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Website Design, Usability and Information Architecture

Projects with PRINCE2™
By Jane Birch, Project Manager at cScape Strategic Internet Services
Ltd

My background

My background is in multimedia design so I have a good grounding in information architecture

(IA) and design processes as well as the production side of web design and programming for
interactive functionality. I have worked in the industry for 10 years now, and a few years ago I
moved from web management to straight project management, whilst remaining within my
primary field of web design and technical production. Having worked in both the private and
public sector, I have used the PRINCE2 methodology for some years and have recently
successfully passed the PRINCE2 Practitioner exam.

Because of the nature of the web design industry I am used to consulting and contracting.
Through this I have seen many different styles of project management and feel that PRINCE2
is the most effective and adaptable methodology available at the moment. It offers flexibility
and scalability for projects and gives everyone involved in a project a sense of taking
responsibility for their work, thereby promoting ownership of work and inter-team
effectiveness.

Project background

Design and IA are subjective and there are varying levels of usability according to such
factors as the following.

• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards – designed to achieve web

interoperability by ensuring compatibility of fundamental web technologies worldwide.
• Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliance – to ensure accessibility for users with
a disability.
• User journeys – structuring a website’s content and functionality around the user’s
needs and expectations.
• Site mapping – providing a navigation tool that not only describes the website’s
content but does so in an intuitive and non-linear way, moulded to the user’s
experience.
• Interface wireframing – creating a skeleton of the website at the design stage that
focuses not just on what the site needs to do but on how it will be done, linking in
again to the user’s experience as they journey from page to page.

IA has various ‘definitions’ but it is essentially the organisation of a website’s content and
functionality so as to ensure optimum usability for users in the ‘real world’, in terms of
enabling them to intuitively find the information they need and navigate through the site to
achieve their goal (be it purchasing a product, locating research material, or whatever).

From a design point of view, preliminary questions might include:

• what is the client’s target audience?

• what does the client want to achieve from their online presence?
• how do they want users to interact with the site?

cScape were looking to grow the design area of their skillset, as more and more of their
technical clients were asking for a full service that included design and IA.

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The problem

One of the problems they were having was tying the design and IA team to an accountable
process-driven way of working. Consequently all the design projects were running over
budget and timescales. They wanted someone on board who was used to dealing with
PRINCE2 and design-and-build web projects – and that was where I came in.

The key question was: ‘What exactly is involved in a web project?’ We needed to map the
process and project life cycle so we could apply the PRINCE2 methodology to running these
projects, as the problem appeared to be the absence of a standardised process across the
whole range of jobs, from large e-commerce websites to microsites. When analysed, the
process is nearly always the same whatever the job.

Also the design and IA team weren’t used to managing clients and their expectations, and
they had a tendency to say yes to everything. A lot of the smaller projects were regularly
running over because of insufficient business requirements information. The requirements
appear at face value to be so simple and straightforward, but without proper information
gathering as a named part of the project life cycle it really affects the project’s success. The
need for better project management was therefore reinforced.

Web design and IA methodologies had to be defined and standardised to bring them back on
budget and on time. There will always be issues that come up unexpectedly, but common
ones can be planned for. In the long run planning has been shown to improve a project’s
chances of successful delivery – which ultimately means making the client happy.

Current company set-up

Project Managers were creating wireframes within functional specifications from high-level
site maps and wireframes. We then took on a new IA team, who wanted to formalise these
processes. The Head of Design was also producing minimal design specifications which were
having to be reworked for the functional specifications, which produced too many iterations
within both the design and build processes. Ad hoc changes requested by the client, and
managing their expectations, was also leading to wasted time as there was no formal process
to introduce to them at project initiation.

Design as a field of work is hard to quantify and many different companies work with their
clients differently within this process, so our clients have had many different experiences with
design companies. With web design becoming a more stabilised industry we felt it was time to
start formalising some of the design processes, as they were becoming uncontrollable with
regard to time, resources and costs.

One method used with clients is time and materials; but clients are increasingly asking for
fixed-price costing on projects so we had to look to past experiences to try to cover internal
costs on new projects and have enough scope to make money on them. Unfortunately, past
experiences had not been documented so we had to rely on personal recollections from the
design team. This was difficult as the web design industry had only just started to stabilise so
the team were relatively new to the company (they joined less than two years previously), but
they were taken on for their previous experience within the industry.

