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Features
What features will you need for the site or page? Features
can be anything from graphics to input forms. To use SCGP
as an example, we have input forms, graphics, and generators
to help our fellow webmasters. Since you are reading this,
you will also note that we offer tutorials and articles as
another feature. These are all features, and should somewhat
fall in line with what your competitors are offering. It is
a means to make sure that you are competitive, and give people
a reason to visit you instead of the rest. If you can offer
more than the competitors, then I would advise that you do
it. It will help set you apart, and give a reason for people
to visit you instead of the competition.
Keywords
What are the best keywords? While clicking around on our
site, you will notice that we tend to micromanage where keywords
are concerned. As we write articles, we determine what we
want each article’s keywords to be. Then we write the article
with those keywords in mind. Carrying it one step forward,
we do a search for those keywords, and then make sure to link
the article pages to the high-ranking result pages. We’ll
use our canspam page as an example. At the time this article
was written, our canspam article dominated the top rankings
for searches on canspam, canspam act of 2003, and canspam
tutorial. For each of those search terms, the SCGP domain
ranked either number one, or within the top five.
When we wrote the article, our intention was to provide information
to those wondering what the canspam act was all about. We
wanted to provide the information to marketers so they could
tailor their email campaigns to meet the new law requirements.
So not only did we target marketers, but we also targeted
email marketers too. Since the page indexing, we have had
between 2 and 30 visitors to the main canspam index page every
day. That is just one page, and a highly targeted page at
that. It accomplishes what we intended the page to do. It
draws in visitors, and gives them options to look at other
pages on our domain.
Creating the Wire Frame
The wire frame is nothing more than a sitemap on paper. Start
with a listing of pages for the site, and then add as much
detail to it as you can. List out features for each page,
what you want each page to accomplish, and what role each
page will play in the site design. The more detailed the better.
View the frame through your customer’s eyes, and then through
the visitor’s eyes. Make sure that you can find the information
you want quickly and easily. Does the layout make ordering
easy? Can the visitor make contact with the site owner, or
is the contact information hard to find? Does the framework
include everything that the customer requested? Lastly, view
the page through the designer’s eyes. Is there room for growth?
Will the layout integrate with the shopping cart they want
to use, or will it require redesigning?
The wire frame allows you to view the proposed site while
looking for omissions. It is a tool to help you fill in the
gaps and make sure that all the pertinent information is there.
It will help you with customer flow, and evaluate different
pathways a potential customer might take through the site.
By looking at different ways a customer might navigate through
the site, it will allow you to provide navigation to help
your potential customer get to other areas of your site that
you deem important. It will show you ways you can try to lead
potential customers through your site.
Creating the Storyboard
Create a storyboard for each page. These storyboards will
contain no graphics, just text. Use the text to define all
of the content, features, and functions of the corresponding
site pages. Write the content for the page, and insert the
client copy. From that you will generate the page content
for highly targeted search engine optimized pages. The storyboard
will also help you to see relationships between pages, and
allow you to re-work pages where the relationship is wrong.
Continue going through the above steps to this point until
you have a working site concept. Once you and your potential
customer agree to the concept, it is then time to start developing
the prototype.
Back
to Table of Contents
Building
The Prototype (Article Continues)
About the Author
James R. Sanders is the owner of Sanders
Consultation Group Plus. He has been a webmaster and website
designer since 1997. He has also been involved in self employment
ventures since 1992. He is presently a contributing author
of NewbieHangout,
and has been published through WebProNews
and 4Rankings.com.
His writing is targeted to webmasters, would be webmasters,
website designers, would be website designers, self employed,
or those researching information looking for solutions to
questions associated with design, business operations, and
promotion today. His goal is to provide practical information
based upon his years of experience to help webmasters, website
designers, and self employed people achieve their goals in
today's competitive global market. You can subscribe to his
free newsletters at SCGP
- Newsletter.
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