Web Development Sydney
The Five P's of Effective Web Development:
" Designing a website begins with an idea. For most of us, our first forays into web development were, well... amateurish. Excited with our new found knowledge about HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or perhaps even just the ability to use a WYSIWYG editor, we tended to throw everything we knew onto a page that became a mishmash of glaring and often distracting images, sounds and words.
Given that, I thought I would offer some guiding principals that helped us to develop more effective sites. Please feel free to add, subract, edit or comment on these ideas. Mostof us with experience already know these things, but they might be of help to those that are "New to Web Development"
The Five P's of Effective Web Development
A successful and satisfying web development project needs to be based on sound planning. It is not uncommon to have great ideas about a project on the grand scale, while forgetting the detail necessary for success. The following helps us to clarify the steps needed to bring the idea to fruition.
The Purpose
The Internet is a communication medium. Successful sites begin with this understanding.
There are three forms of communication that a website can facilitate:
1. Communication to the visitors
2. Communication with the visitors
3. Communication between the visitors
It is important to define at the outset the primary form of communication the site is meant to fulfill.
The average "Brochure Site" communicates to the visitor. it presents information in a passive way. These types of sites serve a definite purpose, especially with the rise of "Local Search". It is not uncommon these days for folks to go the their browser for information before they go to their phone book.
Interactive sites attempt to communicate with visitors. This often means that the visitor will "ask" for information which the site then provides. Think of realty sites on which a person asks for properties meeting certain critera, search engines, reservation and ticket sites, etc. On all of these there is some level of interaction between the visitor and the site.
With the rise of community sites (myspace is one example) we see how the Internet can serve to faciliate communication between people. Forums, such as WebmasterWorld fall in this category, although the genre has developed far beyond a simple forum these days.
The form of communciation that a site offers will determine much about its underlying design. We have found it is helpful to design a site's purpose in terms of a clear understanding of its primary mode of communication.
The People
Communication takes place between people, and not just any group of people. Begin a web project with a target audience in mind. The selected audience will effect every stage of the design process. A site aimed at children will have very different content, copy, graphics and layout than one designed for goat farmers.
Questions to answer about the target group might include:
1. Location - Will visitors comfrom a local area or from around the world?
2. Age
3. Education
4. Technological Sophistication
5. Income
6. Ethnic, cultural or religious background
7. Connection - Don't expect rural US users to wait as their dial up connection chokes on a large Flash based site
8. etc.
The requirements of a local restaurant wanting to create a brochure site listing menu items and upcoming entertainment will be very different from those of a professional organization wanting a site to enhance member communications. A dating site for seniors will be strikingly different from an educational site for pre-schoolers. And, a site selling fine art to an Inernational clientele will have different needs than a local farm selling fresh produce.
The Personality
The Internet is about communication, and communication takes place between people. To be effective it can be neither bland or impersonal.
Every webdesigner should read the Cluetrain Manifesto. Among other things, its authors state:
"A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter and getting smarter faster than most companies."
A website relfects a personality. If you are like me, you have a distaste for the emergence of things like automized self checkout in stores like Walmart. We like to interact with real people. How does this look on the web? A site should reflect the personality of its owner(s)
Even successful Interent behemoths such as Google have discovered the importance of personality on the Internet. Those that watch Google closely are aware of the special logos that the company displays from time to time. These logos are far more than a humurous affectation used by a large corporation. They reflect in a subtle, visceral way the playfulness and human side of what could easily be a faceless monolith on the web.
Desing a site around a theme that reflects the values of personality of the owner(s). It can be difficult to identify this theme, but in our experience, once it is identified the development of the project flows more smoothly, and the end result hangs together as a more coherent whole.
The Presentation
This is where most of us begin a site in our early stages of learning design.
We make this mistake because we forget that form follows function.
The presentation includes graphic elements, site architecture, content style and more. The presentation elements of a website bring all of the different aspects together into a functional whole that will work for the visitor and the owner. Grounded in the purpose of the site, it reflects the personality of the owner while serving the needs of the visitor.
An effective website is Zen like. It is simple, yet deep. It facilitates the interactions necessary to attain its purpose. It is rich in its essence while maintaining balance in its goals. It does not over reach itself with meaningless gewgaws, nor does it fall short of expressing its essence.
An effective site communicates with transparency, drawing the visitor in, maintaining their interest, and moving them towards its inevitable purpose.
Too often this is lost to the bias of the designer. Those that excel at graphic design tend to develop sites with visual elements that take center stage. Those whose strengths lie in programming develop sites that have pure code and are standards compliant but might be sterile and lifeless. Those that write well might have pages and pages of well written copy that is ineffective when presented in the medium of the Internet.
