Chapter 2| Website Design & Website Development

University of Cape Town 29 July 2011

What will I learn today?

o  Websites, the centre of Online Strategy o  Website design specification sheets o  Website design planning o  Principles of Visual Design o  Content aspects of your website o  User interface & user experience o  Legal considerations of website design o  Web design applications o  Web Development

1. Website Design & Web Development Your website - the most important tool for creating a marketable web presence

2. Your Website is at the centre of your strategy

"   It’s in your control: Express your marketing message to your heart’s content

"   A powerful tool: Endless features & customer insight

"   A hub: All marketing strategies lead to website

"   You’re expected to have one: your audience will look for you

"   Your brand’s online home: Devoted marketing, reference point for customers, POS, community, message board, etc.

"   It’s stable: site remains in same place while other marketing strategies change

Comparison – Office vs. Website

§  Customer needs to know where to go in building

§  Environment clean & welcoming, professional and neat

§  Questions answered by in-house representative

§  Customer browses your product in your office

§  Customer takes business card and leaflet

§  Customer makes a purchase

§  Customer needs to know what parts of website is important to visit (UX)

§  Website designed by good principles so it looks professional & easy to access (UI)

§  Customers can access website’s contact page or information pages

§  Customer browses online catalogue

§  Customer bookmarks page and signs up for email newsletter

§  Customer uses online store or online form to make a purchase

Physical Office Website

Your target market

"   Who?: Male / female, demographics, age

"   Are they online?: UI & UX, info depends on this

"   Their expectations?: Informational, navigational, interactivity, online purchases?

"   Online savvy?: Advanced users or novices?

" Accessability: How will they get to your website … by computer, laptop, mobile or tablet?

3. Website Design – Specification Sheets •  (Technical standard) that details exactly how website will be designed

and built. Two main types are Design & Technical.

•  Vary in detail, complexity & technical content

•  Contract between you and service provider

3.1 Design Specification Sheet "   Goals of website: objectives you want to achieve

"   Design deliverables: CI, logo, just web?

"   List of required pages

"   Individual page layouts

"   Structure of website as whole

"   Site content & SEO strategy

"   Visual design element specifications: colours, logo, patterns, background, images, animations etc.

"   Fonts, text styles and headings

"   Functionality of pages (what will each page do)

"   Intended user experience (visitor’s journey through site)

"   Deadlines, time requirements and budget

3.2 Technical Specification Sheet

"   Programming language used / required

"   Website hosting

"   Domain registration

"   Content management system: type & requirements

"   Security requirements

"   Website functionality: e.g. coding of online forms

Programming languages

•  HTML

•  XHTML

•  XML

•  CSS

•  Flash

•  Java

•  PHP

•  C+

•  .NET

•  ASP

4. Website Design Planning

4.1 Design Planning 1.  Purpose of your website: summarise goals & objectives

in two sentences

2.  What do you NEED on your website?: Tools & functions essential to website (e.g. home, about, contact pages, navigation bar, corporate branding)

3.  What do you WANT on your website?: Contact form, one-click sharing of content (e.g. Facebook, twitter), automated feedback forms, high-end graphics, etc.

4.  How much control do you want over managing the website?: DIY? Level of involvement of developer / IT department. Consider content change requirements, type of site

4.2 Websites : Visually Speaking Design considerations; Pages on a website; Parts of a web page; Basic web design principles; Web design examples; Web style guides

Design Considerations

Public face of your business. Research competitor & related industry sites, target market expectations, fit in with overall Corporate Identity (brand image = nb)

Pages on a website

"   Home, About, Contact – essential

"   Products, Blog, Customer error page

"   Portfolio, Corporate mission / vision, careers etc.

Funny 404 Pages

Parts on a Web page

Considerations – 1. Elements can be static or dynamic; 2. Every web page has a “fold”.

Main components of web page is Header, navigation bar, Main body, footer, sidebar.

Basic Web Design Principles

Consider screen resolution, keep it simple, prefer minimalism, limit your colours and fonts, standardise your style

Video Sonic Labs = gr8 – NOT!

Lings Cars aka LINGs Confucious

Aunty Manon’s Language School

Audi – Vorsprung dur Technik

Expedia – Travel the World!

