Planning a website
Planning your site is the single most important step in the development process.
It enables you to get an overview of the aims of the site and an understanding of
who will be using your site and what they want. You need to know how best to support
your users and what facilities to offer. In the planning stage you asses the resources
you have available already, whether they are in a suitable format, what work
needs to be done to prepare additional content, graphic design work, building databases,
setting up email or online shopping facilities.
Reasons
Complile a list of reasons why you need a website. This will help you think about the structure of your site.
Audience
Remember your website is primarily for your users.
It is essential to know who they are and what they want from your site.
Identify users both current and potential.
Features
Considering the target groups and the reasons for a website,
visit other sites and identify all the features that you want to include.
Content
Make a list of the content you already have available in
digital format and the content you plan to produce in the near future.
Organise this into categories with specific headings.
Maintenance
For each feature of the planned site consider how often the content will be changed.