Strategy & Analysis

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 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.

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 perform research of 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.

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.

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.

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.

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, early on to get initial feedback, and later to validate what we've built.

It's critical for your website to have good placement in search engines because your website is a vital part of your business or organisation.

There are two factors that determine your search-engine ranking—the relevance of your content, and the way your site is built. SilverStripe CMS provides a strong foundation for the latter by offering many search-engine optimised features out of the box, such as friendly URLs, clean and semantic HTML, separation of content and design, and the ability to manage metadata. Additionally, your site’s performance contributes to how highly it ranks in search results.

We can work with your content editors to advise on how to write and mark up search-engine friendly copy. If you are working with an external SEO company, we are happy to collaborate to implement their recommendations.