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| Your high school shop teacher hit the nail on the head: "Measure twice, cut once." The bigger your site, the more measuring you should do. Whether you build your own or hire it out, a website that starts with a good plan will always cost less and accomplish more.
Here's how the pro's do it: |
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Be specific. Be honest. Prioritize. Good: "To save our customers and ourselves time and money by offering return authorizations on line." Bad: "I want more hits." Good: "To give visitors an idea of who we are, beyond what they'd find in the phone book."
For small businesses with first-time projects we recommend having no more than three goals. Rank them by importance. If possible, define how you'll know when these goals are achieved. Also important: How much is each goal worth in time and money? |
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Who do you want to visit your site? What do you want them to do? Do your existing customers own and use computers with Internet access? How computer savvy are they? Go ahead and ask some customers what they'd want from your website. Listen well.
Next: Create fictional scenarios. Make up characters -- customers who'd actually visit your website -- give them names, real jobs & titles, and a very specific reason for visiting your site. Describe in detail how they feel about your site as they try to accomplish their task. Do they understand how things are arranged? Is there an obvious search function? What kind of first impression do you make with this fictional visitor? Why would they want to come back? Really step out of your own shoes and into those of your potential visitors. This exercise may feel awkward at first (or it may be a lot of fun!), but it's an incredibly effective way to make sure you build the kind of site people will want to visit. |
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Find your competitors' sites on the web.How would the characters from your scenarios like these sites? How do you like them? Why? Be specific regarding how you liked or disliked content and functionality. Make a comparison chart, take notes, brainstorm your own ideas, then revisit these sites. There's always room for a better mousetrap (your "mousetrap" we hope!) | |
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