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Website Planning
ebsite planning
• Changing attitudes to your
In too many cases organization
organizations develop a web site
for the wrong reasons: are constantly emerging.
• Their MD wants one Effective web development
requires careful thought and
• A web design firm has offered deliberation. The opportunities
to give them a special deal are so vast that they usually
stretch the imagination and
• They don’t want to be ‘left require rethinking not only of
behind’ the initial conception of a web
site (almost always the
• They want to provide an electronic brochure) but in some
electronic version of the cases a revisit of the
organization’s brochure organization’s whole strategic
plan as well.
Really good reasons such as
But also consider whether you
• Making money via sales and really need a website at all? Not
customer development everybody does. Can you explain
clearly and briefly why you need
• Saving money by cost effective a website, and what it will do
distribution of newsletters and for you?
other publications, managing
collaboration and best practice A good web plan will pose
challenging questions about an
• Providing information via organization, its administrative
searchable databases operations, the way it delivers
services to its customers and
even how it defines customers. Setting the web site’s goals
There is no ‘cookie cutter’ Ask yourself about what you hope
approach to website planning and to accomplish with your target
we can’t begin to touch on all audience.
the relevant issues here.
However, the following website Write down your goals so that you
planning guidelines should help remember them as you go through
you to create a web site that the process. Make goals both
delivers real value – and a site quantitative and qualitative.
can be successful and deliver
real value only when it has been You should be able to summarize
carefully thought through. your project in a single
sentence. If you can't do that,
Website planning consists of six then you probably need to spend
main areas: some time focusing your thoughts.
• Setting the web site’s goals Defining the web site’s audience
• Defining the web site’s
audience To define your audience think
• Creating the web site’s expansively. Who are they?
structure
• Planning the web site’s content • Customers or members?
• Generating the web site’s • Potential customers or members?
navigation plan • Colleagues and staff?
• Developing the web site’s • Competitors?
visual design • Who are you not reaching now?
• Generating the web site’s • Do they have computers?
development plan • Are they online?
• Do they actively use the web? • Can I trust them?
• Are they any good at what they
Design your web site “outside in” do?
and not “inside out” – that is • Will they get the job done?
design it from the perspective of
your audience(s) and not your Before the website begins to sell
organization. It's often helpful to its site visitors, it has to
to think of your site as being answer their questions and put
divided into several sub-sites their fears to rest. This is
fundamentally important, so one
Your website has to provide more time:
information that fulfils the
immediate needs of your site Creating the web site’s structure
visitors. Capturing their
eyeballs requires you to Once you have worked out what
understand their point of view. your site visitors' immediate
needs you need to create path(s)
• What information will they be that your site’s visitors will
looking for? follow. Draw a flow chart to show
• What resources will attract how you want users to navigate
their eye? through the content; it should be
• What will motivate them to as simple as possible and focus
click through different sections on the user's experience -- how
of your site? he or she can navigate through
the content.
Your goal may be to get visitors
to contact you, but the immediate The flow should address their
needs of visitors' are probably concerns and needs and gradually
to answer questions like: take them towards completing your
goal.
Good websites like beautiful
To create the flow you need to: gardens require attention:
• Identify the different groups • Adding new content
of people who'll use your website • Updating and revising old
• Work out what you want each of content
these groups to achieve on your • Evaluating usage
website • Responding to information
• Identify the information they requests and feedback
need
• Work out the ‘best’ flows to Think about the right balance
help them find and read that between static information
information (easier to maintain but doesn’t
generate repeat traffic) vs.
Planning the web site’s content dynamic information (serves as a
"carrot" but can add an
Make an outline of all the administrative burden).
content that you plan to include
– an exhaustive, detailed list of Get a handle on the technology
all the media necessary for the challenges and cost factors.
project. Make sure you account Identify special features such as
for factors such as copyright. audio or video streaming,
web-based conferencing,
Evaluate the administrative electronic slideshows, online
implications of each content searchable databases, Geographic
piece. Whatever you do, don’t Information Services (GIS)
wait until your site is launched mapping, heavy graphics or
to start thinking about how you animations. Here you will need
will manage it. expert advice on the implications
for cost, user capacity to handle
advanced applications, loading Think about the experience you
times, and management want your visitors to have. Think
requirements. Always plan for about how a visitor to your site
future growth, even if you can’t will be able to move from one
afford advanced features at the area to another. Navigation
outset, they can be phased in should be consistent throughout
over time. your site. If you place a
navigation bar across the top of
Once you know what your content your home page, try to keep it
is think about its organization. there for the entire site.
