| Before creating and uploading a website, it is | | | | structure by categorizing the content and organizing |
| important to take the time to plan exactly what is | | | | it according to user needs. Each category should be |
| needed in the website such as about web designing | | | | named with a concise and descriptive title that will |
| and web development . Thoroughly considering the | | | | become a link on the website. Planning for the site's |
| audience or target market, as well as defining the | | | | content ensures that the wants or needs of the |
| purpose and deciding what content will be developed | | | | target audience and the purpose of the site will be |
| are extremely important. | | | | fulfilled. |
| Website Planning: | | | | Compatibility and restrictions: |
| Purpose: | | | | Because of the market share of modern browsers |
| It is essential to define the purpose of the website | | | | (depending on your target market), the compatibility |
| as one of the first steps in the planning process. A | | | | of your website with the viewers is restricted. For |
| purpose statement should show focus based on | | | | instance, a website that is designed for the majority |
| what the website will accomplish, what will be web | | | | of web surfers will be limited to the use of valid |
| designing means how it will look to the user and what | | | | XHTML 1.0 Strict or older, Cascading Style Sheets |
| the users will get from it. A clearly defined purpose | | | | Level 1, and 1024x768 display resolution. This is |
| will help the rest of the planning process as the | | | | because Internet Explorer is not fully W3C standards |
| audience is identified and the content of the site is | | | | compliant with the modularity of XHTML 1.1 and the |
| developed. Setting short and long term goals for the | | | | majority of CSS beyond 1. A target market of more |
| website will help make the purpose clear and plan for | | | | alternative browser (e.g. Firefox and Opera) users |
| the future when expansion, modification, and | | | | allow for more W3C compliance and thus a greater |
| improvement will take place. Also, goal-setting | | | | range of options for a web designer. Another |
| practices and measurable objectives should be | | | | restriction on website designing is the use of |
| identified to track the progress of the site and | | | | different Image file formats. The majority of users |
| determine success. | | | | can support GIF, JPEG, and PNG (with restrictions). |
| Audience: | | | | Again Internet Explorer is the major restriction here, |
| Defining the audience is a key step in the website | | | | not fully supporting PNG's advanced transparency |
| planning process. The audience is the group of people | | | | features, resulting in the GIF format still being the |
| who are expected to visit your website - the market | | | | most widely used graphic file format for transparent |
| being targeted. These people will be viewing the | | | | images. Many website incompatibilities go unnoticed |
| website for a specific reason and it is important to | | | | by the designer and unreported by the users. The |
| know exactly what they are looking for when they | | | | only way to be certain a website will work on a |
| visit the site. A clearly defined purpose or goal of the | | | | particular platform is to test it on that platform. |
| site as well as an understanding of what visitors want | | | | Planning documentation: |
| to do or feel when they come to your site will help | | | | Documentation is used to visually plan the site while |
| to identify the target audience. Upon considering who | | | | taking into account the purpose, audience and |
| is most likely to need or use the content, a list of | | | | content, to web designing the site structure, content |
| characteristics common to the users such as: | | | | and interactions that are most suitable for the |
| *Audience Characteristics | | | | website. Documentation may be considered a |
| *Information Preferences | | | | prototype for the website - a model which allows |
| *Computer Specifications | | | | the website layout to be reviewed, resulting in |
| *Web Experience | | | | suggested changes, improvements and/or |
| Taking into account the characteristics of the | | | | enhancements. This review process increases the |
| audience will allow an effective website to be | | | | likelihood of success of the website. First, the |
| created that will deliver the desired content to the | | | | content is categorized and the information structure |
| target audience. If the web designing of your site is | | | | is formulated. The information structure is used to |
| good then it will give the good look and feel to the | | | | develop a document or visual diagram called a site |
| user and it will generate the traffic to your site. | | | | map. This creates a visual of how the web pages will |
| Content: | | | | be interconnected, which helps in deciding what |
| Content evaluation and organization requires that the | | | | content will be placed on what pages. There are |
| purpose of the website be clearly defined. Collecting | | | | three main ways of diagramming the website |
| a list of the necessary content then organizing it | | | | structure: |
| according to the audience's needs is a key step in | | | | Linear Website Diagrams will allow the users to move |
| website planning. In the process of gathering the | | | | in a predetermined sequence; |
| content being offered, any items that do not support | | | | Hierarchical structures (of Tree Design Website |
| the defined purpose or accomplish target audience | | | | Diagrams)provide more than one path for users to |
| objectives should be removed. It is a good idea to | | | | take to their destination;Branch Design Website |
| test the content and purpose on a focus group and | | | | Diagrams allow for many interconnections between |
| compare the offerings to the audience needs. The | | | | web pages such as hyperlinks within sentences. |
| next step is to organize the basic information | | | | |