The importance of having a content management system (CMS) integrated within your website has never been more important. The value of an “alive” website with fresh content, SEO value and a scalable platform are just some of the many reasons an organization seeks out a CMS they can utilize to manage and grow their website.

Content Strategy & Web Usability Sharpen The Tool
The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently was the focus of a press release by their CMS and Analytics provider citing a 50% increase in site traffic in the 6 months the tools been integrated. The story also highlighted how StarTribune.com became the top newspaper website in the country for visitor length of stay, which is very impressive.

I couldn’t help but see the true reason for the increases further into the press release though, not so much the specific tools, although the abilities they game them are a factor, it was this:

“Through the integration, editorial staff members increased interlinking within pages to Related and Most Popular stories to augment site visitor stay time. These improvements in viewership have resulted in higher ad rates and a dramatic increase in annual revenue for the StarTribune.”

The tool gave them the ability, but it was having a strategy with their content and making it more user friendly that truly drove their increase. By interlinking from story to story based on relation and popularity, StarTribune.com began to give users more of a path to follow. In turn the users went further down the path. More related information, more links, more insight into what others are reading turned into more time on their site.

So in a simple format, here are the goals and what lead to making them.

Website Goals:

• Land new visitors
• Increase repeat visitors (by making them happy)
• Increase length of stay and page views
• Increase ad impressions and ad values from above items

Web Content Strategy:

• Easy to update content with CMS
• Use analytics to understand the users and content
• Link internally to related & popular stories to keep users interested
• Increase page views & visit length (which increases ad impressions)

With educating and enabling their editors to keep visitors interested by engaging basic content strategy and usability they accomplished their goal. They stopped just adding content and started optimizing it with a strategy.

I often head down this same path with our web clients. We build all of our websites on our content management solution, the Site Management Console but the tool alone is nothing without the right content structure and strategy. Having a purpose and following the right guidelines when adding and editing content can make all the difference.

It’s a great start to have the right tools, but it’s even better to have a strategy on how best to use them.

Over the last 2 years I have become more of a supporter of layout then design.  Yes, layout is an element of design, but in the web design process they have their own areas and purposes.  This post takes a peak at the use of wireframes to help determine a websites layout and also the factors we consider in a web design layout.  It’s a great step for the web designer, production team and the client.

Web Design Layout
Simply put, layout is where things go.  When I start looking at layout needs and options I consider the following in this order:

1. The user.  What do they need to see, read and do.  Usability is a big factor in good layout for me.

2. The target market as a whole.  There are certain expectations a user might have of a small business website compared to a social media website.  These differences determine the navigation, placement and number of “areas” or aspects in the layout.

3. The website owner/company.  In building CMS integrated websites for 8 years, we consider the types of information, the amount of information and the placement of that information.  The areas of the layout will offer up some static areas of content or functions and others will be dynamic or manageable with the CMS. You must give your client the right tools to offer up their message, communication or features.

Wireframes: The blueprint of the layout
Instead of just jumping to a full blown web design, taking the time to create a wireframe to plan the sites layout, usability and features is a great starting point to your visual design process.  It also allows you to worth with your client on these aspects and start understanding the users possible experience.  Q & A about CMS features, user needs and structure all can be determined with a wireframe.

In writing this post and doing a bit of research I also ran across these helpful posts on wireframes:

• The What & Why of Wireframes
• Improving Your Process With Wireframes

The wireframe serves as a great plan, where the design elements are the polish and can include colors, graphics, gradients, photos, buttons, icons and more.  As a designer, it also provides a great in between step for getting your design approved and embraced. You have outlined and provide some foundation to the client, so the first design concept is less of a surprise and of a continuation and enhancement of the wireframe.

A Wireframe Example
Here is a project we are starting work on and shows our wireframe concept and then the first design mock version of the website.  Many web designers will just start adding their design elements right over the exact grid and wireframe once that has been approved.  Some prefer to start on paper sketching as well.  There is no right or wrong way.

As you can see we also provided some notation on the areas.  This is up to you to provide this detail or just keep it to content blocks and usability features.

Next is the web design concept.  Keep in mind that this is a rough version one, the finished product will take on more polish and elements.  But it serves the purpose for a visual example.

I hope this helps you understand the web design process a bit better and the value of wireframes in the layout and design steps.  Feel free to either comment as a client or web designer on how a wireframe has helped your process or maybe you realize it’s time to start using one.

The past few months Five has been very fortunate to land some great new web design projects. The initial creative and design process is always full of fun, energy and challenges.

Below is just a sampling from four of our current web projects in the works. These designs are being integrated into our SMC content management system. Stay tuned for future posts on how they turned out and the specific web design, development and marketing aspects they included.

Maybe this has sparked your creative juices?  If so, feel free to let us know you might be thinking about a website redesign.

To date this year, Five Technology has donated our web design services and content management solution for two different local organizations.  The first was to the “Vote Yes” committee in Delano for their efforts in getting two school referendums passed.  The second website has just recently been released and is for the non-profit Buffalo, Minnesota Food Shelf.

After I read a local newspaper article on the challenges the food shelf was facing for 2008, I decided that helping them launch a website would improve their ability to communicate with the community to increase support and also offer their services to those in need.

While the web design and site features are very basic, the site greatly increases the food shelf’s ability to gain visibility and share their mission.  One of the fun ways to help is by golfing in their 4th Annual Green Bean Open coming up, for which you can register online.

I also want to pass along thanks to the food shelf Director Jill Ask for the time she put in to helping us gather information to pull the website together.

You need a change, you need control of your website. Maybe you have depended on a webmaster or an internal employee with some web skills to make updates to your website, but it no longer is the right method. You want things to happen quicker, you want to enhance your content and functionality and you’ve heard it can be done without knowing all that HTML stuff. You want a content management system and you’ve heard right, it can be easy.

Five uses a content management system called the Site Management Console (SMC), developed by our parent company, Intrcomm.

In simple terms it allows your organization to fully control your website, without web skills … add pages, edit text, photos, create online forms and more. On the complex side of things it can handle just about anything you throw at it from e-commerce to user accounts to database integration.

We usually integrate our SMC tool when we are doing a new web design or a website redesign, but sometimes we will just integrate an existing website design into the SMC. Below is an example of a basic conversion to our content management tool we just did this week.

Content Management System Integration Example
National Wall, a concrete wall systems company, had contracted another firm to build their first website just last year, but they soon needed control to update the site with more information. In reviewing their website, we could see they had more areas for improvement, but getting them control was first and foremost.

National Wall’s SMC enabled website has only been up for two days, but in that time they have already:

• Edited content on their existing pages
• Added a Contact Us form
• Added the KonCote product page (now a Koncote website)
• Added PDF documents for download
• Updated their News & Events page
• Uploaded new logos and project photos

Below is a screenshot of the SMC console for editing basic page content. As you may notice, it’s similar to creating or editing a Word document.

During the SMC conversion process we also corrected some of the site’s structure and usability issues making it a little more attractive to the search engines as well as users. There is still work to be done down the road on the interface design and SEO, but it’s much better off today then last week. If you have the need for control of your website, drop us a comment, a contact form or call us.