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

By: Giving the People What They Want: A Practical Usability Story – Community and Conversation

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:08:46 +0000

[...] a copy writer or stakeholder/department of the company. While that will most likely never change (your website may be SNOWED), you should always think of a visitor’s motivations and needs when they visit a page. Most [...]

By: منتديات

منتديات — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:24:44 +0000

There is only one master to serve – the user. Only the user can create success.

By: In Charge. And getting out of the way. (Well Said.) : Social Catalyst

In Charge. And getting out of the way. (Well Said.) : Social Catalyst — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:27:38 +0000

[...] Owyang brought the term up in reference to websites that look and run like mush. SNOWED – Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design. Basically a case of too many [...]

By: Free the Brain: Unlock the Strategy-Creativity Impasse « Little Conversations

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:31:26 +0000

[...] to do both at once. Add a layer of stakeholders and a few review cycles, and the best ideas get SNOWED, as Jeremiah Owyang details in a recent blog [...]

By: нeжнaя

нeжнaя — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:25:16 +0000

Не совсем уловил некоторые моменты, но в общем супер

By: تخريج الاحاديث

تخريج الاحاديث — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:28:10 +0000

تخريج الاحاديث…

Search Tags Family and Community Development (4) Maternal and Infant Health (2) Nutrition (2) Extension Learning Farm (2) Sheep Program (1) 4- H Youth Development (2) Uncategorized (1) Archives June 2009 December 2007 October 2007 December 1969 Pages 4…

By: Great Question. Difficult Answers. | Corporate Eye

Great Question. Difficult Answers. | Corporate Eye — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:19:53 +0000

[...] question comes from a post by Jeremiah Owyang–and the acronym stands for “Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience [...]

By: Building Websites: Internal Stakeholders v. Audience experience

Building Websites: Internal Stakeholders v. Audience experience — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:46:46 +0000

[...] am a big of Jeremiah Owyang’s blog on Web Strategy. His recent post about Internal stakeholders opinions on design outweighing the end-user needs and experiences is hitting home right as I am trying to [...]

By: FizzBuzz » Snowed Slashy/Slash Software

FizzBuzz » Snowed Slashy/Slash Software — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:17:04 +0000

[...] first is S.N.O.W.E.D which stands for Stakeholders Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design. In a nutshell it comes into [...]

By: worship trench » Blog Archive » Why You Shouldn’t Let 200 People Be Cooks in the Webpage Kitchen.

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:26:13 +0000

[...] A fantastic article….make sure you look at the included American Airlines page as is with 200 stackholders giving design advice versus what a solitary designer would do to create a clean user interface. The Ipod video is great, too. [...]

By: Church Content Management System

Church Content Management System — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:42:05 +0000

I agree you are right. It will be a future of facebook like in term of website strategy

By: Francine geller

Francine geller — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:03:23 +0000

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.

By: Cyber Rainbow

Cyber Rainbow — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:00:03 +0000

Hippos traipsing through the SNOW. Fortunately I am my own problem.

By: jeremiah_owyang

jeremiah_owyang — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:18:50 +0000

Rick, glad it relates, but I hope it helps. Send it to those stakeholders before you get SNOWED

By: Rick Hardy

Rick Hardy — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:11:52 +0000

Oh, my. I could say so much. My marketing world has been higher education where this always is the challenge. Everyone has an opinion, the political structure is not top down, and committees rule. People will want to structure the site like the org chart, and everyone thinks they know design. So, it’s vital for a CMO to claim his/her political ground ahead of time, seeking input but being clear that the CMO, along with the web strategist and creative team, makes the final decisions. Even so, too much process limits creativity. Turn your creative talent loose–internally and externally. Thanks for the blog and this blog post.

By: Keith Instone

Keith Instone — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:25:12 +0000

Thanks for the new acronym. As an SLA (Six Letter Acronym) it may not catch on as well as an TLA (Three Letter Acronym). I find the term “Org-chart-itis” (OTI? – just kidding!) works well to get folks to realize they are making user experience design decisions for the wrong reasons.

I agree that too many stakeholders can explain a lot of bad design decisions. Whether you call it a strategist or a user experience lead, the key is that person can represent a large group of stakeholder and be allowed to make the best decision for the user, with full knowledge of the stakeholder wants and needs.

A way to reverse-engineer a page into the number of stakeholder is often to break the page down into the # of module/squares you see. A page of 6 basic UI units – probably had 6 stakeholder and each was happy to play in their box. And you can watch that page over the years to see how the business is changing – when it morphs into a page with fewer boxes, with each box making more sense, then you know the user experience people are making progress in changing organizational behavior.

Full disclaimer: I have worked for IBM for the last 7+ years, on the ibm.com user experience design team. So I have seen it as bad (and as good, to be honest) as it gets.

By: Microsoft iPod: No Reid Miles design here « i scream social

Microsoft iPod: No Reid Miles design here « i scream social — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:36:01 +0000

[...] should clarify things, somewhat, we hope, a little. Thanks to Jeremiah Owyang for his post on SNOWED (Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience [...]

By: jeremiah_owyang

jeremiah_owyang — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:28:38 +0000

Mike

Excellent, that’s the point of this article, glad it can help your organization. Drew good point, I’ll amend.

Terry, I’m all too familiar with disparate departments cramming onto one webpage. See my profile, I’ve spent most of my career in corporate web teams.

By: Terry Golesworthy

Terry Golesworthy — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:55:36 +0000

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.

By: Drew Neil

Drew Neil — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:16:20 +0000

Grammar pedantry alert!

I find the phrase “Stakeholder Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design” very difficult to parse. On first reading, I thought it would go “Stakeholder Needs Overwhelming…[such and such]“. An apostrophe would make all the difference: “Stakeholders’ Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design”. Also, the position of the apostrophe reenforces that there are, in this case, more than one stakeholders. If we were talking about the “stakeholder’s needs”, that would suggest only one stakeholder, which would not give rise to the SNOWED syndrome.

Just my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.