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[edit] Other tools
[edit] The tool
- Name of site
- Is the name of the site the same as a company name? EXAMPLE
- Or will you choose something memorable? EXAMPLE
- Mission
- What do you want to happen when people view/use your web site? EXAMPLE
- Is the site informational, for community building, for learning, for selling, or to improve productivity?
- Goals
- What does the web site need to do to accomplish the mission? EXAMPLE
- Objectives
- How will you accomplish each goal? EXAMPLE
- How will you know if you've accomplished your goals; how will you measure success?
- Audience
- Who are the people that you want to view your site? EXAMPLE
- What demographic are these people from?
- What kind of audience are they: learner, shopper, connection seeker, transactor, business browser, or fun seeker?
- What do these people want to see/do in a site like yours?
- Inspirational sites and sites of competitors.
- List sites that have components you admire and would like to incorporate in your site. EXAMPLE
- List sites of competitors and/or sites with the same mission as yours. EXAMPLE
- Key players
- Who will play the roles of content provider/writer, photographer, designer, programmer, stake holder, financier? EXAMPLE
- Scope and Priorities
- Based on the four preceding items, what do you want your site to have in it? EXAMPLE
- Track all ideas, even if you don't think you'll use them.
- Narrow the scope/ideas into manageable chunks. Get a realistic view of your resources to continue developing a plan you can live with.
- Categorize the ideas to determine long term and short term goals: what gets done in phase 1, 2, and 3? EXAMPLE
- Hook to encourage return visitors
- What unique function of your site will keep visitors returning? EXAMPLE
- Functional Requirements
- Visual scheme EXAMPLE
- What colors will you use?
- What style will you use? Impressionist, Punk, Modern Business, Minimalist, etc.
- (CS295 only; CS195 will add this later) Begin creating a style guide for your site in a directory called admin (admin/styleguide.htm). The style guide is due later but get it started now and link to it from your Plan.
- Domain names possibilities EXAMPLE
- If you could host this on a public server outside OSU, what domain would you like for the site? List all the possibilities.
- Which names do you think clients would most easily type in a browser to find you? Which ones are most memorable? EXAMPLE
- Navigation schemes EXAMPLE
- What sets of navigation could your site have? Links to pages for different audiences, topics, administrative functions, channels, portals, etc?
- Technical Requirements EXAMPLE
- Site hosting services available
- Does the host provide the following capabilities?
- Server Side Includes, .htaccess files, PHP, MySQL, email scripts, email forwarding, etc.
- What server software is the host server running?
- How much space does the host provide per account?
- Databases needs EXAMPLE
- Does your site need a forum or blog? If so, you'll need a database.
- Site structure EXAMPLE
- What topics will your site cover?
- What will these topic areas be called?
- Which topic areas will need directories and subtopic pages?
- Which topics need just one page?
- Do you need directories for images? in each directory?
- Do you need separate directories for photos and multimedia?
- Maintenance and Content Management EXAMPLE
- How will your client maintain/update their content, navigation sets, and templates?
- Will you provide ongoing training, design, and content updates?
- Browser compatibility requirements EXAMPLE
- Does your client require that your site work with ALL browsers, dating back to IE, or Netscape 3 or 4?
- List the browsers and versions you will be developing for.
- Promotional needs
- What keywords and phrases are needed in the site title, navigation, content, and links to maximize search engine listings? EXAMPLE
- How will you advertise in print, radio, television, or online? EXAMPLE
- Immediate opportunities
- What is happening right now that you can take advantage of to complete the site? EXAMPLE
- Potential pitfalls
- What would keep you from completing the site? EXAMPLE
- Budgets (time and costs)
- How much time can each key player provide to complete the site? EXAMPLE
- What will it cost to host your site?
- What other expenses might you incur during production?
- Schedules for at least the first phase EXAMPLE
- When will you complete the prototype?
- When will you complete the template?
- When will you apply the template to each page?
- When will you add content to the site?
- When will you complete the inquiry form?
- When will you launch it?
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