Our Methodology
It seems like every business out there is putting
up a web site. If you haven't developed a web presence
yet, or if you're already on the web, but aren't
really satisfied with the results, then you may
not be aware of the five basic steps of creating
a great web site. These steps provide an organized,
systematic approach to web site creation that significantly
increases your chances for Internet marketing success. A systematic approach to web site creation significantly
increases your chances for Internet marketing success.
design42 uses this approach.
Call design42 New Media Web Design
at (828) 692-7270 or email us at
sales@design42.com.
Make an appointment for a personal consultation at your
home or business or at the design42
office.
The 5 steps for creating a great web site
- Define a solid business objective.
- Design the site based on how people will use it
and how they will link information in their head.
- Develop a prototype and test the site.
- Deploy the site by making sure it is well-publicized
and that it works together with your other marketing
materials.
- Track
the results and update, redesign and modify your
site to make it more effective.
1. Define Your Business Objective
This should be the first step for any business undertaking,
but it's especially important when we're talking about
a web site. What are your goals and objectives for
your site?
The only reason you want to put up a web site for
your business is because it helps you meet a strategic
objective: increase revenue, decrease expenses, make
your other operations more effective, or some combination
of these objectives.
There are six basic models for reaching these strategic
objectives and enhancing profits online. Most effective
web sites use these models in combination for maximum
effect:
- Direct Sales
- Subscriptions or memberships
- Advertising
- Net-related services
- Cost-cutting
- Enhancing other operations
So, define your strategic objective in terms of what
you want to accomplish (increase revenue, decrease
expenses or enhance other operations) and the basic
business models you'll use to accomplish it.
These are the basic issues that should be considered.
Production
- What is the purpose of the site?
- Who is the target audience? What do they want?
Technology
- What modem speed will your audience be using?
- Will they have newer, faster computers?
- Will their browsers support JavaScript, Dynamic
HTML, VBScript, Java applets, Style sheets, plug-ins
- Will there be support for E-mail messaging, chat
rooms or forums?
- Are there security issues? Will log-ins be required?
- Do you need questionnaires?
- Is search and retrieval from databases needed?
- Will you need video or audio production?
Many of these answers you already know from operating
you business. By combining your experience operating
your business with our experience with Internet usability
a successful design can be customized for your specific
business needs.
2. Design the site - Information Architecture
You need to detail the content and organization of
the web site. Inventory all existing content, describe
what new content is needed and define the organization
of the site. Much of the content you probably already
have. Pull together all of the print materials you
have used for your business. Look through the print
materials of distributors and manufacturers you do
business with. Have one person go through it all and
give it a "voice," a consistent feeling
as you read through page after page.
Once the content has been sketched out, you should
build small prototypes of parts of the site to test
what it feels like to move around within the design.
Test the navigation; make sure it is intuitive to
move around from page to page. Create a prototype
that is flexible enough to explore alternatives. Don't
waste too much time or get too elaborate at this point.
Take enough time to organize the information and
other factors that are going to be on the site and
how they're going to be linked. The power of the Web
is its links. Designed properly, a good web site can
help people move through information in a way that's
natural, comfortable and effective. For that to happen,
you've got to spend some time defining how that information
will work and what information will be linked.
 There
are two basic ways to approach design, often called
the outside-in and the inside-out methods.
The inside-out method is the most common way to design
a web site. Here you begin with your company name
or purpose and move outward through what you do, your
products or services, their features and benefits,
etc.
 The
outside-in method is a little different. Here you
begin with what customers look for when they contact
you initially. What questions do they ask? What do
they want to know? What problem are they trying to
solve or what opportunity are they trying to seize?
Once you've determined this, move on to what information
they will need to help make that decision.
When you're doing this kind of site design, it should
be done in graphical form. Standard outlines and "tree"
diagrams are not effective because the Web is inherently
a nonlinear medium.
 The
tool that I've found most effective for both inside-out
and outside-in design is mind mapping, a tool originally
designed as a way to organize information for a presentation
or capture and organize information when taking notes.
The process of mind mapping is similar to the way
the brain works - you use graphics and key words that
your brain finds a natural way to hook lots of information
to. It links items on a page in a graphical form similar
to the way that your mind links items as you jump
from one concept to another.
