Oct
27
Written by:
Project Complete
10/27/2009 10:41 AM
Where to begin? At the beginning, of course! That's the easy part. The hard part of any task is finding the best place to begin. Sometimes our tasks seem so overwhelming, it makes our brain hurt just thinking about it. Designing a website is a big project, one you may wish to hire a project manager to accomplish. Most people do. Only the project manager is called a web designer, and they can lead you through the process step-by-step, from the beginning to the completed website.
You know you want a website for your company, but a good question to ask yourself when you start a website is, "How would I describe my company (or organization) to someone who didn't know the first thing about it?" Because that's probably the first message you want to get across on the home page of your website.
Another good starting point is to envision the purpose of your site. You'll also want to think about the function of each page that should be included in your website. Will there be an online store, a calendar, an interactive blog, or are you just in need of being able to tell the world who you are and what you do in the form of a web presence? Is there an area you need for press releases or newsletter archives? Maybe photos would be relevant to what you do, and a gallery of graphics would be the best way to show it off. Are you offering courses that you want visitors to sign up for, and pay for, on your site? All these considerations will be important in the design of your website.
Take a look around the web. What are your competitors doing with their websites? What websites do you especially like — or don't like? Are there colors and styles in certain sites that stand out for you? Do those styles work well with your business? If you're a banker, the rock band image could be confusing to visitors. What image do you want to project?
There are other technical considerations before beginning your website too, but before it gets any more overwhelming, take two aspirin and call your favorite web designer. They can help!