If..Else Log

Drew recently put out a list of what he considers to be the 5 most important questions that you have to ask yourself when planning the website. Whilst I agree with all his points, I think we can encapsulate them all in a single succint question:

Why are you creating this website?

The reason this one question covers all is because in the act of answering it, you naturally consider arrive at all the other major considerations.

So, why are you creating this website?

OK, let's try answering this one. If the aim of the site is to produce a online shop, then in the act of identifying that, you've also identified the other key points. An online shop is there to facilitate the selling of products to the consumer. If you're developing a blog, then your aim may be raise your online presence, communicate to customers or just get your views out to the public. A products library is there to provide information for potential buyers to compare and investigate their needs.

Hence, the act of answering that question also provides the answer to Drew's other questions:

Who is the site for?

For an online shop, the answer is the customers or more correctly, the type of people who would buy your products¹. The beauty of this question is that this provides the necessary information to drive your site design. It lets you know the sort of look you should be going for, the type of technical features you should be developing, how to approach the UI. A site designed to attract teenager customers is different from a site for retired homeowners which is different from gadget freaks.

What are visitors trying to achieve when they visit the site?

Are they looking to buy a specific product such as a particular book by an author ala Amazon? Are they looking for a fun tech gift for gadget enthusiast ala Firebox? Are they looking for the latest tech news ala Slashdot? Or maybe, they're looking for interesting content ala DaringFireball. Visual design and style all contribute to how easily the visitors can achieve their goals.

What do YOU want visitors to achieve when the visit the site?

Once again, this follows on from your answer to the big question. Now that you know what you want to get out of this site, you can design it so as to facilitate that. You can build in cross-sell and recommendation areas; maybe point readers to other interesting content. Highlight certain products perhaps. You need to know what you want before you can do it.

How frequently do you expect people to use the site?

True usage patterns can only be identified with analysis but you can make good guesses. If you're aiming to create a blog, you'd probably want regular returning visitors. If you want visitors looking for specific products then make sure individual pages are SE friendly and easily accessible. If you want regular visitors browsing for items that suit their needs, consider the impact of a tailored page. And, of course, if you're building a shop, holidays are always good time for visitors; take advantage of that with customised, and appropriately themed designs.

How will you measure the success of the site?

Unique visitors, returning visitors, high spending visitors, loyal visitors? Knowing what you're after allows you to design for that goal. You need to know this from the start as you'll be building for this. Without an objective, you don't know what direction to go. Without something to measure for, you don't know if you're going the right way.

So I guess to answer Drew, my five most important considerations are really 5 facets of one. Why are you creating this website?

1. Which, of course, you can answer without a moment's thought if you have a business plan. [back]

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