Merge

So you want a website. Chances are you have a pretty good (if somewhat vague) idea of what you want it to do, how you want it to do it, and maybe even what it should look like while it's doing it. And chances are you want a web firm that can give you what you want. But why do you want what you want? Do you want it because it's what you like, or because you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it's what your users will want? If it's the first, then you might just be setting yourself up for failure.

It's the age old problem of designing for the target audience. It's your website after all, and you're the one that gets the ultimate yea or nay power over what rolls out and what doesn't, but please examine why it is you want what you want, because your wants and your users' wants are not necessarily similar.

You are almost certainly not your audience. What you like may not be what your audience wants. If there's anything we have learned after the years of splash pages, popup ads, and slow Java applets on the web, it's that giving the users what they want and getting rid of what they don't is the way to go. Users will flock to websites that fulfill their needs and shy away from websites that are either annoying or just not useful.

This is why Merge places such a strong emphasis on analytics, which can more or less tell us what is working and what isn't. We don't treat your website like a project to be completed, we treat it like something to be nurtured. We base your websites on a never-ending cycle of "try something, watch the analytics to see if it's doing a good job, and then adjust," and we believe this is really a great way to make sure your users are getting what they want, and that personal bias and opinion aren't getting in the way.

Bottom line: Merge knows that a successful website must cater to its audience, and we make sure happens with everything we do.