Getting Started

The first step is designing a site is PLANNING. Before you start writing HTML some basic questions need to be answered.

What is the site goal?

What are you trying to accomplish with the site? Sell a product (either a thing, a service, or yourself)? Provide information (training, news, ...)? Provide entertainment (tell a story, provide a game, ...)?

Who is the audience?

Family? Teenagers interested in the military? Skiers who visit Vail, CO? A recent father looking to buy insurance? Or, looking for information about a particular insurance company?

What do you want the user to do?

Buy a book? Contact you about a job? Be entertained? Return to your pages because they provide valuable information?

Okay, once the goals have been specified it is time to map out the site. That is, set up a road map to follow when writing HTML. This is called a storyboard. (Flowchart and wireframe are other common names.)

A storyboard consist of

(1) a rough sketch of each page

What is the objective of the page? What content will be on it? What elements (text, images, banners, buttons, sounds, etc) will it contain? What is the layout?

(2) a map of the navigational structure

Will the navigation be hierarchical, global, etc? What are the page names?

Example of an outline of a business storyboard.

The above is a brief synopsis of the planning process based on the following articles. They are all worth reading.

"Effective Info Architecture", www.webtechniques.com/archives/2001/10/chak/

"Blueprint to Develop a Great Web Site", www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A3389.cfm

"Effective Web Writing", www.webtechniques.com/archives/2001/02/kilian/

"Writing for the web", Monash University Web Style Guide

Here are two (of 14+) parts of a case study in web design related to the photography business.

"Part 3: Structure Starts in Your Head", www.nyip.com/tips/digital3_03.html

"Part 10: Planning Your Web Site", www.nyip.com/tips/digital3_10.html