DGD Consulting

A website is only useful if it contributes positively to the organisations objectives. To ensure this happens, first look at your business as a whole and consider what are its goals for the next couple of years. Examples might be:-

• To grow your business. If so, by how much?
• To reduce costs. If so, where, and by how much?
• To improve efficiency.
• To improve customer service.
• To launch a new product(s).

A website has to be useful to your customers. Remember that when customers go to your site they have the option to leave at the click of a button. The questions you might ask here are:-

• Who are they?
  • Existing customers.
  • Prospects (new customers).
  • Suppliers.
  • Stakeholders.
  • Partners and associates.
  • Employees.
• How often will they visit?
• Do you expect repeat business from them?
• What demographic do they come from (age and social groups).
• List the relative order of importance of each group – these will then be used, where necessary, to prioritise their use of the site.

Consider your business goals and customers. How could a website help your business? At this point be prepared to say it can’t!

List the ways a website can help your business objectives and your customers. Start by reviewing your and your customers objective lists. Other sources could be:-

• Brainstorming.
• Customer surveys.
• Focus Groups.
• Reviewing Staff Suggestions.
• Viewing competitors’ websites.

List these objectives in order of desirability. This order will normally be based on some sort of cost/benefit analysis. It is liable to revision, as the planning process winkles out more and more detailed information. At this stage only discard the non-starters!

The website objectives can now be translated into website features. These are often obvious, but sometimes an objective may require a number of features to achieve that objective. In other cases there may be a number of ways of achieving the same objective. e.g.:-

• "We want to sell goods to our customers online" could require all the following facilities:-
  • A catalogue of goods
  • Inventory control
  • An order form
  • Electronic payment method
  • Billing system
  • Email order/dispatch/delivery messages
  • Returns process
  • Links to accounting systems
• "We want a way for customers to contact us" could be satisfied by one or more of:-
  • A list of telephone numbers and email addresses
  • An address, directions and location map.
  • A link that loads the users draft email page with the organisation email address pre-inserted
  • A mail form providing a more tailored communication
  • Forums
• Now look at what the customers want. In addition to the “hard” features that result in business, they will need additional “comfort/confidence” features:-
  • History of the company
  • Qualifications of staff
  • Company endorsements
  • Assurance you are the best company for them! Remember a couple of
    clicks and they are looking at a competitor site!

Take the features required by your organisation and your customers’ requirements. Start to plan a list of pages you might need and the purpose of each of these pages.

Most websites will need:-

A home page – the introductory page. It introduces the website and company, so user can decide if the site is relevant to them. It then directs interested users to relevant pages.

A contact page – how visitors may make contact with you – names, address, telephone numbers and email. May also include directions and a location map.

One or more company pages – something about the organisation, staff and previous work.

Each page will require content. Content can take the form of text, images, movies and sounds. It is the quality of the content that will keep you customers interested, causes them to return and ultimately achieve your objectives. Graphics should be of good quality – photographs are often the better choice. Text must be of good quality, well written and without spelling mistakes! Consider employing a professional author. As a minimum ensure it is proof read. Sounds should either be avoided completely, or if necessary, provide a mute option and only activate sounds on request. Unwanted music can be the biggest instant turn-off. Dynamic graphics should not be obtrusive. Whilst these can be entertaining on first view they may become annoying after a while.

Plan the content of each page:-

• Content type - text, images, movies and sounds.
• Source – it could already exist in current material – brochures etc. Or it may need to be written.
• Special features – form mail, shopping cart, location map etc.
• Volatility – how often will the content be changed – who will manage this?

Add a brief outline of the expected source of the content. Content will most likely be the responsibility of the organisation. Producing content can be a major task - so start collecting and commissioning it now!

Up to this point, your plans have considered the ideal website. However, there will be limits to the budget available and to the timescales to be met. The website has to be affordable and timely. A comprehensive site that misses a critical launch time will be seen as a failure.

Review the facility wish list and reduce it to the essential functionality that can be accommodated within the available budget and timescales. Those features left out, can be put aside for consideration later should a website upgrade be planned.

At the end of the project, you will need some idea of whether the website has achieved its objectives. For each key objective try and create a target that would indicate the website has had the desired impact.