Planning (The 1st step to web site development)

The first step in building any well designed and worthwhile web site is planning! If you do not take the time to get out some old-fashioned paper and a pencil to sketch out what you want your Web site to look like you will end up like, I myself have been and the thousands of other site developers out there, who spend more time redoing the content they already have on their web site then they spend putting up new content for their audience to enjoy. This is possibly the worst rut any web site can get stuck in. As much as people enjoy seeing fresh 'eye candy' the bottom line is they have come to a web site to gather information (with exception to web sites dedicated to only providing graphics/eye candy). If you are not adding any new information to your site then you leave your audience no reason to return!

Ask yourself two questions:

When you visit a Web site, you usually have a reason for going there. Although you often stumble onto a site that interests you while you're browsing, you normally have something specific in mind when you start. Thus, as you begin planning, you will want to think about what visitors expect to see at your site. If you needed what it is you plan to offer on your web site, what questions would you need answers to? What information would you want to see? How would you want it to look? Do you already know of potential visitors, if so, ask them what they would like to see.

Another great way to find what your visitors want is to visit other web sites that are offering similar types of things as you plan to offer. Notice what is working and what is not. View their FAQs (frequently asked questions) to see what the trend is.

In a perfect virtual world your web site would provide all the information that your visitors want; however, what they want isn't necessarily what you can or want to provide. For example, you might not want to publicize a product's unstable repair history, or a competitors cheaper rates. If you are selling a book it probably is not a wise choice to place the entire contents of the book on-line. If you are selling a service, you may not want to tell your customers how to do everything you do on their own.

A good place to begin deciding what you want to include is to take a look at materials you already have on hand. For example, marketing materials such as, catalogs, flyers, newspapers ads, etc., often include information about the company, products, and services suitable for use on a Web site.

Another method helpful in deciding what you want to provide on your Web site is to begin asking yourself a few more questions.

After you answer these and any other questions that are helpful in your situation, you should be able to develop a list of what you want to provide. As an example let's look at Widget International. Widget International decided to provide general information about the company, tell potential customers about the various models, show a few snazzy pictures, and brag about the widgets' reliability records. They were unsure about discussing prices because they were higher then those of their competitors, and likewise they were unsure whether to publicize safety records--they were only average. The final list for Widget International looks like this:

Definite:
Company information
Widget Models
Photos
Contact information

Maybe:
Prices
Safety records

You may well find that visitors want information that you simply can not provide. For example, they might want to know product release dates or be privy to product previews, which is probably information your company doesn't want to disclose. other times, you might want to provide your audience with information that they do not necessarily care about. For example, you might want to tell people that your company received a big award or just reached one million in sales this year -- certainly interesting information that's good for marketing, but it is not on your visitors' priority list. What you want and what your visitors want do not always coincide.

Visitors Wants	Widgets Intl. Wants
company information widget models reliability records contact information cost of widgets safety records request brochures list of distributors	company information widget models photos contact information prices safety records

Although these two lists have items in common, each list also contains unique items. At the very least, we wanted to include all the items common to both lists. At Widgets International, the reconciled list includes the following:

Now, what do we do about the items that are unique to each list? I suggest you firstly consult with your colleagues and see what they think. Getting a consensus before you start to build your Web site is always a good rule to follow. The last thing you want after your site goes public is some vice-president or other member of your organization announcing that you can not publish information that is blaring off your Web site. If you are doing this alone then it's a judgement call left on your shoulders. Widgets International can easily integrate their want for photos into the content of the other items. As for the visitors wants of requesting brochures and having a list of distributors these of course, depend on Widget's ability to provide them.

I usually classify the items common to both lists as primary Web site information and classify unique items as secondary information. This allows me to easily decipher the priority list when I begin building. Try to always construct your primary Web site information first. By doing this you will be able to better justify or remove items from your secondary information list and offer your visitors the vital resources sooner.

Although maintaining your documents after you create them and throughout their existence on your site is a separate issue all together, you also need to include maintenance in the initial Planning that we are doing now. This is even more true if you answer yes to any of the following questions:

If you will be depending on others for content, you need to make arrangements at the onset for how you will obtain updates. Will content providers actually develop and update the Web pages, or will they simply send you new information via e-mail? You need to plan accordingly if they are going to merely send you a publication (for example, the annual report) and expect you to figure out what has changed. Planning now how you will handle constant revisions and updates will save you time (and grief) later.

Regardless of whether you or someone else will maintain the site you develop, you need to carefully document the development process and include the following information:

Documenting the development process will help those who maintain the site later, whether it's you or someone else, to fill the position correctly and keep everything up-to-date.

Now that the planning phase is completed, (I promise you will make revisions later, but the initial burden is over with. Yeah!) it is time to begin organizing your Web site. Taking the time to organize the information carefully is often the difference between having frequent visitors to your site and having none at all! How often do you return to a site that is not well organized? If you can not find what you need easily and quickly, you have no reason to go there, and the same will be true of visitors to your site.