Transforming Your Website into a Business-critical Resource

In this era where websites are the first port of call for most customers, your website has the ability to make or break your company. So, ask yourself these questions: Do you know what your users' experiences are like on your website? Are you making it easy for them to do business with you online? Are you giving them a quality website experience that represents your company and your brand? And most importantly, are they finding what they are looking for? If the answer to all, or even some of these is no, then Ark Group's report on Transforming your Website into a Business-Critical Resource is essential reading for you. This report is packed with examples and case studies of companies that have transformed their online presence outlining the processes they went through and, most importantly, the learnings they gained from these processes, including: The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development;The Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists; Save the Children UK; Vodafone Global Services; The Carbon Trust; Cable & Wireless; AccountingWeb; Office Angels; MORE TH>N Premier; Selfnet; and BSkyB. This report will answer key questions such as: * What makes a successful website? * How to define your audiences correctly and understand their needs and requirements; * What makes a good user experience on a website? - findability - or how users seek, find and act on information in their user journey? * How to develop an online strategy for your organisation; * What is the ideal navigation? * How to use information architecture and wireframes for a user-led site structure, the importance of content formatting and making your content assets (.pdf files, audio, video and more) work for you; * What makes good website design? - striking the right balance between visual and information-led design; * How to make your content more findable, both from an external and local-search engine? * How to generate value and return on investment; * How to measure the success of your website using metrics? and * What does the future of websites hold? Plus - the report will contain an invaluable appendix of website resources to use online alongside this report. About the author: Lynda Rathbone made history by setting up the first ever e-mail to the White House for the former US President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, as well as launching the first White House website (http://www.whitehouse.gov). Lynda worked at MCI on the e-commerce site - internetMCI - and then moved to New York City to work in the world of internet consulting, managing major accounts including General Electric. She has also worked with News International working at online auction site FiredUp! and helping create the first e-commerce platform for all of News International's major titles, including The Times, The Sun, The Sunday Times, Page3.com and The News of the World. Lynda spent the next three years at Cable & Wireless as director of the Global Internet Group, overseeing all web-enabled employee and public and customer-facing online environments. Lynda now runs her own web services consultancy, Four Square Media Limited, which helps organisations with user experience and interaction design, knowledge management, online strategy, content management, optimisation, classification and categorisation.