True connection -- via a consumer-centric development process -- will yield unparalleled results. Two fundamentally different projects highlight this power. We generated groundbreaking results for one traditional publisher's website by integrating both quantitative and qualitative research into its redesign. The result was a 95 percent increase in ad revenue within 12 months of the re-launch. Would there be significant improvements to revenue without the research components? Yes. But would the results be as dramatic without including the consumer-centric approach? Not a chance. How did we get there?
 
The ways in which consumers interacted with the traditional publisher's assets pointed the way. Our research made it clear how consumers access their news, and we made it easier for consumers to see those sections first when they accessed the site. Simple, yes, but it required learning the data first. We weren't left to guess at this, we knew before we did any development.
                                                                             
One of the sections that the publisher thought should be their lead turned out to be something else after our research results came in, revealing that only one percent of users started with that section. By understanding this one simple data point, we were able to ensure that we focused the site on its core content. This had a profound impact on the information architecture and visual hierarchy -- focusing on other sections that enabled the site to engage users from the homepage and provide them with a direct and enticing path to more page views.