If there’s one thing I learned over the years of being a website designer and developing the many different aspects of websites, it’s that planning is the most important step.
I just got done doing some more website updates for a client who’s website hasn’t gone live yet. I’ve gone through about 8 lists of modifications with them, with everything from “make the font-size bigger and bolder” to “add this country song to the front page and make it play automatically.” By the 8th time around, your developer probably won’t even tell you that adding that music to your website will a) slow down your site tremendously. b) won’t serve any purpose because your business has nothing to do with music. c) is copyright infringement (no, having the CD still doesn’t help) and most importantly, d) piss of your visitors.
In fact the only thing your website developer probably will tell you is that it’s going to cost an extra $50, not that he can’t do it in 15 minutes for a more honest $15, but now he can’t post the website in his portfolio because it’s embarrassing, number one. Number two, it’s interesting to see how much you’ll shell out for a such a mindless change. Anyhow, the point of this article is actually how to plan a website, sorry for rambling.
So, to plan a website out properly, you need these items, in this order:
1. The website’s goals. What is it going to achieve? Why do you need a website in the first place? This shapes the websites and gets your head in the right place.
2. Pages or Overall Content. To achieve those goals, what pages or content does the website need? What does it need to say?
3. Organization. How are you going to organize the website? Come up with a list of pages and how all the pages are connected? Will you need a content management system to stay up to date?
4. How to you envision the organization fitting into a design? This is where the website developer can start to help, and maybe help a little on organization too, but you need think about the content (2) before.
5. What kind of designs fit with your content and brand image? What kind of designs do you like? What kind of colors do you like? Do you have a logo? Find other websites that you think are similar in style or design and send them to your designer.
6. Write-up each page’s content. This is important to have before the website is created, otherwise you’ll have to pay for modifications because you’re bound to realize that you need more pages than you originally thought.
7. Gather all the pictures or use placeholder images in your content write-ups. It’s important for everyone to know what images will go where, especially if you’re going to need a content management system.
8. Approve as soon as possible. The longer you keep your website designer lingering, the greater the chance he’ll move on to other things and lose the enthusiasm he had in your website. With that gone, the code will get sloppier and so might the design. Keep the process fast and fresh, try to work on his time line and you’ll get a better product.
9. Pay on time. Don’t ever start a website if you don’t have the money.
10. When it comes to modifications, ask more questions. The idea here is that the website designer probably has a lot of reason for making things the way they are and they know a thing or two about what is right or wrong in a website. Ask questions and learn all the angles about something before giving a suggestion.
11. Test in IE6, IE7, IE8, Fire Fox, Safari (on a Mac), and Chrome. It’s important to test in multiple browsers – some website developers might forget to do this. Your site should work in all aforementioned browsers, otherwise the developer is shorting you.
12) Ask the developer if they have any type of affiliate program. Chances are you’ll know someone that needs a website in the future. If you like your designer, see if you’re able to get anything out of giving them extra business. Maybe free hosting or something, who knows?
