Every thing you need to know about designing your website from start to finish… - Stage 1
by Jill McMahon / Pretty Pollution
Hello, my name is Jill McMahon and I run a Design Studio called Pretty Pollution which specializes in Web Design and Brand Identity. Over the past 2 years Pretty Pollution has grown exponentially due to a combination of a few things – firstly because of my passion for graphic design, secondly because of my technical and problem solving skills in HTML, and thirdly because of the assistance of Business Catalyst and their integrated online business and publishing platform.
Throughout the course of my series of newsletters, I will take you through creating a website from start to finish from a Graphic Designer’s point of view. Each month I will focus on different stages of the web design process. Below is an overview of the stages I will be discussing in the months to come.
- Research and Planning
- Concept Design
- Construction
- Fine Tuning
- The After Math – Keeping it up to date
Some stages are larger than others and depending on how much space these guys give me, may take a few newsletters to finish. Note that these steps are not written in stone. This is the way that works for me and you may find you need to leave out or add a few of your own.
Let’s get started on this month’s topic – Research and Planning.
A lot of work goes into a successful website. Most people think that a website can happen overnight – but this is far from the truth. The research and planning stage is the most important part because this gives you a “skeleton” that you will build on and refer back to if you find you are off track or out of ideas.
Stage one is also about putting to paper your thoughts, visions and ideas for your website.
Things you need to ask yourself:
Who is your target market? – Think about the type(s) of people you want to visit your website. What is their age, demographics, hobbies, gender, employment status and so forth? You need to get as much information about your target market as possible. This will enable you to tailor your website to appeal to the people you want visiting.
How are you going to attract your target market to your website? There are so many websites out there that it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Think about where to reach your market and what forms of advertising and promotion you want to do. A client of mine, Pretty in Pink www.prettyinpinkdesigns.com.au sells 50’s inspired fashion items online and has approximately 200 unique visitors per week. (Unique visitors are captured by the Business Catalyst Solution so you always keep track of who is browsing your site). This is mainly because she advertises her website on postcards which she gives to customers, on stall banners at the markets and on price tags. It is important that you advertise or display your web address as much as possible so that it gets imprinted in your target audience's brain.
What Products are you going to be offering?
Are you offering a physical product like jewellery or are you offering a service like advice on shares? You could also be offering e-products like MP3’s or PDF knowledge articles.
How are you going to represent your products online? Remember, selling products online is a lot different than in a physical shop. People cannot touch, feel, see, try on, taste, so you need to represent your products in the best way you can and be as descriptive as possible. I encourage you to get professional photos taken of your product as they will influence someone’s decision to buy a product online. I also recommend a flexible return policy so people feel more comfortable buying on your site.
What is the main goal of your website? Whether you are selling products or offering services your website needs a main goal. It may be to generate qualified leads, sell products, create credibility, grow your database, receive revenue through advertising, provide 24/7 customer service, the list goes on. Think about the main action you want your target audience to do once they have landed at your site.
How will you capture visitor details once they are on your site? Capturing a visitors Name and Email address is extremely important because you can send out marketing and advertising material to them at a later date. You can use Business Catalyst’s solution to capture visitor details by using newsletter subscription forms and contact forms.
What Branding and Graphics are you going to use on your site? Have you established a brand? Do you have a logo? If not how are you going to represent your business accurately online? If you already have an existing brand, how are you going to extend it to the online medium? Your logo is an important part of your business because it is what people see, recognize and relate to. Once you have a great logo, your branding, colour schemes and graphics can then be built around this. Beadworx. www.beadworx.com.au came to me with just about nothing but looking to take their business to the next level. I helped them develop their logo (which is on the site) and we built Beadworx image using colour schemes and graphic content based on the logo.
Have you drawn up your Sitemap? I am always amazed at how many clients haven’t thought about a sitemap. I usually get clients to draw me a sitemap before I start any work on their website. A sitemap will help you (and your designer) gauge the scope of your site. An example of a site map is shown below.
What Content are you going to use on your site? The content on your site will affect your ranking in search engines. When talking about content I mean “text.” I have learned that the main reason people use the internet is “to look up information.” This is why you need to have quality content that people will want to read and refer to on your site. It is not good enough to just sell your products; you need to address the visitor’s information needs as well. For example a site that sells cars may want to include a “Car Care” section which has different articles about how to care for your car. This would encourage visitors to keep coming back to the site for reference and you never know, one day they might see a car they want to buy!
Well, I think that is probably enough to think about this month. Once you start thinking about these points many ideas will start to flow and you start to see the “skeleton” of your site taking shape!
Til next month,
Jill McMahon
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