Web Site Design

Getting Started

1. Brainstorm with your colleagues and develop a clear set of goals for your web site. Categorize these goals into areas that will relate to different areas of your site and page types.
2. Who is your target audience? How do you characterize them and how will this influence site design?
3. What makes for a great web site?
4. We suggest you visit web sites that have design components and features you like.
5. Make favorites or bookmarks to these sites.
6. What do you like about these sites?
7. Work closely with your team to develop a clear concept about how the site will look and function. A site selling apparel or gardening supplies will have a very different look and feel from a site that is selling fine art, photography or personal coaching.
8. Develop a clear list of pages you wish to include. Examples may include the home page, the most important page, product or service sales and promotion pages, customer support pages, pages about your business and contact us pages.
9. Use a large newsprint pad or other tool to sketch out your site. Create a flow or circle chart that graphically shows distinct pages or sections of your site.
10. Use the chart above to design a first draft page navigation plan.
11. Will you want to include one or more online information gathering forms?
12. Will you offer your site in part or whole in multiple languages? If so, what languages?
13. Now or in the future will you accept online credit card payment for services or products?
14. Looking at future time frames like 2 to 5 years from now, develop a vision of your future online goals.
15. Do you anticipate that you will add new products and information periodically? If so what information will be updated?
16. How often will this information be updated, hourly, daily weekly, monthly or yearly? Break this out by area or page.

Beyond Getting Started.

1. Will there be a simple or extensive customer service section?
2. Will you offer an “About Us” page, testimonials page, tips page, links page or other specialty pages?
3. Will you publish seminar, workshop, trade show or other activity schedules?
4. Will you offer a gift certificate?
5. Do you have a retail location or locations you want to promote on the web?
6. Are there any special tables, charts, graphs, maps or other graphically presented information you wish to provide?
7. If you have hard copy media like catalogs, product guides, “how to” instructions, tips etc., will you include a form where site visitors can request a catalog or other hard copy information?
8. Traditional hard copy information can also be made available over the web through Adobe PDF or portable document format files. PDF files can be downloaded directly from the Internet saving the huge costs of printing and mailing.
9. Will you include a guarantee or warranty page?
10. Your web site. will need a privacy and security statement. How you will handle customer information collected in the course of doing business. Will you state that you will not share customer or client information with any other business or individual? Will you trade or sell client lists to others? How will you state this?
11. Will you want to send out a periodic email newsletter that drives clients back to your site?
12. Do you anticipate hosting customer interactive elements like discussion forums, coupons, contests, raffles, photo submissions or other interactive elements?
13. Will there be any password-enabled areas of your site where visitors can log in to access special, non-public information?