We recommend that you take the time
to read this page and think about the points below before
your consultation to get the maximum benefit.
What is the purpose of
your proposed web site? Is it educational, a selling tool or a way
of distributing information about your products or club?
Who is your target audience?
Age, sex, profession, income and place of use should all be considered
as they affect the final content and appearance of the web site.
Educational Flash movies may be appropriate on a fast intranet site
in a school, but home users with slow modems want the information
quickly.
Think about what you
want to present on your site and how you will break it up into pages.
If you already have a brochure or leaflet about your organisation
then this is a good place to start, as it is likely to be already
split up into suitably sized sections.
Sketch some simple
layouts on paper, but don't spend hours making elaborate sketches
as you will probably end up changing your mind about the way
the pages will appear during the consultation.
Think about colours
you would like to use on your site. If you already have a
logo then it is a good idea to coordinate with the colours
used in it. If you have a stunning picture that you would
like to use on your home page, we can sample colours from
that to get a uniform feel for your site.
Take a look at
some similar sites or the sites of some of your competitors
to see how they do things and think about how you could improve
on their sites. For instance, you might want to include search
facilities on your site to help your users find the right
tool for the job.
Try using a search
engine such as Google (www.google.com)
to find similar sites or those of your competitors. What keywords
give the best results?
Do you have information
that changes frequently or that may be added to, such as a price
list, a menu or an events listing? If you do, then you might find
that an online database is a good way to present the information
to the end user as this can easily be updated by you or your staff,
removing the need to ask us to make frequent changes to your site.
Are there any items which
are very common within your organisation which might be useful for
buttons or other icons? For example, an aquarium might want to use
images of tropical fish, bubbles or coral as graphics for buttons
whereas a garage might want to use images of tyres or tools instead.
For a free consultation please contact us at
or see our contacts page for our phone number and address.
