Web Design and Marketing Week 3 – Web Site Goals

Power Point Notes

1. Know what you want your site to accomplish ahead of time
   1. Mission
   2. How design meets that need
2. Mission is designed by owner
   1. Extension of corporate mission statement
   2. Find out the goal of the company and the niche of the company
   3. Use it as a guideline for the site.
3. You need to define mission because of limits on you
   1. Limits of time – spend time on things not important
   2. Money – easy to go over budget
   3. focus – scope of site expands (scope creep)
   4. If you are contractor you have to fix these things out of pocket
4. Shneiderman’s Taxonomy of Web Site Missions
   1. Selling Products
      1. Need to organize the products for ease of finding them
      2. Make the site to look good
      3. Have a shopping cart
   2. Advertising Products
      1. Some products cannot sell on line
      2. Sites need to be equipped to give information
   3. Informational and Announcements
      1. Non-profit – Sell ideas and opinions
      2. City – sells it as place to live
      3. Museums and Universities  - educate public on research and current events
   4. Access
      1. Libraries – access to Books/journals
      2. Newspapers – News/classifieds
      3. Scientific organizations – grants and technical articles
   5. Offer services
      1. Government sites provide access to forms, etc.
      2. Public Utilities – services offered
   6. Create discussions
      1. Input from communities on topics of note
      2. Open source discussions on needs of projects
   7. Nurture communities
      1. Political Groups – get and keep members interested
      2. Profesional organizations
         1. Add members
         2. Discuss topics
         3. Advance knowledge
5. How is mission defined?
   1. Ask clients why he wants web site
   2. What will user do
   3. How is success going to be measured
      1. increase in sales
      2. decrease in support calls
      3. increase in visitors to site
      4. repeat customers
      5. site ranking on Google
6. Mission statement should:
   1. Explain what site is to do
   2. Why the site exists
   3. Communicate clearly/honestly
   4. Covey values
   5. Convey niche
   6. Be brief (3 to 4 sentences)
7. Who is target population
   1. meet their needs
   2. advertise to them
8. Splitting
   1. Target population subdivided (School has students, future students, parents, etc.)
   2. Address these groups on home page – take them to the information that interest them
9. Market research what each split group needs – colors, layout, etc.
10. Market Segmentation is when you divide target population into homogenous groups
11. Ask client
    1. who is target
    2. different user groups?
    3. different user profiles to develop
    4. can we contact people from each group easily
12. Redesign a site
    1. only when necessary
       1. feedback says problems
       2. pages outgrow navigation
       3. new content/functionality that requires it.
       4. People will get lost in new design
13. Ask in redesign
    1. Same target
    2. Same mission
    3. same interface
    4. original documentation exist
    5. Original design team still around for assistance in what works and does not
    6. Any political or organizational eggshells  not to step on