Computers are logical beasts.
Your website will proceed more Consider the following points:
smoothly if you have a logical
document structure and file • One-click navigation to any
hierarchy. Decide where to put page (or section in a very large
items such as images and sound site)
files. For example, it's • Visitors should know where they
convenient to place all your are in your site
images in one location, so that • Search features and indexes
when you want to insert an image make it easier for visitors to
into a page, you know where to find information
find it. Any time you have more • Feedback features provide a way
than one document relating to a for visitors to contact the
particular topic, you should Webmaster
probably consider creating a
folder to contain them. Understand the unique way that
people navigate the web –
Generating the web site’s remember that people "read" the
navigation plan web in a way that is completely
different from the way they read
print media. According to Jacob annotated sketches of key
Nielson, a guru of web usability, elements and screens with
most people don’t read web pages detailed insets of particular
at all, they scan them. Neilson areas of detail).
suggests using highlighted
keywords, sub-headings, bulleted Maintaining consistency in your
lists and one idea per paragraph page layout and design helps to
and simple graphics. ensure a good user experience.
The user should be able to click
Developing the web site’s visual through the pages in your site
design without getting confused. If all
the pages have a different look,
Know what you want before or the navigation is in a
designing the site. Ask around. different place on each page, it
Look at lots of sites. Bookmark a might frustrate the user. Make
list of favourites as models. sure your site provides a
Make a commitment to control the consistent look for your user.
web design process. Don’t
delegate decision making to Understand that design for the
outside consultants. web is different from design for
print. Visitors have different
Draw sketches. It's a good idea computer systems, different
to sketch out what you think the browser software, and different
layout of your pages should be. screen resolutions. If a designer
Don't worry about being very insists on visitors seeing the
precise. Just get the general site exactly as he or she sees it
idea down on paper as a this can create a lot of
reference. In more detail you can disadvantages (e.g. slow page
create ‘wireframes’ and loading) and/or a lack of
‘explosions’. (Non functional, flexibility. The whole principle
of the Web is that users can
choose how they want a page • It's too expensive!
displayed. If you try to stop • It'll take too much time!
them from doing that, you'll be • I don't know how to do it!
closing the door to a lot of
potential visitors. Wrong, wrong, and wrong!
Usability testing, especially at
Once the website design has been this early stage, is incredibly
created, it's time to test it. cheap, quick, informal and easy
This is the most important to do. You just need to show five
usability test that needs to be people the plan/site map of the
done and the one that will save website and ask them:
you the most time and money in
the long run. According to IBM, • What's the point of this
every £1 invested in making your website?
website easy-to-use returns £10 • If you were on this page, where
to £1009. you would click?
• And where after that?
If you don't do any usability • Is it what you need?
testing you may discover that the
structure of the website doesn't That's it! As long as these five
make sense once the website's up people roughly fit into your user
and running. This can and has profile everything should be
happened and it leaves you with fine. It's been shown that using
two choices: redesign the website five people for a usability test
or make a new website - neither will uncover 85% of the usability
are attractive options. issues of the website.
The most common objections to Generating the web site’s
doing usability testing are: development plan
information. There is plenty of
Now write down a detailed plan to project management software to
spell out how the above will be help with this or just write it!
delivered, who does what and
when. Include schedule and budget
About the Author:
Richard Hill is a director of E-CRM Solutions and has spent many years in senior direct and interactive marketing roles. E-CRM provides EBusiness, ECommerce and Emarketing and ECRM - Website planning
Read more articles by: Richard D S Hill
Article Source: www.iSnare.com |
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