Web Site Planning Strategies

Creating a successful Web site can be a daunting task.  Before I can even begin to put together your pages, you will need to help me understand your goals, gather content and give clear feedback on the demos I provide.

Why a Web Site?

Let's start at the beginning.  There are many reasons for having a Web site. Some, of course, are better than others. Essentially, there are three good reasons why you might want a Web site: educate, entertain or make money on the Web. Obviously, these categories are non-exclusive. You could educate your audience in an entertaining manner about products which you hope they would buy.

Breaking down your goals into realistic and specific points is essential at this stage. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What initial impression of you and your organization do you want visitors to get from your Web site in the first three seconds?
• What exactly is the message of your site? 
• Can you sum it up in a sentence? 
• What do you want people to do after they visit your site? 
• What do you want them to do while they are visiting your site? 
• How many people do you want to see your site per month? 
• How much money do you want to make from the Web site? 
• Or is it purely informational or polemic? 
• Will you being trying to sell a product, service or idea? 
• Do you want to dialogue with users in some way? 
• Which is most important: education, entertainment or economics? 
• Is there a specific problem that your site addresses?

The answers to these questions (your Web site's purpose) will inform every subsequent decision from the obvious like color choice, graphics and copy tone, to which technologies will be employed in the final product and where it will eventually be hosted. Without carefully thinking these issues through, chances are your site will fail to one degree or another. 

Write a specific and, if possible, measurable goal statement. Something like:

• Build a site that will bring in at least one new client a month. 
• Create an online catalogue that reduces telephone calls by 25%. 
• Publish a site for your Boy Scout troop that will provide the community a large with information about service projects, community meetings and spotlights the positive activities of local youth.

Your Audience

Once you've decided why you want a Web page, you must define your audience, even if loosely so. Your audience will help shape the language used and how many or how few graphics your pages will have.  Consider things like the vision of your target audience, reading ability, and native language. Ask yourself some questions like:

• How old is your target audience? 
• Does your target audience have special needs? 
• Are they local or on the other side of the globe? 
• How comfortable and familiar are they with computers? 
• What kind of connection, browser and computer might they have? 
• How will they find your site? 
• How often do you want users to return to your site? 
• Why would they want to come to your site in the first place?

There are no generic people, so take some time to imagine some one you actually know as user.

Exposure

You must decide what sort of exposure you want, how much traffic you want through your site.  If you are looking for high volumes of visitors, this may effect a large number of factors including:

• How large each page will be
• Number of graphics
• How much text and how it is arranged
• Hosting requirements

Certain pages, like a links exchange page or partner directory may be necessary. Finally, we may need to talk about various ways to increase search engine activity.

Content

With those initial questions answered, now is the time to prepare the text and graphics of your Web page. 

Long before any code is written, essential content elements should be sketched out. These may change several times during the design process but it is important to have a clear idea of what you want your page to say before page layout is considered. Logos, tables, lists, slogans and entire articles should be fully formed and ready to be placed in a design.

Instead of carefully reading each word on a Web page, people tend scan, looking for specific items that interest them. So, shorter sentences and paragraphs, with clear headings are generally the order of the day.

Design & Layout

Now comes the fun part. With a good grasp of your content, rough sketches can be quickly produced to give the designer some concrete ideas of how you would like your page to look. Content, audience and purpose will dictate your choice of color and over all tone. At this stage, the proverbial war between Style and Substance will be waged. The goals you set for the site will be the main limiting factor here.

Each of the following elements can, by themselves, communicate volumes.  You should be prepared to think about the following elements.

• Columns & element placement
• Color & textures
• Font
• Art
• Overall complexity

Technology

The biggest problem with Web development is, strangely enough, technology. The problem is not technology itself but the dazzling array of technologies that a Web developer must grapple with. 

At this stage in planning, you will need to rely on your assessment of your audience. If you are catering to the people who have the latest hardware and software upgrades, then there's not too much to hold you back from requesting massive scripting, huge animated images, including motion pictures and Flash.  On the other hand, if you want to cast the widest net, you may want to reduce the complexity.

The use of technology is a complicated matter and one which you should discuss with your designer in detail.

Wrapping Up

Because this will be a cooperative effort, it is important to plan what you want your site to say and help your Web designer create the right product.  Preparation is the key.