Simple Document Sharing FTW

Web style guides Choose specific colours, fonts, images, layouts & other elements – document defining design & style choices

Colour

Fonts

Layout

Wireframes

Webdesigner Depot

Web Design Resources

4.3 Content Considerations 1.  Hierarchy

2.  Call to action

3.  Writing for the web

4.  Content management system

Website Hierarchy •  Organise content in strict hierarchy depending on where it appears on page,

linked to navigation

•  Helps you structure your customer journey

•  Shows how related content is grouped together

•  Ordered by content relevance & group related elements together

High tier Site Architecture

Flattened Site Architecture = best

Call to Action

•  Ties in to your ultimate site goals and desired visitor actions – sign-up, sales, followers, etc.

•  Should be unambiguous – what is important, desirable, relevant on your pages?

•  Create KPIs

Writing for the Web

•  Specific & unique •  Differs from traditional

copywriting

•  KISS principles = nb > short sentences, common words, paragraphs, bullet points, bolding

•  (module 3 refers to this in more depth)

Choose a Content Management System

Content Management Systems

Basic Template CMS Open Source CMS Custom CMS

Simple, easy to use More advanced, easy to use For advanced users only

No technical knowledge needed

Some technical knowledge needed

Extensive technical knowledge needed

Used by anyone Used by anyone, requires web developer involvement

Requires experienced web developer

Cheap Custom mid-level pricing Expensive

4.4 User Interface & User Experience (UI / UX)

User Interface

What your customers will see and interact with when they visit your website – links, navigation, clickable buttons, forms, page layout. Should be tailored to your target market

User Experience Involves every part of interaction with website and includes:

•  Mood site evokes

•  Is it visually pleasing & appropriate?

•  How responsive & easy to use

•  Journey through pages

•  Page elements appropriate & targeted to user

•  Product Value perceived by user

•  How well user can engage with content

4.5 Legal Considerations

Legal Considerations

1.  Respect copyright: Exclusive right of creator to use & exploit creative work – nobody may use, adapt or sell their work without creator’s permission. Adhere to “Fair Use”

2.  Terms of use & disclaimers: Protects from litigation, anyone who uses website implicitly agrees to terms of use

3.  Privacy Policy: State how personal data (e.g. email address) will be used and what you will not do

4.  Communication online: Know how to balance right of freedom of expression with obligation to respect privacy and dignity, have brief plain-language version of acceptable terms of use

4.6 Website Applications Huge variety of website builders available in the market – choose very carefully!

Wordpress

Wordpress Themes

WooThemes

Joomla

Template Monster

Drupal Web Development

eCommerce Custom

Yola Website Builder

Wix (Flash) Website Builder

Tank Website Builder

DoodleKit Website Builder

Magento eCommerce Platform

Web Development The process of turning the concepts created during web design phase into a functioning website

Outsourcing or Hiring?

Web development can be a daunting task and it’s mostly best to get an expert – the decision depends on complexity of website and resources required. Also depends on your budget and size of your company

Communicating with a Web Developer

Documents:

•  Design specification sheet

•  Technical brief

•  Domain & hosting information

Web Developer Website Aims:

•  Site easy to update (CMS)

•  Quick to load (Site speed)

•  Easy to find (SEO)

•  Interactive

•  Secure site (Spamming, virus protection nb)

Hosting & Domain Name Options Socialising, cooperation, sharing, personal entertainment, attention economy – space for work & play, digital spend overtook traditional newspaper advertising spend in 2010

Domain Registration

"   Will customers look for your company name?

"   Keep the name short and easy to remember & type

"   Use keywords

"   Choose international or local domain - .com or .co.za?

"   Check if names chosen is available

"   Don’t use more than one domain name

Whois

GoDaddy

Reasonable Expectations Have realistic expectations in terms of cost and development timelines

Website Development - Step by Step

Step-by-step Website Development

1.  Conceptualisation & planning

2.  Consult web design & development experts

3.  Choose developer & designer

4.  Designer creates visual mock-ups

5.  Mock-up variation & approval

6.  Developer transforms mock-up into functional site

7.  Pay for development, hosting & website made live

The Web Development Process

Thank You!

Useful links … http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_changes http://theoatmeal.com/comics/websites_stop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programming_languages http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/wireframing-mockup-prototyping-tools-plan-designs/