Empowering Users to Improve Their Life

May 5, 2006

I have been challenged recently to think backwards to consider “what problem is a website trying to solve?” Or what ministry problem is the site or Web app trying to solve? I think these are good questions to consider and to go back to as you consider if your site is staying on course or is it effectively solving the problem it was created to solve.

I thought about this again this morning when I read Josh Porter’s latest post, 7 Reasons Why Web Apps Fail. One of the reasons is that the apps are sold the wrong way. He suggests talking about “how your app empowers users to improve their life.” It reminded me of some of the things I have been reading on Kathy Sierra’s Creating Passionate Users blog. This leads me back to the need to answer the question, “what problem is a website trying to solve?” so I can understand how the solution should improve user’s lives or their ministry.