June 24th, 2009
Posted by Ian
The BBC recently requested feedback and suggestions on how their commissioning process and ASL might be improved. These were my thoughts – I’d love to hear yours too…
June 3rd, 2009
Posted by Chris
Ian took a call recently. It was a man who wanted an e-commerce website. He wanted to know how much it would cost. Ian asked him why he wanted a site at all.
This flummoxed the man. He’d called a few design agencies, and none had asked him this. In fact, they hadn’t asked him much before giving him a figure.
“What’s your competition?” I heard Ian say. “Have you done a competitive analysis?”
I was feeling sorry for our potential client. I wanted to give him a figure, but Ian was right. An ecommerce site is a shop. Behind the shop is a business, and it’s the business that matters. (more…)
May 11th, 2009
Posted by Ian
When we’re working on a project, we often have to compare complex things – features/services/software – and work out which one is the best in the given situation. I use a spreadsheet and create a matrix. This is what you should end up with. Click on screen shots to see the next step. There’s a brief explanation of each step underneath.
Open a spreadsheet, and in A2 type Criteria and then copy and past your criteria list beneath that, one cell per item.
Select cell B1 and type in Weighting. Assign a Weighting value to each criteria. The value represents the level of importance this item has within your overall decision. It doesn’t matter what range you use as long as you’re consistent. I used the range 0.1 (not important) – 1.0 (essential).
Starting in cell C1, label two cells for each software package you’re reviewing – label the first one the name of the software e.g Product A, and the second Score $ e.g Score A, horizontally across the top.
Select the Score value cell.
Create the formula =PRODUCT(weighting column, Score $) and press ENTER.
In the highlighted cell C1, you will see a little cross on the bottom right corner. Click and drag that vertically in that column to copy the formula to those cells too.
The formula is copied to those cells …
… and the values are calculated.
Repeat steps 4-8 for each product – add a formula …
.. copy it to all the other cells.
Starting in cell C3, review each software package against your criteria and assign an appropriate value. I used the range 0-5, but you just need to be consistent.
When you’ve finished scoring all your criteria, you want to add them all up. At the bottom of your product score rows, add the formula =SUM(D3:D11)to add up each column. Repeat for each score column, changing the values appropriately e.g. =SUM(F3:F11)
It may be no surprise that product with the highest figure gives is the favoured choice. Now go back and add additional criteria rows so it eventually comes out the way you wanted it to
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