Importance of Planning Web Design
The other day I gave my father a website for his birthday. My father
loves technical stuff and even if he doesn’t understand the first thing
about creating a website right now his curiosity for learning “how to”
do technical “stuff” will mean that doesn’t last long.
He made the comment to me that there must be a lot of money in that
web design stuff because there is constantly the need for updates and
changes to sites. Well yes he’s right there can be a lot of money in
incremental changes to websites yet it’s usually not the web designer
or the company that owns the website that profits from the costs of
constant changes, redesigns and tweaks.
So what are the keys to cutting costs and saving money on unnecessary
redesigns and incremental changes?
Well the most important thing that is often neglected in web design is… wait for it…..
Planning
In my experience most web projects go south due to a distinct lack of planning. Most people and companies are just trying to get it out of the way and do not spend much time considering the purpose of the site and how it will serve them and the user.
Most people are in such an intense rush to get a design down that they do not invest time and money into the planning process. Worse still they go to the trouble of having a site designed without factoring in the
content that is going to be produced for the site or the site structure. In my experience at least 50% of websites if not more are designed before the initial content is written or even usually properly thought you. This is of course both a disaster from a design and search engine optimization point of view.
Planning a website is much like planning a marketing campaign. First you plan what needs to go in the campaign, then you create the copy and finally you send it off to the graphic designer and printer. Well a website is the same, first you have to plan the purpose and end goal for the website, then
create the content, information and multimedia you want for the site, then you send it off to the graphic designer to create a site for you. Thats when the designer is clear can be given very clear directions about what needs to be done and how the content needs to be laid out. Then they can help put together the fancy “Buy Now” buttons, multimedia and other cool features than enhance the value of your site, not before. 95% percent of websites do not follow this simple three step formula of preparation and usually they go and do things the complete other way around.
It is important to understand the importance of the distinct that you must create or at very least prepare and plan content for your website before design the design and website itself. Most businesses are creating a web design and website and then creating their content. Think of the power of the implication of doing things the right way when 95% of businesses are doing things the other way.
One of the fundamental elements of this concept that it is important to understand is that the amount of planning needed is scalable to the size of the project and the sophistication of the market you are entering. It might be as simple as spending an extra 15-20 minutes planning the marketing and the content that will be featured on the website. It could also entail months of competitive analysis, market research, customer analysis, focus groups and other types of user centred design principles. However if you are just starting out this would likely not apply but it’s important to know the big .com companies sometimes spend months and millions developing a new design concept.
When you are planning your new website or web design it is important to make plans around a few key elements:
- The information your prospects or customers are seeking
- The end benefit your prospect/customer desires
- The end action step you want the customer to take (sign up to email list, call a phone number, submit an enquiry, buy your product etc)
- To create a design that fits your business now yet can be tailored and restructured for future business growth or product offerings.
Most people who have found large success online have found it being a “problem solver” and offering people the knowledge or end benefit they desire by providing them with great information or what we usually call online “great content”. If you build your website around this and the end action you want the visitor to take to enter your sales funnel then you will find success and at the same time will limit the costs associated with perfecting the optimization of your site because you’ve already planned the end action you want your visitor to take when visiting the site. Just figuring out this important element saves a lot in redesign costs because a good web designer can usually apply this with some basic knowledge about user behaviour and with a little bit of optimization you’ll usually get your site converting well.
I want to stress the importance of considering future growth and changes to the website as this is the second most neglected element when starting a web design. Some companies and businesses prefer to continuously change and update their web design. Some do it once a year, some every six months, every month, every season, every major marketing promotion. Now of this are wrong, it’s just a lot most cost effective when you have a basic branded template that you business uses and then have additional areas of the design where the designer can factor it additional elements of creativity to suit the marketing campaign, season, give the site a fresh look or optimize it too improve your sales results.You’ll find most of the big Australian web businesses like Seek, Flight Centre, Melbourne IT, RSVP, NineMSN use this basic concept.
Not only does this help build a consistent brand that your visitors recognise it saves a lot of money in web design costs. So when you are next starting a new website or looking to redesign your existing site remember to take some time out to plan.
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hey pete
great article, i really enjoyed it
thanks for sharing
dave