How to plan your website?
2022.01.03.
How to plan your website?
Before we build or have someone build our website, it’s a good idea to design what you want.
Here are some questions you may find helpful:
• Why is the page made, what is its purpose?
• Will this be an introductory page?
• Maybe a blog?
In this case, we need to determine what menu items we will want to present? For example, if this is a company profile page, the menu would look like this:
• Home page
• About us
• Our work
• Blog
• Contact
is this a personal blog?
Then in this case you often don’t need anything other than a collection page for the posts, maybe an about me or introductory page and a link section.
Who is the target audience?
Do we know who we are creating the page for? For a professional audience? For the average user? Is this important just how professional the wording is? Too much jargon can scare visitors away, and if the site is designed for a professional audience, the “professional” glossary can come in handy.
What age group?
(this may be important due to layout, wording, design)
Here again, it is important to be aware of the audience. If we recommend the site to young people, it should also look (youthful). However, if you are an older age group, you may need to be more conservative. For example, a 60-year-old may not be impressed by a website operating with photos tattooed on a skull background.
What is the topic?
What does the website deal with? Because if you have things for kids, for example, you need cheerful colors and it’s also not necessarily recommended 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.
Are we making it for someone else?
If the page is made for a customer, it is necessary to fix the expectations at the very beginning, what is the exact brief etc … Because we can easily lose the customer if the exact criteria and deadline are not clear.
What do we want to use it for?
Sales, introduction, just have a website, do we sell something on it?
It is worth considering the menu items in the first round. This can be a useful guide on how we will compile our content. It is basic that there is a home page where the visitor arrives for the first time. It’s worth putting attention to things here about what the site is about. For example, headers, short text and/or image blocks to deal with. Maybe a video, reviews from previous customers…
The content of the other menu items is completely specific. Depending on what the goal is. If we run a blog, we need a blog menu item that collects the articles and posts we write.
The “About Us” menu item introduces us, of course, in just a little more detail. There can already be more pictures, more text, curiosities, etc.
The “contact” menu item is also very clear, as we can publish our contact details here. Be it email, phone number, or Social Media interface.
An extra useful method is to draw what points our site will have. If we manage to visualize the layout and appearance in this way, it will make things obvious to us as well, and if we pass this on to the developer, he will already see our ideas. Feel free to grab paper and pencil if you only have one for now. That will be a big help. Let’s draw a picture of how we imagine it. Which side will we be on? How many main pages and subpages will there be? This also outlines the content, text, and image we need to put together to get the job done.