting experienceJoined NAR as a consultant Advanced case of hubris

About the National Association of Realtors

Million member association5,000 pages of content, as well as

applicationsTeam of three Content editors, 1 IA1 dedicated developer from IT

department

Stakeholders

Our membersPublications/Communications -

owners of the processIT departmentDepartments - co-owners of the

contentThe Association as Communicator

Objectives

Find and install a new CMS.Map the site.New navigation and labeling.New visual design.Migrate all the content to new CMS.Tag with metadata.

Timeline

Map, redesign, IA and migrate 5,000 - 6,000 pages

of content from Lotus Notes into TBD CMS with a staff of 4 while maintaining normal updates, without vendor help, in

18 months.

By The Way

3 people on this team are writers, and don't really know anything about metadata, technology, large scale implementation, or information structures.

So, what happened?

We had no process (so everyone got treated differently).

This is really just a good user flow!Write down the steps that you're

going to follow for approval on a piece of paper.

Draw a good diagram to go with it.Hand out this at the start of every

meeting.

We thought metadata would solve all of our problems.

Really the idea of metadata.Make sure to clearly explain all of

your techniques.Stay appropriate to your audience.If it's untested, manage

expectations.

We knew that user-centered design triumphed over all (including the relationships with our stakeholders).

It's important to have usable design.Messaging is a push and a pull.We ignored what the association

needed to push out that our users may not care about.

Be prepared to be the only one in the room who knows something is wrong.

We hired bad consultants that we didn't know were bad (now we know better).

Business development = subject to exaggeration.

Network.Get references. Ask hard questions.

We ignored our internal clients' immediate needs.

We lost credibility by telling people that we couldn't help them.

When it came time to work directly, they thought we were idiots!

We thought everyone should be doing everything

(so no one knew what their job was).Do IAs edit?Do editors write labels?Do developers make graphics?Define jobs well, but make sure that

duties overlap.

We didn't spend enough money.

Remember the magic triangle of good, fast, cheap? We needed good and fast...

Get consultants, get vendors, get any outside advice to get smart fast

We didn't narrow our focus (for the goals of our redesign).

If you can't explain what you're doing in an elevator pitch, rethink your project.

Phases are crucial for large projects.

We narrowed our focus too much (for the needs of our technology).

Work on the "what" not the "how" when you’re not the expert.

Don't select a CMS in three months.

We set unrealistic timelines.

The project plan is not your destiny, it's a guideline.

Be conservative in your planning. Underpromise.

The Transition from Designer to Entrepreneur

Remember that you're there to solve business problems -- all the problems, not just the information design problem.

Be flexible. Be agile. Evolve. Show your value. Your best value

may not be as a designer.

What can you learn from my pain?

Growing pains do hurt - and that's ok. (That which does not kill it makes us stronger)

Fail forwardYou need to explain your value and

the potential ROI of your work. (We did this right!)

Learn from my pain (con’t)

Don't forget to learn yourself.When you don’t know what you’re

doing, pick good, better, best.Really, the clients just want a web

site. You’re there to know about quality.

Can you avoid every mistake?

No! At some point, you just have to guess and do it.

(It's called using your best judgment.)

Next steps

Meet everyone in the room who lives near you.

Take 5 people out to lunch in the next two months

Stay for Lou’s Roadmap!