Concepting, Wireframing and Content

Assembling the Initial Information for your Web Designer
Defining objectives and creating a strategy.

This guide is designed to assist the website owner in preparing the basic data that will be needed by the website designer. The methodology will suit the smaller to medium sized sites and takes the owner through a useful exercise in scoping the project.

If you are going on a journey, then without a map you will end up somewhere. But it sure won't be where you were hoping to go. This article will help you create that map - and in the process define your objectives and the strategy to get there.

The Concept
Wireframing
Assembling the Content
Resources & Links

THE CONCEPT

There needs to be absolute clarity as to why this website is being built and what the primary objective is in terms of what you want the visitor to do.

There may only be one targeted type of visitor with one clear action required. Such as finding new customers and getting them to contact you.

Or there may be several different groups with different, if not multiple, objectives.
- Existing Customers ------ provide new product news
- Existing Customers ------ provide technical information
- New Suppliers ------ introduce new product lines
- New Suppliers ------ introduce cheaper product lines

A Little Terminology.........

The visitor response (or action) is sometime referred to as the Most Wanted Response, or MWR.

The process of moving the visitor (by their selection) towards the MWR is known as funneling, or moving through the sales funnel.

From time to time the visitor can be presented with a route directly to the MWR (for example, the contact form). That link to the MWR is known as a Call To Action, or CTA.

So now you can define the concept in terms of:
- the Primary Objective
- The Visitor Groups (or Demographics) with Most Wanted Responses
- The Calls to Action

This information can be used to test different pages and ideas to make sure that the primary objective is being met in terms of what is being shown to the visitor.

WIREFRAMING

Wireframing can be thought of as a storybook but in its most simple form can be the intended menu structure.

- Home
- About Us
- Products
- Automotive Products
- Marine Products
- Engines
- Navigation
- Aviation Products
- Contact Us

This extends to complex diagrammatic structures that can be so detailed as to require dedicated software to create the wireframes.

But for the more basic websites the menu system itself will often be sufficient for the website owner to communicate what the scope of the website will involve. The individual menu items can also be notated with what that page or section is intended to achieve.

ASSEMBLING THE CONTENT

The content is effectively the wording, or text, with diagrams and graphics, that will be entered onto each page. A "page" will usually correspond to a menu line.

Again, you can use the menu layout and number the different line items. These numbers can correspond to blocks of text in a Word document which contain the text for the website.

Special Mention ......... The Home Page

For most websites, the elusive "new customer" arrives at the home page after clicking on a search engine results page. That visitor usually has several different options to choose from and has no allegiance to your brand or page. So when that person arrives and sees the visible screen (usually the top part of the landing page) known as "above the fold") then that visible screen must confirm that the site is worthy of further investigation. This is called "stickiness" and what the visitor sees must be equally sticky for the different types of visitor. Think about this for a minute and you will appreciate how difficult it is to create something that will achieve this - especially for multiple visitor types.

The home page of this website, for example, details the benefits of boutique website hosting which should resonate with the target customer.

• Protect and Grow Your Website Investment
• Increase Your Traffic, Enquiries and R.O.I.
• Deal with Security, Hacking, Malware and Abuse
• Avoid eMail Deliverability and Lost Mail Issues
• Evolve Dynamically as Trends Emerge
• ... and All This at Little or No Extra Cost !

The background graphic was selected to impart an atmosphere of clean, organised and hi-tech. The central portion is left white so as to make the headlines pop and remain visible as the borders shrink in with smaller device display screens. The headline points are the unique selling propositions and the "hook" is that this costs much the same as basic commercial hosting. What you will receive is lots of service and it is inexpensive.

RESOURCES & LINKS

Wikipedia : Website wireframe
How to Use Wireframes for Web Design