Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

Design of a website should be handled the same way as writing a term paper. As much raw information as possible should be discussed and recorded during the brainstorming process. The information architecture will serve as the outline, and from there a rough draft should be created. Rough drafts should be created firstly with a rough sketch based on where the general navigational elements of a site will be located. From the sketched rough model, a digital rough draft should be created. Many graphic designers will use programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks, or Deneba Canvas for this step of the process. A designer should create the form of the site with absolutely no functionality. This form element will later be blended with the code-written function of the website to obtain the necessary balance.

A website design should incorporate all elements of the information architecture while still keeping in mind elements of a site that may be added at a later time. The design should be visually appealing and incorporate colors and images that will induce the appropriate emotions. Colors and images can also be used to aid users in navigating the site more effectively and illustrating the most important elements of a site. Seth Godin compares users to monkeys in his book, “The Big Red Fez”, and says that users are always, “looking for a banana” to click on (Godin, 2001, p. 7). This is generally a true statement since most users are in a hurry, and do not want to read an entire page. The design of a site should be intuitive and lead visitors down the intended path.

The design layout of a website should be completely separate from the content of site in many regards. It is ironic that the best way to blend form and function is actually to separate them from the developer’s perspective, which will ultimately interlace them in the user’s perspective. When the Internet was brand new, HTML was solely responsible for styling and containing content. This made website redesigns and exporting information to other applications more difficult than it had to be. With technologies like database driven webpages and cascading style sheets it is much easier to separate the data from the design. Initial designs without functionality give programmers the necessary guidelines to integrate the functionality into the “look” of a website.

Programmers and designers must work together in order to create a successful website. The development process of a website requires the two skill sets to complement each other. After a rough draft design is agreed upon between programmers and designers, the programmers can begin to make the page functionality a reality.

When the programmer knows where each of the elements of the site will be placed, the CSS code can be developed. The programmer essentially interprets and predicts browser translation of a webpage for a designer. The designer assures that the site has a emotionally pleasing user interface. The more knowledge a programmer has of design, and vice versa, the more valuable those individuals become to a development team.

Appendices
(All in a single document) Appendix 1-1: Overture Search Term
Research Tool

Appendix 1-2: Wordtracker Search Query Research Tool

Appendix 1-3: Google Sets Website Theme Research Tool

Appendix 1-4: Reach/ Acquire/ Convert/ Retain

Chart Appendix 2-5: Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth Information Architecture Flowchart

Appendix 2-6: Search Engine Themes Pyramid Information Architecture Example

Appendix 2-7: Webpage Download Time by File Size Chart

Appendix 2-8: Expected Locations for Common E-commerce Elements

Appendix 2-9: Website Usability Checklist

Appendix 2-10: Text Vs.Code Ratio/ Content Near the Top of Souce Code Examples

Appendix 3-11: Overture Bid Price Tool

Appendix 3-12: Webalizer Website Visitor Tracking Tool

Appendix 3-13: AW STATS Website Visitor Tracking Tool Appendix

3-14: Clicktracks Website Statistics
Analysis Tool

References
Author Notes

Additional Bonus:
101 Free Search Engine Optimization Tips

Work with a top search engine marketing company in Michigan. For your local search engine marketing and pay-per-click advertising needs.

Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites Table of Contents

Planning, Developing, and Promoting a Successful Small Business Website

Designing Websites for Small Business Page 24

Design Layout

Planning, Developing, and Promoting Successful Small Business Websites

Table of Contents

Designing Websites for Small Business
Page 24