Web Site Design and Planning

The site structure and plan:
You should not let the structure of your organization drive the Web site plan because Web sites are developed to meet the needs of the users with ease and simplicity. This idea is paramount in designing and planning a successful web site. You should have an accurate view of the needs and functions of the Web audience. The Web planning team should always act as an advocate for the users’ needs. Using the web site as an electronic version of the company’s brochure is a bad application for the web site. In planning and developing a web site, you make a list of proposed content, plus preferable and non-preferable features and design. Focus on the vision of the web site, and evaluate administrative features. Planners and developers should follow Jakob Nielson’s suggestions for the organization of written content.

Establishing your goals:
Planners and developers should establish goals for the site by writing a brief statement that includes design strategies, the length of time for construction, evaluation, qualitative and quantitative measures, and budget and maintenance of the Web site. Establishing clear goals at the beginning of planning is essential to avoid a failure in the future.

Plan for your audience:
It is essential to design around the needs, functions and technical reception of the audience so that users will be enticed to read, interact and return to the web page. It is important that the Web site clearly answers the audience’s questions. Simply putting up a web site that echoes the company’s brochure is redundant, whereas the web site can be used as an additional feature and marketing tool of the company. The site should be designed to fit the needs of users who have various types of computers and Internet Service Providers. It should be easily navigable so that users clearly understand the scope of the site and can travel to any desired location within the site. Having too many graphics generates a longer time to load for many users. Text that is too lengthy and not broken into “chunks” means that the web site could loose potential return-users. So, you should keep the readers needs in focus when planning a Web site.

Preventing failure down the road:
A main reason why Web sites fail is that extra web site pages and projects are added beyond what was initially planned. The creeping growth of scope, or “scope creep” increases the budget and schedule. There is no single element that makes a site fail. It is the gradual increase of extra elements that leads to over-commitment and confusion. Keeping a strong hold on the planned scope and number of pages of the site is a good way to keep it successful.

The toughest part of completing a Web site:
Keep focused on your vision and scope for the Web site. Maintain the site, make backups and keep archives. Keep your site fresh by continuously modifying content.

Once the site is “up,” you must continue to maintain and update the content. Periodic checking of links to outside pages is important because if links lead to “dead ends,” the site will lose its credibility. As your site develops return users, you need to add and change information so that your site will remain interesting. Once customers leave your site for a better site, it will be twice as hard to bring them back.

Backing up the site and archiving onto a secure storage medium is essential in case of hardware failure in the future. The site should be backed up at least one time daily.

Software is easily available for monitoring visitor traffic to your Web site. Site logs check the number of different visitors to the site. Statistics can reveal which pages are more frequently used than others. This information is useful for development and marketing purposes.

It is important to plan the scope rationally. The only way to maintain a good Web site project is to hold to the scope, schedule and budget. Careful planning pays off when the project is complete.

What is a site specification?
A site specification is a clear and concise statement of purpose, values and goals, so that planning; development and maintenance teams have a policy to work with. When tasks become imminent and are needed “yesterday,” it is useful to have a set of “rules” for the site. It can be used as a checklist to judge current and future ideas, as well as a way to evaluate progress.

The site “spec” can be a bulleted list that includes:
• Mission
• Several important goals
• Primary audience, additional users
• Targeted impression on the audience
• Web strategies to achieve targeted impression
• Tasks for audience
• Measurements of success
• Maintenance plan
• Number of pages, maximum allowance
• Functional or technical requirements
• Budget
• Milestones and production schedule
• Roles and responsibilities of team members

As Lynch and Horton say in their chapter on planning a Web site,
“These are big questions, and the broad conceptual issues are too often dismissed as committees push toward starting the "real work" of designing and building a Web site. However, if you cannot confidently answer all of these questions, then no amount of design or production effort can guarantee a useful result.” http://www.webstyleguide.com/process/index.html

Good planning is essential, but keeping focus on the goal, correct maintenance, evaluation and update of a website with the view of its audience is what can keep a Web site vital.



Sources:

Grunwald, Terry, “Tech Soup,” “Making the Net Work,” “Web Site Planning, What to consider before you build your Web site,” Article date: June 12, 1999. http://www.techsoup.org/howto/articles/webbuilding/page1039.cfm

Lynch and Horton, “Web Style Guide,” “Process,”2002, Updated 5 March, 2004 http://www.webstyleguide.com/process/index.html