Is Your Website SNOWED? (Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design)

Having too many stakeholders on your website results in forcing your users to trudge through a confusing experience, where each laborious step results in frustration then abandonment. Like poor Jack N on the left, you have frozen your own users, your website is SNOWED.

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen Result in Mush
I’m sure you’ve seen it, websites where there’s such a jumbled mess of content on a webpage, you know it’s a battle from internal stakeholders. Typically, you see this jumble of information on large corporate websites, in particular, large tech companies with HW and SW products. (I know this as I used to do it)

Being SNOWED is far worse than Avinash’s acronym of HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion). At least with a HiPPO there will be at least some direction where the website is headed.

What’s worse is having too many masters too serve, resulting in serving none. I created this little acronym which I encourage you to share with your stakeholders, hopefully your website won’t be SNOWED in either.

[Is your website SNOWED? Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design]

Case Study: American Airlines Website Afflicted by 200 Stakeholders
Take for example the American Airlines website, which was so frustrating to users that designer Dustin Curtis decided to mock up an improvement and write this open letter. One of the designers from AA responded, saying there were over 200 stakeholders involved in the final output of the product, resulting in the jumbled mess of a corporate webpage. Reminds me of this self-created video from Microsoft showing what would happen if they designed the iPod package.

Solution: Have an Empowered Web Strategist
Yes, we know that putting the needs of your users is key to a successful webpage, but it should also be coupled with the needs of the business. This is where the Web Strategist comes into play, who balances this with technology to deliver the right experience. This diagram of the three spheres of web strategy should come in handy, a great diagram to print out and put on the desk.

39 Replies to “Is Your Website SNOWED? (Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design)”

  1. Great piece Jerimiah. I think part of the problem is that there is a lack of understanding (or agreement) as to the real purpose of the website for many companies. Is it there to sell, support, educate? the website must follow (or drive) the business goals of the company. The many stakeholders syndrome is all too common and this can be seen by really messy and confused home pages as the home page real estate is mashed up. Further hindering the problem is the automony of silos within the sites. The support department builds a great system but it does not integrate to the products section. There are often 2/3 search engines present that do not integrate the data. The sales group build their shopping cart system but the user cannot drill down to the forum to see what people are saying.

    A good website has a vision and even if you do not agree with that vision, it makes for a better site.

  2. Jermiah, nice post as you have brought up a key issue that impacts the final design of many websites. My latest experience working on web redesigns for a large high-tech company mirrored your comment about the high risk of a jumble of information on corporate sites of large tech companies. With constant re-orgs taking place, key stakeholders can shift mid-way through a redesign resulting in web content that aligns more closely to the new organizational structure and messaging than to the users’ needs. If the web strategist is truly empowered to make key design decisions and is supported by top management, this role can become the “ice breaker” that cuts through the corporate jargon and org charts to focus on the users’ needs while addressing the company’s business objectives through a integrated, comprehensive, and coherent web strategy.

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