What Ebola and Your Website SHOULD Have in Common

By Kerry Roberts [ Digital Analyst]

 

Flash Back:

Throughout my undergraduate learning, majoring in Biochemistry and Mathematics, one of the most vivid principles that was impressed upon me is; that, in nature, “Form Follows Function.”

In other words, the purpose of a ‘thing’ DETERMINES the shape and appearance of that thing.

There are billions of examples of the principle: “Form Follows Function” in nature, when looking at proteins alone.

[Image of three viral matrix protein configurations [ Ebola] courtesy of Stanford.edu]

Take the Ebola viral matrix protein. It performs several functions that allow the virus to survive and reproduce. This protein alters its form to take on an ‘arrangement,’ or form that is best suited to a particular function.

In order to enter a victim’s cell membrane, for example, one of its primary functions, this protein must take on a ‘butterfly’ configuration [Top Right]

For Ebola to enter a victim’s cell, one of its primary survival functions, it must alter its form to suit this function. It is most effective at doing so in the ‘butterfly’ arrangement. The Ebola protein, like many other proteins, has a high level of form | function specificity. In the case of Ebola, this form | function specificity makes it an accomplished killer.

In nature, when form does NOT follow function that THING is not only ineffective, but it tends to die out. It dies out, for lack of ability to [re] produce, unlike Ebola.

Fast forward:

Years later, now a Digital Analyst, and a world apart from protein chemistry, this idea of form follows function, still holds true.

Humans are excellent architects of design, or form. Yet the forms that we create through our machinations don’t always follow from function. For example, in nature, beauty is more than an object of admiration, it is a functional thing. Beauty is a reproductive fitness trait.

In contrast, humans engineer objects with traits of beauty that have no real function [ or fitness] at all.

In an attempt to mimic what nature does so elegantly, and hauntingly, as with Ebola, we humans inevitably run into some engineering challenges. The most challenging and deceptive of all forms that we engineer are objects that appear to follow from a deeper function.

Take, for example, my new computer mouse.

Much to my frustration, the Bluetooth feature of this mouse makes it extremely temperamental, and it will tend to cut in and out, rendering my mouse function-less, apart from serving as a blunt object to throw at the wall to relieve my frustration. The object appears to have a form that follows its function: while it looks different to my old computer mouse, it is still, recognizably, a mouse. 70% of the time, it even acts, functionally, like my old mouse. Yet, somewhere in the design process the object form does not follow the intended function.

We’ve all experienced this: technology widgets that look and sound great, yet, in practice, don’t perform, because they lack the form to effectively perform a particular needed function.

In my role as a Digital Analyst, I analyze website data, and so I work with a lot of websites. I use Digital Analytics as an intelligence tool that drives business development goals and decision making. What I find is that websites can be a LOT like this: websites, often, lack the form to effectively perform a needed function, much like my computer mouse.

The function of websites have become increasingly complex.

Websites serve the function of branding and awareness, as well as a place where e-commerce transactions can occur, they serve as social engagement platforms through, say, video storytelling, and as a location for the sharing of customer generated reviews. Websites function as search engine marketing tools, lead generation and lead nurturing tools, as well as tools for marketing, and advertising…

In delivering on these capabilities we are creating a lot of data. This data can provide monumental business development opportunities. Yet, data acquisition is not built into the function of most websites. More often than not, we are not capturing these opportunities, because the web development process is led by design, or form, when web development should be led by a deeper function…

Web Design or Web Development should be more appropriately called Web Functionality [NOT at all sexy, but true] , where the primary function of  the site is business development. This is not to say that no attention should be paid to design. On the contrary, as in nature, beauty can be a sign of fitness; just beware the difference between good, youthful genes, and a good face-lift surgeon, where your website aesthetic is concerned.

Tracking and analyzing website activity as a tool for business development is a FUNDAMENTAL web function, and so it should be considered well before the design process begins. Pasting a generic piece of Google Analytics code onto a shiny new website does not transform it into a data driven animal. Data tracking as an afterthought will, inevitably, pose some challenges, for your business.

A shiny new website may be engineered to look like it possess some of the steely beauty of the Ebola ‘butterfly,’ but how killer is your website as a data driven, business development tool, truly?

Important questions to ask yourself:

1. How well have you defined important activities that you want to track?
2. How well do these important activities align with your organizational goals? Remember that the primary function of the site is to DRIVE development, not track user sessions.
3. Are you allowing room to grow for tracking activities that you haven’t thought of, but may need at some point in the future, and is your site capable of growing with you?
4. Does your website URL structure support easy identification of these important activities, or are these data points aggregated under the same URL – or not supported at all?! 
5. What other data points are being aggregated where more detailed data is needed?
6. Do you know what combination of Key Performance Indicators to look for, for your specific business? If you are still looking at single data point metrics, like traffic volume, and dimensions, like keywords, then REASSESS your strategy, and get more SPECIFIC
7. How are you ensuring the integrity of your data, so that you can make good decisions? Do you know how much of your traffic is coming from your webmaster traffic, or other source that may be skewing your numbers? Do you audit what’s being reported for accuracy and plain usefulness!?
8. How much time, understanding and access do you have to act on your data? Be realistic here, if you have little time, then know how much of the process can be automated