Site Planning Basics

Introduction

• Take a look at other websites to see how they are designed. What appeals/doesn't appeal to you?
• What will your website provide for your visitors? How will they benefit from your information? Once your figure out WHAT you want your site to do, it's easier to create an organization for the site that helps you accomplish that goal.

Organization: There's No Place Like Home

• Organize your site for your visitor. Your home page is where your visitors will start. Will they be able to figure out your site, its purpose and how to navigate through it?
• Your home page should immediately make apparent what your website is about and what it's offering them
• Home pages also introduce visitors to the organization of the site--how it's arranged
• Design your website around logical sections, or chunks of information. Sites more than a few pages long need sections. For example, if your site is about web 2.0, you might have separate sections for blogs, wikis, and podcasting.
• Make sure your navigation is clear, uniform, and easy to figure out. Nothing turns off a visitor more than havning to spend an inordinate amount of time looking for links.
• Your home page must link to all of your sections and every page on your site should have navigation buttons that let your visitor get to your home page or any main section.
• If possible, make text search available on your site. Again, this is a feature already built in to a wiki.

Content

• Need I say more? Your content should be appropriate, first-rate, and deserving of a person's time.
• Can your visitors find what they are looking for in your content?

Appearance

• First impressions are everything. Think about what attracts you and doesn't to a website.