Great (or good) agencies don\'t sustain themselves without great strategy and great execution. Training and internal culture sometimes make the difference. Here is what Forrester said about WHi on my watch.
1. TECH CHOICES
October 6, 2005
Web Design Agency Scorecard Summary:
WHITTMANHART
Key Findings From “The Forrester Wave™: Web Design Agencies, Q3 2005”
by Harley Manning
with Nate L. Root, Michelle Amato, and Janelle Johnson
EXECUT I V E S U M MA RY
With headquarters in Chicago and its other offices concentrated in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania,
WHITTMANHART is more of a regional player than most other agencies in our rankings. But the firm’s
roster of famous clients like Harley-Davidson and Procter & Gamble proves they matter on a national
level. WHITTMANHART’s reference Web sites delivered consistently solid results in both our user
experience and Brand Image evaluations. But it was the firm’s new standardized format for personas that
impressed us the most.
WHITTMANHART OFFERS A BALANCE OF USABILITY AND CREATIVITY
WHITTMANHART is a medium-sized vendor with more than 250 FTEs in its design practice, and full-
service offices in five cities. Its portfolio includes work for DSW, Gatorade, Ethicon, Harley-Davidson,
Procter & Gamble, and UW Health.
Forrester evaluated WHITTMANHART’s current offering against 18 criteria, including the overall
scores of two reference sites evaluated using both Forrester’s Web Site Review and Brand Image review
methodologies (see Figure 1).1 Overall, the vendor’s reference work is average in both user experience
and Brand Image. The agency is an especially good fit for buyers that want:
· Equal emphasis on user experience and Brand Image. The firm’s reference Web sites scored in the
middle of the pack for both user experience and Brand Image.2 This made WHITTMANHART one
of only two agencies to demonstrate equal overall competency in both of these major areas of design.
Clients who want this kind of a balanced approach to their sites will appreciate the equal attention
that WHITTMANHART gives to both its user-centered design practice and its experiential design
practice.
· Standout personas. WHITTMANHART recently reviewed its various persona formats and
standardized on one that’s exceptionally strong. The reference persona supplied to Forrester was
extremely efficient in terms of how much design-centered, rich detail it packed into a small space.
Embedded hyperlinks exposed underlying research, yielding even more details for designers who
want them as well as a convincing argument to stakeholders that the personas are valid.3
To see how WHITTMANHART stacks up against 11 other competitors, see the Forrester Wave™
evaluation of the Web design agency market.4
Headquarters
Forrester Research, Inc., 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
Tel: +1 617/613-6000 • Fax: +1 617/613-5000 • www.forrester.com