The first and most important decision you have to make about your website is its navigation. How will site visitors find their way through your site. What information should go where? Is the navigation you choose user-friendly?
In many cases, this can be determined by looking at your old website. Imagine that you are a site visitor going there for the first time. Can you easily find the information you are looking for?
Ideally, you will have assembled the content for your website before you start. Or at least, you will have a list of content items required. This is your starting point. Add to this the information you need to convey to your site visitors.
Take it back to basics - what is your website for? What are your goals for the site? What do you want site visitors to do? (For example, make a purchase, contact you for further information, request a brochure, visit your facility, sign up for your newsletter, join your online community, be educated about your products and services, showcase your work etc?) If there is more than one objective on the list, list them in order of importance.
You will now be well on your way to establishing the navigation of your site.
Remember, every website will have different requirements. However, unless your site is very unusual, you will need a HOME page and a CONTACT page. The HOME page acts as a hub for your site. If visitors drill down deeply into your site, they can always return to the HOME page of your site for reorientation.
I find that I frequently go to websites simply to visit the CONTACT page - to get the email address, location or phone number of a company. Traditionally, the HOME link is the first link on the site and the CONTACT is the last, but both should be on all pages at all times.
The next step is to group your list of items. If you wish, think of your website as a large master folder that contains all your information; just like the folder in your file cabinet. (It may help to do this in reality). Inside the master folder are additional folders with information inside. Again, even if you have never had to work on a website navigation before, you will be familiar with the concept of files and information within folders
For example, you might have a section called ABOUT US. What should go inside that folder? HISTORY? Would you like to focus on your staff? Your mission statement? Collect all the ABOUT US information in that folder. Continue in this fashion until you have a clear idea of how your information is going to be categorized.
At this stage, TSDG make it easy for you. We create a blueprint of your site. Just as a building contractor would have a blueprint for building a new hotel, so do we when it comes to building your website.
Just as the hotel’s blueprint would be used by the electrician, the plumbing experts and everyone else involved in the construction, TSDG staff will refer to the blueprint when building your website. So it must be 100% accurate.
The blueprint is a working model of your website. It is a plain-text site with no images or graphics, it’s just the skeleton of your site. But you can click through and make sure that you have all the pages you need ... and that you have information for every page.
Again, imagine you are a site visitor who is browsing your site for the first time - is all the important information easy to find?
TSDG staff members will also be testing your blueprint for usability and user-friendliness.
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