We then asked the Head of Design how we could best deal with design for our clients and to
produce a formalised way of working which he felt appropriate to the industry sector and
where we were positioned in the market. He came up with a ‘human-centred design’ process
document. This outlined the following sub-processes within the design process: modelling and
goal setting, concept and prototype, design, evaluation and iteration, and post-launch.

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A lot of design work overlaps with the IA process so we asked the Information Architect to
produce a similar document, using the same headings, showing where he saw his
responsibilities towards the work.

Both documents were produced with the idea of expanding team numbers in the future and
being able to pass on a known process to new team members. They would also provide a
way of preparing fixed-cost project budgets for our clients.

Neither the Head of Design nor the IA team were used to producing supporting
documentation for their work – and neither were they experienced with a formalised project
management methodology – so they did not initially see the value added by PRINCE2.

cScape’s business was founded on more technical web-based projects – such as content
management, system builds and e-commerce implementations. We are now expanding our
skillset offering to clients as they are more frequently asking for design- and IA-based projects
to go alongside the technical projects. The technical projects have a proven track record of
working more effectively using the PRINCE2 methodology (cScape have used PRINCE2 for
these projects throughout their 10 years of operation), and it was decided to apply the same
approach to the new services being offered to clients. The problem was coming up with a way
of making that work in practice.

The solution

I decided to run a PRINCE2 workshop aimed at applying specific parts of the PRINCE2
methodology to the design and IA processes. This would help to obtain buy-in from the design
and IA team. The team structure suggested (and accepted) was as shown in the diagram
below.

Client X

Account Project
Manager Manager

Information Head of
Architect Design

This workshop covered the following issues.

Why use a project management method?

Without a project management method those who commission a project, those who manage it
and those who work on it will have different ideas about how things should be organised and
when the different aspects of the project will be completed.

Those involved will not be clear about how much responsibility, authority and accountability
they have and, as a result, there will often be confusion surrounding the project

Without a project management method projects are rarely completed on time and within an
acceptable budget.

Why use PRINCE2?

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A good project management method will guide the project through a controlled, well-
managed, visible set of activities to achieve the desired results.

PRINCE2 adopts the principles of good project management to avoid the problems identified
above and so helps to achieve successful projects. These principles are:

• a project is a finite process with a definite start and end

• projects always need to be managed in order to be successful
• for genuine commitment to the project, all parties must be clear about why the project
is needed, what it is intended to achieve, how the outcome is to be achieved, and
what their responsibilities are in that achievement.

What is PRINCE2?

PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a structured method for effective project

management.

The key features of PRINCE2 are:

• its focus on business justification

• a defined organisation structure for the project management team
• its product-based planning approach
• its emphasis on dividing the project into manageable and controllable stages
• its flexibility to enable it to be applied at a level appropriate to the project.

Benefits of PRINCE2

PRINCE2 encourages formal recognition of responsibilities within a project and focuses on

what a project is to deliver, why, when and for whom. PRINCE2 provides projects with:

• a controlled and organised start, middle and end

• regular reviews of progress against the Project Plan and the Business Case
• flexible decision points
• automatic management control of any deviations from the plan
• the involvement of management and stakeholders at the right times and places
during the project
• good communication channels between the project, project management team and
the rest of the organisation.

PRINCE2 in context

Putting PRINCE2 in context, it:

• ensures that projects are always focused on delivering specified products to meet a
specified Business Case
• provides organisation and planning
• manages control and change
• manages risks and issues
• manages quality.

Out of all this a simple standardised process for managing a design and IA web project was
developed.

Project stages

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The following project stages were defined.

Starting up a Project – research and analysis

This includes market research, stakeholder interviews, competitor analysis, audience focus
groups and usability testing. This defines the Project Mandate and Business Case and is one
of the most important phases.

Project Initiation Stage

During this stage the Project Manager establishes and documents the Project Approach that
best suits the project and client. This stage is used to formally launch the project.

The way in which the project is to be managed is recorded in the Project Initiation Document.
This details the project management methodology and includes the change control process,
risk management, Communication Plan, quality control and issue resolution.

It is also during this stage that the Project Manager procures the resources required for the
project and, for human resources, creates project expectation and task sheets assigning the
project tasks as per the Project Plan.

Project Planning Stage

During this stage the method of capturing the IA and creative requirements of the solution are
established, documented and agreed upon.

