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Creating S.M.A.R.T. Website Goals

Posted by Josh in Design on 18 Sep 2011 - 1:07 AM

Before creating or redesigning a website you must first put in place concrete goals that meet the needs of the business and those of the users. Having a clearly understood and well-defined strategy is crucial to creating a great website, be S.M.A.R.T.

“Make the site look good,” “It should be easy to use,” “I want people to buy things”... All of these “goals” are vague and not effective high-level goals. Properly planning out and defining high-level goals is of the utmost importance in determining the most effective strategies for a new website design. Once clear goals have been produced they should be passed on to the user experience or design team to bring those efforts to fruition.

So how do we define high-level goals?

Be S.M.A.R.T.

Determine goals that are:

  1. Specific
  2. Measurable
  3. Actionable
  4. Relevant
  5. Trackable

A great website design is the byproduct of properly planned and executed strategy that meets both the business and user goals.

For more information on creating S.M.A.R.T. goals and some great business examples, check out Dickson Fong’s article on Smashing Magazine’s UX Design blog: “The S.M.A.R.T. User Experience Strategy.”

 


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