When Designing Your Website

Things to Consider when Designing Your Website

 

Overview

 

Each form of Media has its own strengths and constraints.

 

Web design is similar to designing an elaborate formal garden. You design static elements and the plan paths that will allow your visitor to either make a bee line to a specific destination or to wander. You plan the paths that allow the visitor to do either, yet always be able to encounter exciting new vistas of information and special places that they will resonate with.

 

It takes allot to get a visitor to your site, all your efforts should be to keep their experience more than pleasant, so you can keep them enjoying your site longer.

 

The Goal of Your Website

 

Under Construction:

 

Appearance and Graphics

 

Create a list of all of the Visual aspects you would like to incorporate. Keep expanding this list as you continue through your design process and Search the Web, Magazines and other Media for such things as:

• Concepts
• Color systems
• Effects
• Organizational Tools

Get a copy of each item as you find it and note the feature you appreciated. As you continue through the design process, keep adding and making notes as to which design element will support each part of your message.

 

Studies show that the average Web page has 8 seconds to load and catch the viewer’s attention or “Click,” you’ve lost your chance. Graphics take longer to load than text and the world keeps moving faster; how long will it be before you only have 6 seconds. This means that how well you build your system of organization and use visual elements to assist the viewer to find what they are looking for. If the graphic elements are developed in an appropriate manner, then the reader will have a chance to scan the Text and comprehend your message.

 

Integrative or Holistic Marketing

 

Under Construction:

 

Organization

 

It should take no more than 2 Clicks to get from here to where you want the viewer to go, and they must easily perceive the route. As a Web designer, the structure of concepts and the navigation should be easy to understand and also be consistent. As the viewer understands the logic of your Navigation system, they can move faster and more comfortably

 

Organize for the “Technically Challenged!” Assume your prized visitor is new to computers and still unsure of their IT skills. Make sure that your organizational system allows even this type of visitor to easily find their way through your message. Mark this path clearly. To this you may wish to add features to delight the Technically Hungry that have an appetite for exciting leading edge experiences.

 

Multiple Paths of Interest

 

Lead the viewer where they want to go easily. Put yourself in the viewer’s task chair and ask yourself, if I find this site and I wanted to accomplish this task what would I need to see to feel I was in the right place. If I landed on this site, what would attract my attention enough to wander around and see what it has to offer? Use your goals as a starting place. Then change who the viewer is and play the game again. 

 

Heart of the Page

 

Viewers scan web pages for telltale signs that it has the information they are seeking. The top of a page (at 600 x 800 resolution) is the Heart of the Page. In this hot spot the viewer must be able to comprehend the basic navigational structure and must encounter that information that lets them know what is on that page or if that is not what they were looking for, where to go to find it. If this hot spot makes them feel they are in the right place, they will be willing to read to the bottom of the page and search further.

 

 

Sound Bites

 

Time is of the essence to an unengaged viewer. Sound Bites in the form of Headings, sub-headings, lists and summaries to break up text are some of the tools that allow a viewer to easily scan a page and engage them. 

 

DEVELOPING YOUR ORGANIZATION

 

Review your Goals, then…

List all of the important areas, concepts, features, articles, etc. that you wish to present.

            Add what type of supporting information will be needed to present your story.

           

Start to organize this information into lists that make sense. Useful tools for this might be an outline on a word processor or one Topic per index card. Get playful and find a method that works for your style.

 

Each Subject should have a Title, a brief description of what might be said in the copy. Also, leave plenty of room to add simple notes of good ideas to include with that Topic.

 

Next, organize the subject matter into Topics and sub-topics into logical groups and capture your organization. For outlines, you may wish to make several versions on a word processor and print them out. With index cards, you make multiple copies. Each set can be moved around and taped to a sheet of paper to hold the order.

 

Developing Navigation

 

Navigation is the term used to describe the method to find and to bring to view a specific page on the site. Web site navigation is usually formed by horizontal and vertical stripes of buttons that may cascade to show deeper levels of content. Links, which are a single point of navigation, may be a word or graphic, that when clicked activates a web change.

 

From your arrangement of the Subjects, start organizing your navigation by listing the Topics and sub-topics as if the were in horizontal or vertical rows. Refer to the copies of websites that you gathered earlier for ideas.

 

To check if your structure makes sense, play the Multiple Paths of Interest game. Add notes to you subjects of items that need to be covered in each section and flashes of inspiration that may come to you as the subjects are moved around to create better paths for your viewers. Add arrows and notes to show the paths that make sense. Have fun with colors and the design process. Invite other to brainstorm and help make other versions of the site skeleton. Compare several versions that you have saved and try to combine the best point of all into one design. It is easier to make global changes at this point than when much of your site is set in stone.

 

Writing The Copy

 

Start writing! From the notes and the navigational paths that have been previously created it should be easy to turn each Subject into words. Remember to capture your message in the Heart of the Page and to use headlines, sub-headlines and summary statements to allow your reader to easily scan to find their interest.

 

 

Content versus Copy

 

The text you write can be divided into two types: Content is more factual based writing to transmit information and Copy might be thought of as more marketing based text that is used to persuade and overcome objections. It is a good idea to be aware which type of text you are writing for which subject and how it will be perceived by your visitor.

 

 

Writing for the Web - Under Construction: