More than coding: the website design process
| Category: Website Design and Development | Date: 2003-10-30 |
Creating a website isnt just a matter of starting a web builder application and clicking away. There are six vital steps to putting a website together. Miss any one of them and you will considerably reduce your chances of doing good business over the Internet.
1. Set the marketing aims (who you site is aimed at; what you want from it).
2. Select and create the content.
3. Create the graphical design layout.
4. Program the pages into the computer.
5. Submit the site to search engines.
6. Maintain your site.
It doesnt matter whether its a business website or a personal one; the steps are the same. Now Ive found that most people I talk to really only ever think of step 4 as "designing a website." Is this why so many small business users end up disappointed? They often select a low quote, maybe just a few hundred dollars and wonder why the result is ineffective.
Well, lets get the this cost hurdle out of the way. A few hundred dollars will buy you a website with five or so pages. You may even be able to add a simple shopping cart, credit card payment, survey forms and so on for this price. But what you are paying for is item 4.
You are not going to get a marketing concept, content creation and personalized layout for this. The low cost website designer will have assumed that you will do this. He or she will just bolt together what you give them. You may get a cursory (and possibly ineffective) search engine submission, and absolutely no ongoing support. If you dont want to do your own programing, but want to keep costs low, then pay the few hundred for item 4, but be sure youre in full control of the rest yourself. If you want all six steps taken care of, then choose a design house wisely and be prepared to pay much more.
Step 1: Marketing
-----------------------
If a business website is your aim, dont even think about site design until you have created a marketing plan.
Step 2: The content
------------------------
The architect Louis Sullivan coined a famous dictum that has remained at the heart of all good design: "Form follows function." This means that it is the content of your web pages that matters above all. The graphics design must never distract from the content - which is the information that you are trying to pass to your customer. If you are building your own website then keep things simple.
Step 3: Creating the graphical design layout.
-----------------------------------------------------
Youll want a distinctive "look" for your design. The low cost designer will ask you to select from a number of ready made templates, but you should expect to be able to customize colors and logos. When you are paying a larger sum for your website, then this, plus the content design, are the areas that will probably cost the most. Good designers and artists are never cheap, but they are worth paying for.
Step 4: Programing your site into the computer.
---------------------------------------------------------
For small sites this step, for a professional designer, is the easiest of all. Its what constitutes the few hundred dollar website and will take less than a day. It has to, otherwise it would cost a lot more!
Step 5: Submitting the site to search engines.
------------------------------------------------------
Either do this yourself or make sure that the designer does it for you. Never use auto submission programs for the top 10 engines. Some search engines reject auto submission as "spam."
Step 6: Ongoing maintenance.
------------------------------------
Once your site is up and running youll need to change it from time to time to suit changes in your business. Make sure that your designer can continue to support you here. Also, if you let a designer register your domain name and choose the host provider for you, make sure that the domain is registered to you (not to him or her), and that the host is registered to you, and that you know the contact points for both, and passwords and identifiers (you dont want to find at a later date that you cant access your own property!).
About the Author
John Stuart Beeteson has over 30 years experience in the computer industry, and is the author of : "Visualizing Magnetic fields" published by Academic Press, and the two books of the WebSkel course "Success and Profit through Ecommerce." He is the President of WebSkel.
Support@webskel.co.uk
http://www.webskel.co.uk
1. Set the marketing aims (who you site is aimed at; what you want from it).
2. Select and create the content.
3. Create the graphical design layout.
4. Program the pages into the computer.
5. Submit the site to search engines.
6. Maintain your site.
It doesnt matter whether its a business website or a personal one; the steps are the same. Now Ive found that most people I talk to really only ever think of step 4 as "designing a website." Is this why so many small business users end up disappointed? They often select a low quote, maybe just a few hundred dollars and wonder why the result is ineffective.
Well, lets get the this cost hurdle out of the way. A few hundred dollars will buy you a website with five or so pages. You may even be able to add a simple shopping cart, credit card payment, survey forms and so on for this price. But what you are paying for is item 4.
You are not going to get a marketing concept, content creation and personalized layout for this. The low cost website designer will have assumed that you will do this. He or she will just bolt together what you give them. You may get a cursory (and possibly ineffective) search engine submission, and absolutely no ongoing support. If you dont want to do your own programing, but want to keep costs low, then pay the few hundred for item 4, but be sure youre in full control of the rest yourself. If you want all six steps taken care of, then choose a design house wisely and be prepared to pay much more.
Step 1: Marketing
-----------------------
If a business website is your aim, dont even think about site design until you have created a marketing plan.
Step 2: The content
------------------------
The architect Louis Sullivan coined a famous dictum that has remained at the heart of all good design: "Form follows function." This means that it is the content of your web pages that matters above all. The graphics design must never distract from the content - which is the information that you are trying to pass to your customer. If you are building your own website then keep things simple.
Step 3: Creating the graphical design layout.
-----------------------------------------------------
Youll want a distinctive "look" for your design. The low cost designer will ask you to select from a number of ready made templates, but you should expect to be able to customize colors and logos. When you are paying a larger sum for your website, then this, plus the content design, are the areas that will probably cost the most. Good designers and artists are never cheap, but they are worth paying for.
Step 4: Programing your site into the computer.
---------------------------------------------------------
For small sites this step, for a professional designer, is the easiest of all. Its what constitutes the few hundred dollar website and will take less than a day. It has to, otherwise it would cost a lot more!
Step 5: Submitting the site to search engines.
------------------------------------------------------
Either do this yourself or make sure that the designer does it for you. Never use auto submission programs for the top 10 engines. Some search engines reject auto submission as "spam."
Step 6: Ongoing maintenance.
------------------------------------
Once your site is up and running youll need to change it from time to time to suit changes in your business. Make sure that your designer can continue to support you here. Also, if you let a designer register your domain name and choose the host provider for you, make sure that the domain is registered to you (not to him or her), and that the host is registered to you, and that you know the contact points for both, and passwords and identifiers (you dont want to find at a later date that you cant access your own property!).
About the Author
John Stuart Beeteson has over 30 years experience in the computer industry, and is the author of : "Visualizing Magnetic fields" published by Academic Press, and the two books of the WebSkel course "Success and Profit through Ecommerce." He is the President of WebSkel.
Support@webskel.co.uk
http://www.webskel.co.uk
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