[IxDA Discuss] Fwd: [iai-members] pattern or feature inventory

[Meghna Bhatt]

Hi Jay,

I recently analyzed a competitor website from the marketing point of view.
Here is how I went about creating a graphical inventory of 'marketing'
features of the competitor and presenting it:

   - I selected one specific (popular) competitor product and analysed
   all the ways how the competitor promoted it.
   - I took screenshots from the competitor website and pasted it in
   multiple slides in a powerpoint presentation (ppt).
   - In each slide I circled out relevant design and functional features
   and included a small note/comment on it.
   - In introduction to the ppt, I took stock of 'website real estate'
   usage for product marketing. Eg, home page, product microsite, linked from
   .... page etc.
   - My final presentation consisted of a memo (Word Document) and a
   supporting ppt (with visuals from competitor website).
   - The memo had my analysis on the web tools and technology used by the
   competitor. For example, "XXX website encourages users to promote its
   products by providing features like 'customer tags' and 'Digg this Story'."

   - In the memo, I also drew up a comparative table of marketing
   features of our company's website vs the competitor.
   - The ppt showed visuals of usage of marketing features from the
   competitor's site.

The management found my presentation quite useful. Hope you find my
explanation useful too. Shoot me questions if something is unclear.

And do let me know how you finally go about your project. Would love to
learn better ways of doing the above.

Cheers
Meghna

On 12/12/06, graphical inventory of 'marketing' features <
jayamorgan at gmail.com> wrote:

> ia/IAs and d/Designers,
> <no apologies for the cross-post>
>
> Has any of you ever created a graphical inventory of features, design
> patterns, or functional elements?  If so, please share learnings or
> examples.  I'd like to hear what format you used, how you presented it, and
> what worked or didn't?
>
> I'm specifically considering an inventory of competitors websites.  In
> this case, if I cataloged patterns, I wouldn't be listing the explanation
> found on a usual pattern library, but showing how they visually accomplish
> something or behaviorally execute a transition.
>
> Thank you.
> --
> Jay A. Morgan
> jayamorgan at gmail
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