thewidestweb

Yep, that’s what you’re building on. Clean, empty, vacuum-sealed web space.

So what are planning to fill it with? Dust off that outline you made and start figuring out what’s going to appear on each of those pages. I’m not talking about graphic elements that will be consistent throughout your site, I’m talking about the rest…

Images! Do you need tables, charts, diagrams, pretty pictures, thumbnails, crazy fonts, animations, movies… Now’s a good time to figure that out. It can take a while to get the images you need. Maybe you need to buy images from a stock photography site such as Getty Images. Maybe you need to hire a photographer or an illustrator. Maybe you need to get that roll of film developed before you forget where it is.

Text! Writing content is usually the most time consuming part of building a website. The reason for this is twofold:

1. People don’t often realize just how much writing is involved. Look at the number of pages you have in your outline and figure that it’s going to take you around an hour per page. If your website is an informational resource, this number may become much higher.

1. Web writing is different from the day to day writing that most people are accustomed to. Users don’t really read webpages, they scan them. Your content should be concise, punchy, active and exceptionally well organized.

Be sure to make appropriate use of lists and headings. Not only will these help readability, but placing the right text in a heading tag will help the search engines find your website.

Remember that your website is a direct reflection of you. In other words, don’t skimp on the editing time or you may look foolish down the road. Edit your content at least twice. Try to find someone else who will look it over, as well. Other people will catch mistakes that you managed to overlook.

Remember your audience and the light you want to present yourself in.

I have to say it once more… Remember to edit and then edit again.

Think about your audience.

We all know that there’s no one more knowledgeable with regards to your business. You know all about everything you have to offer. You’ve been to 10 industry specific conferences just this last year. Heck, you were the keynote speaker at a few of them.

But how are you going to convey your knowledge? Well, that really should depend on who you’re speaking to. You wouldn’t speak to your puppy, child, grandmother, son, father, boss and employees all the same way, so think about who’s going to be listening at the other end of the web.

Are you selling to distributors, individuals, or both? This should have an obvious impact on the amount of technical jargon you’re using. I really have no idea what an “elastomeric insert” or a “split-flange adapter” is, but some one must since you can find them on the internet. Technical jargon might make you sound smart, as some MIT students have proven, but will it sell your product or convey your message? The answer is: maybe, it’s all dependent on your audience.

What is the age range of your target audience? Have they been using the internet since Reagan’s first term, the introduction of built-in modems, or just last week? If you offer services for the elderly, you may want to consider a larger font size, high contrast and bigger click targets for buttons.

What type of connection are they most likely to use? If most of your target demographic is still using dial-up, you should reconsider that graphic-rich design or you might lose them before the page finishes loading.

Okay, so planning is starting to seem like a lot of work, but really, this stuff’s just going to make your website more successful in the end.

For more handy resources and services, view my links in the “Handy Places” section at right, or check them out here.

You’ll find all sorts of useful stuff:

• Great deals on web hosting
• Sources for more free advice
• Tons of images, sound clips, buttons, etc.
• Educational resources
• and so forth

I’ll be updating the links whenever I find new sites to share, so check back for more. Or if you know of a great website that’s not on the list, feel free to contact me.

1&1.com: Friendly, affordable web hosting.

flashkit.com: Resources, tutorials, sound clips, fonts… lots of stuff to help you make your website extra nice.

w3schools.com: Still not sure what you’re doing? These guys have all the answers.

w3.org/QA/Tips: Tips from the people who set the standards for the web.

Believe it or not, the name you choose to give to each page has a big impact on how users will navigate your site. Furthermore, using an inconsistent naming convention can make you look unorganized and even—dare I say—not very intelligent.

Go back to that outline you made and let’s bring some order to your madness…

Here are some keys to a solid naming convention:

Parallelism – I bet you thought you’d never hear that freshman English class vocabulary word again, but here it is, awaiting your undying affection. Parallelism is super important. If some of your page names use active verbs (you know… go, drive, get, look for, sign in, buy now, calculate, etc.) then all of your names should use active verbs. If some of your names are nouns (you really should know… products, services, advisory council, really cool stuff you wish you had, neat places to go, etc.) then all of your names should be nouns. Hmm… I see a pattern forming.

Length – You guessed it… if some of your names are short, all of your names should be short. If most of your names fit in one line, all of your names should fit in one line. If some of your names are complete sentences, then all of your names should be complete sentences (I don’t actually recommend this practice, but at least be consistent about it).

Ambiguity – Steer clear of obscure product names or industry specific vernacular unless you’re 100% sure that all of your audience will understand it. What is obvious to you may be foreign or vague to your neighbor and most users aren’t going to waste their time clicking something unless they know they want it.

Quantity – Okay, so this isn’t a name trait, but it’s an important point… Don’t make your user sift through too many options. Chances are they’ll get bored and leave. Everything I’ve read on web usability testing suggests that users really only spend a few seconds looking for pertinent information. If they find a little, they’ll look a little more. If they find a lot, they might stay a while. If they find a bunch of muck, they’re out of there; your user’s gone.

First things first… There’s no point in starting your journey until you know where you’re going.

Planning is crucial for most things in life, but especially web development. To avoid unnecessary rewriting and rebuilding of pages, navigation and so forth, start by planning your website on paper.

What’s the objective? Who’s your target audience? What is the outcome that you hope to achieve?

What tone or mood are you going for? How do you want to come off: trendy, businesslike, gentle and warm, techie? Write a list of adjectives that describe your ideal website and then narrow it down to just a few.

What content will you be putting on your site? Content is super important. I’ll be revisiting this in a future post, but for now, think about what pages you’ll need. What are the key pieces of information that you want to convey?

And what about navigation? How will you organize this content? It’s generally best not to take the Yahoo! approach of littering your homepage with links… this will only confuse your user into leaving your page or clicking the first thing they see. Rather, we’re going for simple and intuitive here.

My suggestion: make an outline that shows all of the pages you plan to include in your website. As you do, think about what content will be on them and what the most appropriate page name will be. Once you’ve got your outline, think about which pages are most important. Which pages really need to be in your main navigation? How do you want the user to progress through your pages? Are your groupings logical and obvious, or did you put “Company History” under “Contact Us” because you didn’t know where else to put it?

Draw up your outline, edit it and then draw some more.

As a web architect, I’ve met a lot of people looking for a lot of different types of websites.

You’ve got your small business marketing sites, eCommerce sites, brochure sites, educational and non-profits, individuals posting family photo albums, and so forth. But they all share something in common… people see their first website as a nearly insurmountable feat.

But it really needn’t be. The aim of this section of my blog will be to ease your worries and make things appear more manageable. No no, wizardry is not my forte, rather, I’ll be providing you with tips, ideas and general helpfulness.

If there’s something specific that you’d like me to address, feel free to write me: travis@thewidestweb.info.