The discovery process starts with gaining an overall understanding of the company, client and industry. If you are an internal team, you will likely have developed a firm understanding of your company's competitive landscape. For external development teams, it is often tempting to skip over any initial investigation and concentrate on developing the look and feel, or simply creating an application to fit a given specification. Don't make this mistake. The more time you can take to learn about the site's industry, the better partner you will be for the company and client: internal or external.

As with any type of research or testing, hiring experts in marketing or research allow for more comprehensive reporting and analysis, along with recommendations. When there is neither budget nor time to hire experts for analysis, we suggest conducting an informal features analysis.

Quantitative vs. qualitative information

The discovery process can be based on quantitative data from research, demographics and statistics gathered by an experienced marketing/research team. Our approach suggests gathering qualitative information based on observation and summaries of the company's overall goals, background and user preferences. Qualitative research can also be the basis of quantitative research. The more familiar the team is with the project, audience and goals, the more effective they will be as problem solvers during the development process.

Gathering Information
The discovery process starts with information gathering. Initial data is quickly gathered using the client survey. This survey will solicit client information regarding overall goals, audience, technology and more. In some situations the client survey is often your only means of gathering initial data. Once you have secured the project, start gathering marketing materials, background research and other information the client may have about the industry and the competition. Use the discovery check-off list to ensure you are addressing each aspect of the company. As time allows, set up meetings with the client decision-making team. For internal teams, this might be the marketing department. The check-off list covers the following areas:

Discovery Check-Off List:
1. Company/Client
2. Industry
3. Strategy/Marketing/Branding
4. Current Site
5. Competition
6. Audience
7. Products/Services
8. Other

While gathering existing client data, keep in mind that some of the information may be outdated, or may not be specific enough for the web. Your client will likely throw together a lot of information and let you sort it out.

Conducting an Informal Features Analysis
By looking at the industry as a whole, you can begin identify the key attributes found on the type of site you are building. By comparing content, features, graphics and overall user experience, you can quickly determine 'what works and what doesn't work' with your competitive set. This analysis can take from one week to a month to complete. If you can charge for this work, do so. Many firms conduct this exact type of analysis and charge a healthy fee - build the cost of this analysis into the discovery phase if you can.

An informal features analysis normally follows these four steps: define the process, create a features list, conduct analysis and usability testing and create a report.

Step 1: Define the Process
Build a Plan for Analysis	Outline basic goals, process, and deliverables. Establish team, timeframe, methodology, allocated hours, and deliverables.
Define the Competitive Set	Using client-provided information, search engines, and research, identify a range of companies that fall into the competitive set.
Categorize Your Competitive Set	Break the defined competitive set into categories within the overall industry. Note that each site should fall into only one category.
Step 2: Create a Features List
Build a Plan for Analysis	After initial evaluation, create a list of features that apply to most or all sites within the competitive set. Include relevant offline features. Break these features down into individual categories.
Step 3: Conduct Analysis and Testing
Perform Individual Evaluations	Each person working on the analysis should conduct an individual study of each site, answering basic questions about overall experience, perceived company objectives, and types of services provided. They should also add to the feature list as they get deeper into each site.
Conduct Informal Usability Testing	Determine key tasks that can be conducted on most or all sites. Perform informal usability testing (see Chapter 8) and record observations and effectiveness from site to site.
Step 4: Create a Final Report
Create a Features Grid	Using the features list, create a comprehensive grid showing all sites and the categories and listing features that exist within each.
Make Overall Evaluations	Create final report (in short, executive summary format). Outline the main findings and indicate how they apply to the company's direction and business goals. Follow with screenshots, evaluations, and summaries about each site in the competitive set. Include a features grid that lists main features within each site. Overall evaluations rank each site for overall use, usability, and likeability.

A sample test plan is shown below. This 1-page plan outlines the approach, methodology and deliverables for the features analysis.

Full size image

Resources and time determine the efforts allocated to each of these stages. One individual can go in-depth into several competitive sites (online and off) and gather comprehensive data. However, when comparing features, content and usability, sometimes it is more effective (and more objective) to have a team's perspective. Optimally, researchers should fully interact with the competitions' sites by placing orders, conducting research, completing registration, as well as completing other key tasks, the team can gather first hand information to compare usability.

Understanding Your Audience >>

This original content was created for the Macromedia Techniques Site.
© 1995-2001 Macromedia, Inc.