Developing and Defining Goals

We clarify what the strategic purpose of the planned website is and how it should contribute to our goals as an organizational unit.

We answer the following questions for ourselves

• What is our self-image, and how do we want to convey it to the outside world?
• What priorities do we want to set, and what messages do we want to convey?
• What unique selling points do we want to highlight?
• Who is our target audience?
• What branding and language standards do we need to follow, or do we want to develop?
• What is our position on this?
• What sounds like us? What is our voice / our tone?
• Are there any models to follow, such as the websites of other departments and schools?

When relaunching a website, we analyze the statistics for the current website:

• What insights can we gain from data such as visitor statistics (e.g., click counts)?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our website?
• What content or elements are also essential for the new page?
• What risks and benefits do we see in redesigning our websites?

Define and document target audiences

We take a deep dive into the target audiences we want to reach. We document these—for example, as personas—so that whenever we’re considering content creation and structure, we can put ourselves in the target audience’s shoes. We shift our mindset from “What do we want to show our target audience?” to “What does our target audience want to learn from us?”

We answer the following questions for ourselves

• Which target audience(s) do we want to reach?
• What added value or benefits should the website offer the target audience, and how can it do so?
• What kind of content are visitors looking for on our website, and how do they go about finding it?
• What are our users’ needs and preferences?
• How can we present our key areas of focus in a way that is easy for our users to understand?

Questions About User Research

• Answer to the question: Who are our target audiences?
  provides the basis for: Differentiated target audiences and influencers
  → Initial question: Is there a spectrum of characters?

• Answer to the question: How do they find their way to us?
  provides the basis for: User Journey / Prior Knowledge
  → Initial question: Which search terms, channels

• Answer to the question: What makes them tick?
  provides the basis for: Mental Model
  → Initial question: How does the target audience think about or feel about topic xy?
  (RUB’s home-field advantage: we have close ties to many user groups)

• Answer to the question: What do they want?
  provides the basis for: Priorities
  → Initial question: What questions or concerns do they have, and how do they phrase them?
  (Content is prioritized differently based on users’ questions on the topic)

• Answer to the question: What do users need (in this context)?
  provides the basis for: content outline, approaches, structure
  → Initial question: What do users need—and when?

• Answer to the question: What language do they understand?
  provides the basis for: Vocabulary/search terms
  → Original question: How do we ensure that texts are understandable and easy to find?