As our industry evolves, the very definition of the web is changing and expanding. Today, "the web" includes mobile sites and applications, social media, and integration with third-party services through APIs. Topics such as data collection and provision, privacy, and licensing are now critical considerations for every project. We can advise you on web strategy to make sure that what we deliver to you works for your business.
But your web project is only one of the many things you do as part of your business. We can help ensure that your web project is aligned with your overall marketing and company strategy. If you are already working with other companies on your web strategy, we are happy to collaborate using their recommendations as a starting point.
Business analysis
Websites built today no longer just deliver information. Even basic websites allow your users to complete simple tasks online, such as giving feedback or making a one-off payment. As websites become more complex, they may completely redefine how you, or your users do business.
Whatever your project, SilverStripe works with you to understand your business and the processes you want to automate. We research your business domain and market, review your processes and systems, and conduct stakeholder interviews.
These activities enable us to model your environment and translate what we learn from our business analysis into an optimised web application.
Consulting
Do you have your own development team using the SilverStripe web platform?
When you are facing a tight deadline, need to create a new feature quickly, or require expert technical advice for a critical piece of development, SilverStripe consulting can help.
Because SilverStripe CMS is our own open source product, we know every line of code. This knowledge, combined with our many years of experience in delivering web projects for our clients, allows us to offer a level of support second to none.
Prototypes
Certain projects, such as large migration projects or deep integrations with third party systems, come with high risk. Those risks may be related to:
- Technology — Will it work?
- Usability — Will users understand it?
- Business — Are we modeling the right processes?
- Performance — Will it hold up under load?
High-risk work requires significant effort to determine size, scope, and technical approach. In those situations, we build a prototype before embarking on the full project. This helps us understand the challenges on a deep level, manage risk, and establish how we work together. Prototyping also allows for early feedback and reduces the time and cost of the overall project.
Copywriting
We like to write clean, tight, and on-point copy. You have a message, and you need to make sure your message resonates with the reader. Whether you are undertaking a content migration effort, creating a new site from scratch, or augmenting an existing site, we can help you craft the right words in the right way.
Your customers or users are the ones who will decide if your site is successful. Who are they? Why do they use your site or application? What are they expecting when they interact with your business? What would they love to see? At SilverStripe, we ask your users directly and find out through interviews, surveys, and site visits what matters to them. Using what we learn in what we build creates better outcomes for you and your users.
A/B testing
Are your customers more likely to respond to a video or text? How do you know that having a red button on your site is more effective than having a blue button? Using A/B testing means you run two different versions of your site, or an element of your site, and you can track which version delivers better results.
Statistics from analytics programmes are really useful at showing you what’s going on in your website, but they don’t provide you with the option to try two or more different versions of something to see what gives you better results. A/B testing allows you to monitor two different versions of your site, to see which version provides you with more click-throughs, purchases, or whatever else that you hope to deliver to customers through your site.
At SilverStripe, we’ve developed a new module for A/B testing. In fact, we can even install it for you. Installing the code on your site is a fairly simple process for us. Specifically, the code change is trivial, it’s just adding the module and one line of code, which will then need to be deployed. However, if template variations are required, design resource is required to do this, and possibly development if there are javascript changes. After that, you will be able to use A/B testing in a multitude of ways, to see if different content or design elements provide you with different results.
Usability testing
Usability testing assesses how your site or application works for your users. Can your users find what they are looking for? Can they accomplish the tasks they've come for? Do they find it easy to use the site? Where do they struggle or get stuck?
We test usability with a small group of diverse users who are asked to complete a test script. We observe their interactions and document them. Lessons we learn from the test inform our design process.
We recommend running usability tests at several stages throughout the project, as early as the wireframe stage to get initial feedback, and later to validate what we've built. In fact, it is useful to conduct usability testing on your finished site at regular intervals to ensure that your Information Architecture and content is consistently useful and relevant for your users.
Information architecture
No matter how great your website content is, if your users can't find what they are looking for, you're not communicating effectively. Information architecture is all about enabling the user to find relevant information quickly.
Labels, searchability, navigation structure, word usage, and how you choose to organise your content all influence how your users meet their goals and how likely they are to stay or come back to your site. SilverStripe can help you build an information architecture comprised of content audits, user interviews, and card sorts. If you are already working with another company on creating an information architecture for your site, we are very experienced in working with such companies to bring their recommendations into our design process.