Look at other web sites to see what kinds of good
ideas you can pick up. This will often spark an idea
for you. You should also be checking out your competitors'
web sites to see what they're doing and what you'll
have to do to compete with them.
I've found that after you've done a bit of the inside-out
and outside-in design, suddenly they start to merge.
When that happens, you should have an idea of how
your site will work. The result should be a graphical,
nonlinear site plan.
3. Develop the Site - Site Construction
Now you're ready to develop the site itself. This
is where you put together the actual pages and links
and see how things work.
Start with a mock site. This is a site that you build
on a hard drive somewhere, but not on the Net. Once
things work on the mock site, you're ready for your
beta test, which is where you put your site live on
the Web and see how it works there.
You'll find a couple of things are different when
you move your site from a computer to the Web. The
first and most obvious is that things will slow down
dramatically. They will also become less reliable.
That's just the way the Net is.
When you put your site up for your beta test, be
sure to test it in a lot of different ways. Visit
your site at various times of day and with various
kinds of Web browsers, and be sure to view it with
different monitors. Things can look very different
on different sized monitors and on systems with different
color palettes.
Also, don't forget to view your site from both Mac
and PC browsers. There are often differences there
as well.
What you must give users is, at minimum, what they
have come to expect from other web sites. To do that,
you need to know what sites your customers frequent.
Media Metrix (which provides demographic data about
World Wide Web usage) reports that Internet users
tend to hang out at places like www.aol.com, www.yahoo.com,
and www.netscape.com. These sites are known as portals
because they act as doorways to the rest of the Internet,
but they also perform enormous amounts of work in
their own right. They declare intent. They tell visitors
what's in it for them. And they offer quick access
to actionable information.
If you think of your own home page as a kind of miniportal
- this is, as a guiding light to the real information
that resides inside - and make your miniportal as
easy to pass through as possible, then you will have
gone a long way toward creating a successful site.
Every Web page needs:
- An informative title
- The creator's identity
- A creation and revision date
- At least one link back to the home page
Your home page should contain your company's name,
address and phone number. So obvious it's laughable,
right? You'd think so, but IBM, an $82 billion company,
makes site visitors click five times to find its address
in Armonk, NY.
In addition to showing the world you're smarter than
IBM, your home page must explain exactly what it is
you do. And slapping on the company name isn't usually
enough. Power Lift Corp. displays its name and slogan,
"Everything from the ground up," in letters large
enough to be read across the room. Still, visitors
might think they were on the site of an elevator manufacturer
if the home page didn't also immediately list all
the company's product lines: "Lift Trucks; Parts,
Tires & Service; Warehousing Systems; People Movers;
and Power Clean Systems."
Before your site goes live on the Web to be tested,
you should be doing the things that get your site
ready. This includes preparing your rollout strategy,
as well as looking at how your site will be integrated
with your other marketing and business materials and
strategies.
4. Deploy the Site - Site Marketing
This is where you roll out the site and present it
to the general public. Start by making sure that your
web site and all your other marketing materials work
together. Put your Web address on all collateral materials
including stationery, business cards, brochures, etc.
You may even want to have special announcement postcards
sent out when you're ready to take the site public.
Prepare a news release for the trade press and to
send it to your key clients, prospects and friends.
Don't forget to post notices in appropriate newsgroups
and forums where people who are both online and in
the groups that you want to reach congregate.
Also devise a plan for how your sales force can make
the most out of your new web site in their sales efforts.
Have them use the new web site as the focus of a sales
call. When they make the call, they can show the site
on the prospect's computer and then ask to add the
site to their bookmark file. They will almost always
say yes.
You should be preparing your deployment steps almost
from the time you start designing your site. As soon
as you have your Web address, register your site with
all of the major search engines (Yahoo!, Excite, AltaVista,
etc.). Look at your site design and consider registering
all of the pages that are likely to be primary contact
points, rather than just your home page.
