IMD09117 and IMD09118 Web Design and Development

Planning and Scoping a Web site.

Reminder of the 5 planes model

Last week we examined Garrett’s model in detail.

We discussed the typical web development life cycle.

We also looked into mission statements for websites.

Today we will cover the strategy plane in greater detail.

We will move onto the scope plane and discuss client needs.

Strategy

What do we want to get from this site?

What do our users want?

These are the two key questions to be answered by the strategy plane.

Who are we building the site for?

It’s easy when you are your own client but when you’re building for other people you have to listen.

Your skill as a designer is using your expertise to help the client understand what it is they want.

Clients

Most people have an idea of what they want but how do you clarify what is to be delivered.

England & Finney (2007) call this process “scoping”. They describe this as: Collecting the right information Translating this information into appropriate

solutions Showing that these solutions fit a client’s

needs

How much detail?

This is a key question. Too much detail overcomplicates Too little will lead to an unsatisfactory

product.

The important objective is to retrieve any relevant information for the project.

England & Finney provide a questionnaire which is a solid basis for the information you need, we will discuss some of the questions.

Contact

Never underestimate the importance of establishing a firm contact. You need the security of having a liaison that is

responsible for agreeing work is finished and satisfactory.

Previous interactive Media Experience The level of experience a client has will change their

expectations.

Market Sector This effects the type of site you will produce.

Project Content Bias This is here as a tool to help you understand what the

client expects and to ensure that you can demonstrate to the client what has been agreed.

Browser/platform expectations Not all browsers or products display

Websites the same way. Is your client expecting people to access

the site on their mobile ‘phones?

Site maintenance

Once our Website is up and running, who’s going to look after it?

If it’s down to the client, how will this be? Do they need training? Will you produce a content

management system?

Users

So far we’ve talked about about the client and what they expect, it’s time to consider the users of our new Web site.

When designing any product it is vital to understand who we are making it for.

It is an easy trap to assume that our product is for one type of user who happens to be exactly like us.

Diversity

It can be very complicated to define users as they come from all walks of life.

To simply claim that a site is for “everyone” is a cop out. There are very few sites for which this is true.

Demographics

Demographics are one way of describing users. Gender Age Education Level Marital Status Income

Psychographics

These idea describe the attitudes and perceptions of users. Psychographics and demographics are often linked: People with the same income level of the same age living in the same area will have similar attitudes.

Some examples from forbes.com

Pictures fromhttp://www.forbes.com/2007/05/09/cars-message-autos-forbesllife-cx_dl_0510carsays_slide_7.html?thisSpeed=15000

User Segmentation

To understand who’s using our products, we break down our users into groups of people with shared needs.

By understanding who they are and what they want, we can build an effective site.

User Research

Once we have decided who we are building our site for, we need to know how to provide the information they want.

Defining the Scope

This turns our question from:

“Why are we building this site?”

To:

“What are we going to make?”

Perspectives

CLIENT USER

DEVELOPER

Requirements

functional specifications. Content requirements

Now we understand what we are building we need to combine all the information we have so far and break into two distinct areas: