How To: Define Your web site's Purpose

What do you want your web site to accomplish for you - sell, tell or show?

Give due attention to the factors in the top half this page - they concern specifying the back bone of the entire site, and if the backbone is incorrect the entire structure will need to be rebuilt before continuing on.

Also see "simplify!", as part of this backbone may involve a data enabled page format. The purpose of any site is to tell something, sell something or show something. You have to define the end purpose of your site before you start production. It is much more likely you'll "get there" if you know where "there" is. Also defining your colors must be done before work starts - it is covered further down this page.

A designer can't envision your dream. A designer can only help you accomplish what you outline for him or her to do for you. The larger the site the more crucial planning is.

1. What does your business or organization do - tell, sell or show?

   • Tell - disseminate information (w/o charge), i.e., NationalGeographic.com
   • Sell - sell products, services or information
   • Show - a pictorial showcase, gallery or catalog
     • most common use is sales generation
2. What do you want your web site to do for you - tell, sell or show?
   

• A web site is not advertising — It is a tool that must be advertised.
  
  

• Unless you are a non profit organization, you must determine how you are going to generate revenue and make a profit.

1. First decide what type of web site you need -

   
   
   Do you want a visually lush display case, heavily programmed info source, shopping cart sales center or a combination of any of the three. Unless you are a non profit organization, you must determine how you are going to generate revenue and make a profit from this venture. A free consultation with Internet Outsource Tampabay can help you define your mission and reach your destination.
   
   

2. Decide the level of technology needed -
   
   This will be at the root of the construction. This is an extension of  "define your mission" covered in detail in the "simplify!" section. It involves the page format needed to perform the required tasks of your site's mission. The objective is neither unnecessary complication nor too little technology to execute these tasks.
   
   

3. If you have any plans of expanding
   
   Have your site set up for growth from the start. It is more efficient to design in options for later use than to totally re-build the site when you expand.
   

DETAILS

The right color set is very IMPORTANT. Color is the most powerful component of all visual imagery. The right colors communicate meaning and please the eye. The wrong colors can be unpleasant and even unsettling. Bad combinations of colors can be even more unsettling.

Sometimes a color choice seems good in concept until you see it on the screen. Make use of the handy, online color selecter or Adobe's slick Kuler site (requires latest version of Flash) to see your potential web color choices displayed on-screen. It will help you choose by name and give the designer the exact code to display it on your site. Since a computer monitor transmits light instead of reflecting it, online colors have a different look than their reflective (on paper, etc.) counterparts. A designer can also create custom colors.

• As a marketing tool, color can be a subliminally persuasive force.
  
  

• color can capture attention, relax or irritate the eyes, and affect the legibility of text.
  
  
• The wrong colors can have a very negative effect - the wrong combinations, even worse.
  
  
• Background images and watermarks behind the text make it hard for many of your readers to decipher your message.

Also, experts agree - colors are seen by different ages, genders and ethic groups in many different ways. Demographics are critical to all color strategies for visual communication, be it brand identity or corporate image.

A COUPLE OF FACTS:

• The overwhelming majority of internet users PREFER search engines to "Yellow Pages".
• 57% of businesses report that internet users generate more income than off-line only customers.
• A great number of people interviewed stated that they were unlikely to do business with companies that did not have a web site.

OnlinedesignFLA can help you plan your project and help you to avoid any needless complications and back pedaling. There are millions of web sites out there - we at Internet Outsource Tampabay don't feel the need to make a killing on each project