I am going to make the rather controversial claim that Website development is not an art. By saying this I am not trying to undermine the work of graphical designers on Website projects. The Website development process is not an art. In fact, the steps involved in the production of any Website are well defined and I am going to gradually lay them out for you in a series of posts.
Recently I realized that the reason why many Websites fail to accomplish anything is because measurable goals were never set for them.
Imagine you're running a mid-size manufacturing business, with the budget to invest into the re-development of your corporate Website (you probably already have one). You choose your development company and go through a series of meetings. The first deliverable you get is the graphical design for your new Website. From this point on you keep going back and forth on the color scheme or layout of the pages, without concentrating on the content, it's structure and its ability to generate any new business for you. As a result you end up with a Website that does absolutely nothing else for you besides setting you back $5 - $10 K.
Fortunately, the situation described above could have easily been avoided by starting the project with different deliverables. The primary question that has to be answered by the client and development company is: what is the primary goal of the Website? Surprisingly enough there is only couple options:
- to generate leads
- to sell
- to provide customer support
- to enhance the image or brand
The client's Website should strive to accomplish at least 1 of these goals. Otherwise the client might as well invest the money into a different project.
Once you have determined the primary goal of the Website you should focus on:
- devising a site structure and navigation that will be optimal for the user
- researching the right keywords associated to the business offer
- developing good content
Well thought-out site structure and professonaly edited informative content will help the conversion rate of a Website. Conversion occurs when a visitor to the Website does what you want them to do (purchase a product, provide contact information etc.). The choice of the right keywords and the saturation of the content with those keywords will yield great results in the organic results of search engines over time.
As you can see, web development is a young science. I hope to contribute to the standardization of the development methodologies in this industry with this series of posts. So stay tuned for consecutive posts.
6 comments so far
21 Apr 2005, Nick said:
Instead of one of the four goals being “to provide customer support”, I would suggest the broader category of “to inform consumers”. It is more inclusive of both current and possible future costomers.
21 Apr 2005, Lukasz Karapuda said:
Nick, I agree to your suggestion. What I was trying to get across is that one of the Website goals can be to provide all necessary information to either prospective consumers or current consumers. Prospective consumers neesd to see benefits and features etc., while current consumers might need specifc help with regards to the purchased good or resource.
22 Apr 2005, Ryan Nichols said:
One more item in the goal list: the site IS the product.
The product is an online application, or the service involves the use of an online application or website. :)
04 Jun 2005, stralunato said:
El diseño web no es un arte
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“Website Development is Not an Art”, titula Lukasz Karapuda un post en el que mantiene la teoría de que el desarrollo de sitios web no es un arte…
16 Sep 2005, James said:
Lukasz, good writing!
A website is a design first of all and the value of any design is measured on how well it works. Fulfilling aesthetical needs is not the aim of the design.
09 Jun 2008, Karan S said:
I agree with the suggestions. Good Post. However I owuld suggest that write something about dynamic sites and explain how they can be handled from SEO point of view.
I would like to have one.
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