If we know the purpose, audience and personality of the site, the presentation elements are much easier to develop ... "
Source: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum48/2728.htm
" Designing a website begins with an idea. For most of us, our first forays into web development were, well... amateurish. Excited with our new found knowledge about HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or perhaps even just the ability to use a WYSIWYG editor, we tended to throw everything we knew onto a page that became a mishmash of glaring and often distracting images, sounds and words.
Given that, I thought I would offer some guiding principals that helped us to develop more effective sites. Please feel free to add, subract, edit or comment on these ideas. Mostof us with experience already know these things, but they might be of help to those that are "New to Web Development"
The Five P's of Effective Web Development
A successful and satisfying web development project needs to be based on sound planning. It is not uncommon to have great ideas about a project on the grand scale, while forgetting the detail necessary for success. The following helps us to clarify the steps needed to bring the idea to fruition.
The Purpose
The Internet is a communication medium. Successful sites begin with this understanding.
There are three forms of communication that a website can facilitate:
1. Communication to the visitors
2. Communication with the visitors
3. Communication between the visitors
It is important to define at the outset the primary form of communication the site is meant to fulfill.
The average "Brochure Site" communicates to the visitor. it presents information in a passive way. These types of sites serve a definite purpose, especially with the rise of "Local Search". It is not uncommon these days for folks to go the their browser for information before they go to their phone book.
Interactive sites attempt to communicate with visitors. This often means that the visitor will "ask" for information which the site then provides. Think of realty sites on which a person asks for properties meeting certain critera, search engines, reservation and ticket sites, etc. On all of these there is some level of interaction between the visitor and the site.
With the rise of community sites (myspace is one example) we see how the Internet can serve to faciliate communication between people. Forums, such as WebmasterWorld fall in this category, although the genre has developed far beyond a simple forum these days.
The form of communciation that a site offers will determine much about its underlying design. We have found it is helpful to design a site's purpose in terms of a clear understanding of its primary mode of communication.
The People
Communication takes place between people, and not just any group of people. Begin a web project with a target audience in mind. The selected audience will effect every stage of the design process. A site aimed at children will have very different content, copy, graphics and layout than one designed for goat farmers.
Questions to answer about the target group might include:
1. Location - Will visitors comfrom a local area or from around the world?
2. Age
3. Education
4. Technological Sophistication
5. Income
6. Ethnic, cultural or religious background
7. Connection - Don't expect rural US users to wait as their dial up connection chokes on a large Flash based site
8. etc.
The requirements of a local restaurant wanting to create a brochure site listing menu items and upcoming entertainment will be very different from those of a professional organization wanting a site to enhance member communications. A dating site for seniors will be strikingly different from an educational site for pre-schoolers. And, a site selling fine art to an Inernational clientele will have different needs than a local farm selling fresh produce.
The Personality
The Internet is about communication, and communication takes place between people. To be effective it can be neither bland or impersonal.
Every webdesigner should read the Cluetrain Manifesto. Among other things, its authors state:
"A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter and getting smarter faster than most companies."
A website relfects a personality. If you are like me, you have a distaste for the emergence of things like automized self checkout in stores like Walmart. We like to interact with real people. How does this look on the web? A site should reflect the personality of its owner(s)
Even successful Interent behemoths such as Google have discovered the importance of personality on the Internet. Those that watch Google closely are aware of the special logos that the company displays from time to time. These logos are far more than a humurous affectation used by a large corporation. They reflect in a subtle, visceral way the playfulness and human side of what could easily be a faceless monolith on the web.
Desing a site around a theme that reflects the values of personality of the owner(s). It can be difficult to identify this theme, but in our experience, once it is identified the development of the project flows more smoothly, and the end result hangs together as a more coherent whole.
The Presentation
This is where most of us begin a site in our early stages of learning design.
We make this mistake because we forget that form follows function.
The presentation includes graphic elements, site architecture, content style and more. The presentation elements of a website bring all of the different aspects together into a functional whole that will work for the visitor and the owner. Grounded in the purpose of the site, it reflects the personality of the owner while serving the needs of the visitor.
An effective website is Zen like. It is simple, yet deep. It facilitates the interactions necessary to attain its purpose. It is rich in its essence while maintaining balance in its goals. It does not over reach itself with meaningless gewgaws, nor does it fall short of expressing its essence.
An effective site communicates with transparency, drawing the visitor in, maintaining their interest, and moving them towards its inevitable purpose.
Too often this is lost to the bias of the designer. Those that excel at graphic design tend to develop sites with visual elements that take center stage. Those whose strengths lie in programming develop sites that have pure code and are standards compliant but might be sterile and lifeless. Those that write well might have pages and pages of well written copy that is ineffective when presented in the medium of the Internet.
If we know the purpose, audience and personality of the site, the presentation elements are much easier to develop ... "
Source: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum48/2728.htm
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