First Steps First
The first step in getting to your website design destination is identifying your goals. You have to have a clear understanding of what you want from your online presence. It sounds simple – but then again so does folding a fitted sheet. You should start off with a single statement or two and go from there. Your statement might look something like this: “I want my website to be informational” or “I want my website to generate leads, schedule appointments, and show off my work”.
Once you have your statement ready to go, get a little more specific by breaking your needs up into a few different categories: design, data requirements, and functionality. Let’s review these three items and we will be well on our way.
What Is Meant By Website Design?
A website design describes what you want your website to look like. A good first step is to find a few sites that represent the look and feel what you are going for. From there we decide on font families, font sizes and specific imagery. Then we move on to information abstraction – which is a fancy way to say how we are going to separate information into parts such that a user can understand what we are selling, saying, or promoting. For example – we would not want a single section of your site to be dedicated to both our mission statement and our privacy policy.
In The World Of Websites, What Are Data Requirements?
Data requirements will include the type of information you will want to collect from users of the site and what to do with that information. The simplest example is a contact form that users would fill out so that you can stay in touch with them. A more complex example would be keeping track of what types of products a user has looked at or purchased so you know how to market to their particular needs.
What Is Website Functionality?
This will be a description of what you want your website to do. Are you looking for an ecommerce website? Is your site going to schedule appointments and take payments? It is not as simple as answering one question – you will want to list out all the functionality you need. Some examples of website functionality would include online appointment scheduling, taking payments, client login, search features, e-commerce, contact forms, chatbots, quote generator, and more.
What Should I Not Do In The Web Design Process?
Do not, I repeat DO NOT try to start building a website, or any other type of software, without any direction. Would you try to build a house without blueprints? If you want to get to a particular place with your website, you will at least need to know exactly where that place is. Follow along with the steps laid out here and you will be a lot better off.
