Why? Concepting for Online by Questioning. #GSDM

A friend called the other day and asked for some advice. She was starting a big website project and wanted to know how I go about concepting for such a thing. Do I think about the design first? The navigation? The content? The imagery? The user experience? My answer: none of the above. I think of a concept just like when working on TV or print. But for online work I always start with the question. “Why?”

  I told her to ask herself what I always ask myself, "Why?" Why do I want to go to this site? Why do I want to come back? Why do I want to tell a friend about it? Why do I find this site valuable to me? Of course, the "I" is really the target user so I have to do some channeling of what I know about who we're talking to but you get the idea.

  From there I start thinking of ideas that give reasons to all those whys. Once you have the reasons, the rest is easy, or at least, easyish.

  Remember, a microsite, just like any other piece of marketing, has to be grounded in a core concept and from that all things will spring. If you're creating a sales site, what is the big idea that will lead to more sales? If you're creating an experiential site, what is the big idea that will make an engaging experience? And the way you find he big idea is by first asking yourself, "Why?"

  Here’s a great example of “Why?” in action.

 

  In this video, we're told the story of an ad agency trying to figure out how best to show the speed of a Samsung SSD (Solid State Drive). These are super fast drives that make nerds like me geek out. The IT guy (the target nerd) basically said, yeah one is fast but 24 strung together, now that would be really fast. And for nerds, really cool. Thus is born a video that makes nerds giggle with excitement. And judging from the 3 million views, those nerds are sharing their giggles with friends.

  Go back to the whys: Why do I want to watch this video? It shows how wicked fast Samsung SSDs are in a way that makes me drool with envy and I think that's cool. Why do I want to share this video? Because I want to reveal in my nerdness with my nerd friends and talk about how wicked fast Samsung SSDs are. Once you have the whys, the what becomes pretty simple.

  From a business stand point, this was a super cheap "spot" to create. There is no media buy. If you Google "SSD Drive" this video shows up on the first page. Pretty awesome ROI. Why is the way.

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