Your home page URL should appear in all:
- Print advertisements
- Radio and television advertisements
- Lobby kiosks in high-traffic areas of your enterprise
or in local libraries, schools, or other suitable
venues
- Direct mail campaigns
- Business cards
- Stationery
- Bills and statements
- Product manuals, product packaging
- Response cards, warrantee cards
- Publications and promotional materials
- Press releases
- Posters and billboards
- E-mail signature line
At this point your site should be well-tested, well-publicized
and working for you. But the job's not done yet.
5. Do It All Again - Tracking, Evaluation and Maintenance
No, I'm not implying that you should immediately
start to redo your entire site. But I've found that
the businesses that get the most out of their sites
are the ones that are constantly improving them. This
involves both regular updates and some redesigns.
When you've had your site up for three or four months,
take a look at it again with a fresh eye. Think about
the kinds of things you'd like to do differently.
Review the reports you're getting from the people
who manage your web site and the results you're getting
compared to your original business objectives. An
abundance of information about visitors to your site
can be recorded with your Web server software. Even
the simplest site logs track how many people saw your
site over a given time, how many pages were requested
for viewing and many other variables.
Why take a fresh look after three or four months?
That's usually enough time to get a good sense of
how things work and to let your publicity campaign
kick in. Also, things are still fresh enough for you
and for others to get a fair impression of what kinds
of things could be changed.
Your site needs attention. Links on the Web are perishable
and you'll need to check periodically that links to
pages outside your immediate site are still working.
Once you develop an audience, don't lose them by not
following through. It is even more difficult to attract
them back.
When you are ready to make some changes, it's time
to go back to step one again. Look at your business
objectives; decide how you're going to measure your
achievement and work through the process again. This
time it will go faster.
Having a great web site is easy.
Just follow these 5 steps
- Define a solid business objective.
- Design the site based on how people will use it
and how they will link information in their head.
- Develop a prototype and test the site.
- Deploy the site by making sure it is well-publicized
and that it works together with your other marketing
materials.
- Track
the results and update, redesign and modify your
site to make it more effective.
Call design42 New Media Web Design
at (828) 692-7270 or email us at
sales@design42.com.
Make an appointment for a personal consultation at your
home or business or at the design42
office.
Web Site Design
design42 offers complete web design solutions, from large web sites for the
corporate endeavor down to the most economical "brochure"
presence for small business. We have experience in
all aspects of Web Design and eCommerce website development.
We can provide the graphic design, copy writing and nearly any other internet services to complete your project on time and on budget...>
Budget Web Design
For those on a small budget or those with relatively
simple needs, design42 currently offers a basic 4
page site for $200.00 This does not mean a cookie
cutter template site. This is a small custom tailored
website that can accommodate future growth...>
Custom Web Development
Let design42 work with you to create
a custom website that fits the needs of your business now and grows gracefully and logically to accommodate
your future needs...>
eCommerce Websites
design42 can set up your
store for you or sit down with you and provide the
training you may need so that you can do it yourself.
We have experience developing sites integrated with
Miva Merchant, eBay and other dynamic browser based
storefronts...>
Would you like
to design your website yourself?
design42 New Media Web Design can walk
you through any difficulties you might run into. We
can help with domain registration, FTP, photography,
photo editing, copy writing or any other part of the
project that you need help with or do not want to
do. We can teach you how to accomplish each step
yourself, so that you won't need help next time.
If you have said "I would like to design my website
myself;" let design42 help you
through your entire internet project...>
Web Site Maintenance
& Correction
Old web sites are like old newspapers. The longer
it's been since you've had a tune-up, the more poorly
your site may be running. design42 can
help keep your web site current. We provide Web Site
Maintenance plans for new and existing web sites...>
Copy Writing &
Web Content Editing
design42 can write the words for your
website for you, after interviewing you, edit the
words you have written or we can work together to
write the words for your site. design42
will be happy to help you write the copy for
you're website...>
SEO
- Search Engine Optimization
If Search Engine traffic is going to be a
major source of traffic to your web site it should
be considered at the initial stage of development.
Carla Sikorski Kirby has been a presenter for Macromedia
User Groups on the subject of Search Engine Optimization.
A regular SEO tune up will ensure that your site continues
to benefit from SEO Visibility...>
Call design42 New Media Web Design
at (828) 692-7270 or email us at
sales@design42.com.
Make an appointment for a personal consultation at your
home or business or at the design42
office.
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