How to change the homepage: talk about Alibaba China website homepage change experience
Same as any Beijing website construction Like Alibaba's website, every revision of Alibaba's home page is also a baptism of entanglement and struggle. The process of design is always painful, because judgment and selection are always difficult Beijing website production Here, we do not want to describe the whole process of the revision - although the architecture of different teams and the responsibilities of design teams are different, there is no essential difference in the process between large companies or small companies except for the different decision-making processes. We are here to summarize our experience and lessons in the process of revision（ Seo website optimization ）, and thinking about the home page or even the product redesign.
The following are the necessary thinking processes, some methods and key points:
1、 Thinking about positioning
Before the homepage is revised, we should first consider the following three issues in combination with the overall strategic changes of the website:
one What is the purpose/goal of the revision?
Is it to coordinate with the adjustment of the overall strategy of the website, or to improve and enhance the user experience, or to transform and upgrade the website from top to bottom, or to redistribute traffic from bottom to top
These factors also determine whether the design idea of the home page is macro or micro, combing the information level or optimizing the visual expression.
2. Who is the user of the home page?
Who are users, what are their characteristics, and what are their needs and values?
When considering this problem, it is necessary to distinguish user types. Different websites may distinguish different user groups according to the characteristics of website services, such as:
1. Time: new users and old users
2. Source: Self owned user, SEO user, BD user
3. Focus on industries: raw material users, industrial products users
3. Current situation
1. What are the current content operation rules
2. Whether the current interface has usability or ease of use problems
3. What is the basic data: PV, UV, return visit rate, traffic conversion rate, traffic distribution of each product, and basic data of each type of user. Whether the data itself can reveal the current problems, or can be used to evaluate the effect of the expected goals
2、 Design management
1. Identify key roles
It is very important to identify the key roles in this process: who is really responsible for the home page, who is responsible for specific business, and who is the decision-maker of relevant partners? Only when the key roles are identified can the problems be effectively decided and promoted, rather than mutual prevarication and delay, which will be an important step to test the working skills of the revised project team.
2. Communicate design ideas in advance rather than directly enter the design
Different work styles will produce different work processes. Taking home page revision as an example, I have seen a spectacular scene where more than ten home page design drafts were given to the boss for selection. This may not be a bad work method, but it is obviously inefficient.
It is suggested to establish full communication with relevant parties (especially the leader with decision-making power on the home page) before the revision, so as to establish a consensus on the overall goal of the revision, rather than communicating specific design details at the beginning - which is easy to fall into disputes over details.
Of course, in order to avoid "empty talk", it is necessary to make corresponding preparations. If possible, provide data basis and status analysis, and give a clear view. Of course, you can also use the low fidelity page structure diagram to help all parties have a conceptual understanding of the home page.
3. Project management
a) Resource guarantee
The home page revision has a long-term and stable demand for investment. It is very important to win relevant resources and obtain high priority support in the project process.
b) Time plan: regular and tracking
Home page revision is a project that consumes more resources and involves a lot of business. It is strongly recommended to follow the project process. However, unlike ordinary projects, the progress of home page revision is often not completely controlled, and there are many related influencing factors, which can not be completely determined by the workload of the technical evaluation scheme. Therefore, it is recommended to prepare a relatively rough project schedule in the early stage of the project, It is mainly used to decompose the implementation process, and establish an accurate online time plan after the scheme is basically formed.
3、 Grasp design details
1. Design is operation
The design process is also the process of operation planning, especially for the operation oriented homepage. Designers should not only pay attention to how users browse and read, but also consider how the homepage content is generated. Therefore, the design process of homepage is also the process of establishing operation rules and operation methods with relevant business parties.
2. Pursue details, but don't be afraid of imperfection
As is often said in product design, the success of a product is often achieved through rapid iteration. If a perfect product is pursued, the opportunity has long been missed. The design and improvement of the home page will also be a process of continuous user testing and rapid iteration. Therefore, on design launch, users' feedback and behavior data are continuously verified and confirmed, without the need to pursue perfect solutions - because perfection does not exist.
4、 Make good use of data and users
1. Data is an important way to understand users
a) Before design, measurable indicators should be set for the objectives to be verified
The index of homepage revision effect is closely related to the positioning of homepage. How to set user experience index, it is recommended to refer to Google's user experience measurement index system (HEART).
b) Whether there is enough data to support the analysis conclusion
Once the indicators of the home page revision effect are clear, the corresponding data of the indicators, basic access data of the website, tracelog, click distribution, etc., should be collected through various ways. If necessary, the data indicators of the current homepage should be collected to compare the effect of the homepage revision.
Our experience: we mainly use the CTR and Bounce Rate (in combination with the identity of the purchaser) when revising the home page, so as to evaluate the matching degree and attractiveness of the new and old versions with user needs. Of course, totally different data indicators may be used under different goal drivers. For example, when analyzing local sectors, attention may be paid to such issues as advertising effect, special conversion rate, number of login behaviors, etc.
2. Use data to make decisions and verify
a) The definition and description of key indicators should be agreed
In the process of revision, we encountered a series of data problems, including instability of monitoring data, inconsistency of data, etc. When we summarized the reasons, we found that the problems were due to different departments' different definitions and observations of data, and because of the differences in the number and type of samples selected in the AB Test process, the observation results would not be comparable. This also urges us to establish a unified data collection channel in the subsequent test process, and to fully communicate with BI department in the subsequent AB Test to ensure the comparability of test samples.
b) Don't be superstitious about data, look for the meaning behind the data
3. Feedback, sometimes not important
It depends on whether you have enough judgment and dare to say no. Please consider the received question
1. Is it expressing feelings or practical problems of use
2. Whether it is the target user
3. Is it a universal problem or an individual problem
To make your own judgment, remember to listen to the voice of a few people, but design for the majority.
5、 "Habits" and Rebuilding Habits
In general, the original user's habits are always met when the homepage is revised, so the continuation of user habits and some guidance should be carefully considered during the testing process and launch of the homepage. Please consider——
1. On the test version, the user is allowed to return to the default home page and exit the test
2. After the new homepage is launched, the portal of the old homepage will be retained for a period of time, so that those users who have not yet adapted to the new homepage can have a buffer period to complete the tasks they used to do
3. If necessary, provide a what's new page to help users quickly understand the new home page
Our experience: after the official launch of the new version, a new home page guide is provided for users on the first screen, and an entry to review the old home page is provided at the bottom of the page, leaving sufficient time for users to transition. By monitoring the traffic of the old version, users can also judge their acceptance of the new version, thus gradually reducing the weight of the help of the new version, And in this process, there is basically no active complaint from users.
The above is a summary of our experience in the revision of the homepage of Alibaba China, which is shared here with students who have related puzzles or encounter the same problems. Welcome to have a more in-depth discussion on the profession.
