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DESIGNING
AND PLANNING YOUR SITE
Starting
now, always keep a backup copy of your entire web site because crashes
happen! Make sure you have at least one complete and accurate
offline copy of your plans, storyboards, web pages, etc. in case of
technical difficulties.
A.
THINK ABOUT IT: WHO
IS YOUR AUDIENCE (OR WHO ARE YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMERS)?
WHO DO YOU HOPE WILL VISIT AND ENJOY YOUR SITE?
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR SITE?
You
will need to figure this out before anything else. Once that is done,
think about the information and graphics that your audience would be
interested in. Ask
yourself the following questions.
It's a lot easier if you decide ahead of time how many levels or
branches you’ll need. Storyboarding will help you decide how to name
the individual page files too.
What do I want on my index (home) page?
What categories or subtopics of information do I want to have in
my site? (If you only have
5 pages, that would mean a home page + 4 subtopic pages.)
 Then
you can start to make your storyboard.
Think of this as a little like planning a writing piece.
WHAT
DO WE MEAN BY A STORY-BOARD?
A
web site storyboard looks like a flow chart or graphic organizer.
It is like a map of your site.
A well-done storyboard has three parts:
1.
A quick sketch of the site's structure
- A
detailed structural outline
- A
detailed sketch of each page
The
storyboard is your blueprint. Just like a building needs a
blueprint, so does a web site. Your visitors might arrive at any page on
your site. Your job is to see that they can get into the main areas of
your site to locate information with a minimum of clicks. Visitors like
to get to the information they wanted within three clicks of arriving at
a web site.
B.
MAKE A DRAFT STORYBOARD BY
DRAWING A QUICK SKETCH ON SCRATCH PAPER SHOWING THE STRUCTURE YOU WANT
FOR YOUR SITE
This
fake site for an online spa products store has a total of seven pages.
(You do not have to make an online store or include e-commerce
elements in your site.)
Keep in mind that your visitors should
always know where they are and how to get back Home.
¦
Visitors should be also able to provide feedback or contact you form so
you need a page about you with an email link or a guest book.
¦
What
do you think is the easiest way to link pages so your visitors can
easily get from one topic to another?
¦ If
the visitor arrives at a sub-topic page (category page), how will they
get to the other categories or the Home page?
C.
LIST THE NAMES YOU
ARE GOING TO GIVE YOUR PAGES; USE AN ORGANIZED FORMAT. Every
page should have a useful title. Titles not only tell the visitor about
the page, the title is used by search engines, too. Each word is
important.
www.suzannesspa.com
www.suzannesspa.com/candles
www.suzannesspa.com/lotions
www.suzannesspa.com/accessories
www.suzannesspa.com/fragrances
www.suzannesspa.com/contacts
You
will also want to include .html names in your storyboard.
Often times people will misspell or mistitle a page by accident. It
is really hard to fix a mistake like that after you publish your site,
so do it right at the beginning.
-
index.html
-
candles.html
-
lotions.html
-
accessories.html
-
fragrances.html
-
contacts.html
-
soaps.html
D.
MAKE A DETAILED SKETCH OF EACH
PAGE
1.
Each page is sketched in detail (by hand) showing placement of
all text, graphics and hyperlinks.
The simpler your
site is, the easier it will be for visitors to find information and for
you to update later.
2.
While planning your storyboard, think through the steps visitors
must take to go from point A -- nearly always your home (index) page --
to point B. Does it take 3
clicks or less?
3.
You should explain each page’s purpose because your visitors
might not see any of the others. Be sure to link back to the home page.
4.
Make a note of your theme and color schemes on each page.
*See
my links about color choices and more on the WEB
DESIGN page under "Graphics."
 E.
DECISIONS ABOUT DESIGN
Consider
your Content
-
A consistent design
theme (backgrounds, colors, etc.) lets visitors know when they are
on your site and when they’ve moved to external links.
-
Are
you going to rely on lots of pictures to express your message?
-
How
many graphics can you have and still keep a fast loading time?
Don’t overdo it.
-
Don’t
forget you will have to make your page-width suitable for all
browsers.
-
Do
you have long text reports or paragraphs?
-
Will
the words need to be modified for easy reading online?
-
Your
information is valuable--how can you make it easy for visitors to
get it?
F.
BEGIN TO MAKE THE REAL STORYBOARD WITH INSPIRATION
You
could make one on paper – but it’s much easier with a
graphic organizer program like Inspiration.
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