How do you design your website?
Before we build or have someone build our website, it is worth planning what we want.
Here are some questions that may be useful for planning:
• Why is the site being created, what is its purpose?
• Will this be an introduction page?
Maybe a blog?
In this case, we need to determine what menu items will be available, what we would like to present? For example, if this is a company introduction page, the menu might look like this:
• Home page
• About us
• Our work
• Blog
• Contact
A personal blog?
In this case, all you need is a collection page of the entries, maybe a page about me or an introduction page and a contact section.
Who is the target audience?
Do we know who we are building the site for? For a professional audience? The average user? Is it important to know how professional the text is? Too much technical jargon can deter visitors, and if the site is designed for a professional, i.e. competent audience, the ‘professional’ glossary can be useful.
What age group?
(this may be important because of the layout, wording, design)
Again, it is important to be aware of the audience. If we recommend the site to young people, then its appearance should also be so (young). But if it's an older age group, we might have to take the figure more conservative. For example, a 60-year-old may not be impressed by a website with photos tattooed on a skull background.
What's the topic?
What does the website do? Because if, for example, with things for children, you need cheerful colors and it is also not necessarily advisable to use a skull background.
Are we making it for ourselves?
If we make it for ourselves, we can take the development of the website much more freely.
Do we make it for someone else?
If the site is made for a client, then it is necessary to fix the exact expectations at the beginning, what is the exact brief etc... Because we can easily lose the client if the exact criteria and deadline are not clear.
What do we want to use it for?
Sales, introductions, just have a website, sell something on it?
It is worth considering the menu items in the first place. This can be a useful guideline for how we will compile our content. There is a homepage where the visitor arrives for the first time. It's a good place to put something interesting about what the site is about. For example, headers, short text and/or capable blocks of what we are dealing with. Maybe a video, reviews from previous clients...
The content of the other menu items is completely specific. Depends on what the goal is. If you are running a blog, you need a blog menu that collects the articles and posts you have written.
The "About us" menu item, of course, introduces us, but only in a bit more detail. There may already be more pictures, more text, curiosities, etc.
The "contact" section is also very clear, as we can post our contact details here. Whether it's email, phone number, or social media.
An additional useful method is to draw what points your site will have. If we manage to visualize the layout and appearance in this way, then it makes things obvious to us, and if we pass this on to the developer, he can already see our ideas. Feel free to grab paper and pencil if that's all we have for the time being. This is going to be a big help. Let's draw how we imagine it. Which side will it be on. How many homepages and subpages will there be. This also shows what kind of content, text and image we need to create to start the work.