It is also during this stage that accurate estimates can be made (by the Project Manager in
liaison with the Head of Design and the Information Architect) regarding the work required to
deliver the defined solution – and the Project Plan to manage the delivery of the solution can
then be finalised.

Project Delivery Stage

Using the requirements defined in the previous stages, resources can be committed and the
product built.

During this stage a number of project management functions exist – including quality
management and user testing – which should ensure that the product is being built as
expected and within the timescales set.

Issues discovered during this stage will result in the project change control process being
initiated, entailing the revisiting of previous project stages where necessary.

Design and IA within the Project Delivery Stage

Once the website’s requirements have been determined and resources committed, it is time
to move on to the design phase, in which the IA is developed. There are four aspects to this
stage.

Modelling and goal setting

• Task identification
• Personas and scenarios (these can be used by both designers and information
architects to define target user journeys)
• Usability goal setting

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• Success criteria and key performance indicators

Concept and prototype

• Defining content and features

• Site mapping
• Wireframes
• Interaction design and brand

Design, evaluation and iteration

• Screen design
• Usability testing
• Expert evaluation
• Content creation

Post-launch

• Ongoing testing
• User feedback (including surveys)
• Expert evaluation
• Statistical assessment

Additional stages

Additional stages within the project might include development and testing/maintenance, and
the Managing Stage Boundaries process controls the integration of such additional stages.

Project Closure Stage

This is the final stage of the project. By this point the product has been successfully delivered
to the client in accordance with the business requirements specification, and the Business
Case has been satisfied. At this stage it should be demonstrated to the client that all
requirements have been met – this is achieved using the acceptance testing results.

The client should sign a project closure document confirming that no further issues will be
recorded against the project and detailing the method of ongoing support.

Result

The teams were consulted for their ideas of best practice around this and once the PRINCE2
process was mapped over the top it received buy-in from the teams and also from project
managers elsewhere in the company (who were using the same methodology with other
clients).

By mapping PRINCE2 in this specific way we covered all angles in an ‘ideal’ scenario for both
processes. This also meant we had a benchmark to work from. Many projects do not have the
budget or timescale to allow all of these processes to be utilised, so we also produced a
‘slimline’ version to use as a bare minimum standard for a way of working, thereby ensuring
consistency across all projects whether large or small.

As a lot of the other project managers within the company (all experienced in PRINCE2) were
from a technical background it also meant they could use the documentation produced if they
needed to work on a design/IA-led project.

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As we had expanded the company to include a full-time IA function we also needed to decide
whether or not the responsibility for producing wireframes and site mapping now lay with the
information architects or with project managers. IA (in front-end design) is usually run in
conjunction with, or before, the design process and so the two processes overlap. It was
therefore decided that the size of a project would control the depth of IA involvement and the
level at which the project managers would get involved. This meant that we could cost more
effectively for the client and better plan and utilise resources (and therefore budget) per job.

Testing the new methodology

The particular job we first applied the methodology to involved a blue chip company who had
changed their marketing strategy to improve their position in the market. Their current
strategy (and website design) was to be a multi-purpose portal for all things to do with the
home, and they wanted to re-purpose and re-focus this to reflect their core offering, namely a
single utility.

The project was a success and proved a better way of working for all concerned, as all time
could be accounted for and we could produce work on a fixed-cost basis. We outlined what
we would deliver in the Project Initiation Document, which obtained buy-in from all teams
internally and led to people taking responsibility for what they were meant to deliver and by
when. It also meant that any requests for change from the client could be dealt with using the
change control procedure – which in turn meant that we did not lose money on the project.
This raised confidence with all concerned and it was agreed that cScape would continue with
this new approach in the future.

Conclusion

The process we followed showed that PRINCE2 can be successfully mapped onto an
essentially iterative process which was previously thought of as unmanageable by its very
nature.

Using a lessons learned analysis of the process means that for future projects we now have
an accountable procedure that we can follow..

The key to successful project management is communication and making sure that everyone
– including your teams and the client – knows what is going on at all times. When teams know
what they are responsible for, and why, they become more productive – and that has obvious
benefits for both the team members themselves and the company.

Copyright in this material is owned or controlled by the author(s) or his/her licensors. No reproduction is permitted
without the consent of the copyright owner other than in accordance with APMG's terms and conditions, available on
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