Making a start

The first part of the redesign series.

So now, a site must be designed, and work has to be done. But what will this work be? How do we decide how we are going to accomplish our goals?

The very first task is to decide what these goals are. This may seem obvious, but it's not as obvious as you may first think.

Getting site goals from a client

Often, a client will state their goals for a site, and it will read like a list of features. A client may say something along the lines of “Well obviously we need a home page, a product catalogue, and a contact page”. They may very well need all of these, but you should dig deeper than this. Be sure to ask them why they think they need these features.

If they've put any thought into it, they should be able to give you their reasons. If not, they've probably just assumed it needs to be there. Such assumptions are dangerous. You don't want to be locked into providing a feature on the site that you know shouldn't be there.

Let's take a look at the example of the product catalogue. Ask them if they plan on selling their products over the web. If they say yes, make it clear to them that the product catalogue will only be the public face of this; there is a lot more to an online store than what a customer sees.

If not, then what are the consequences? Can you imagine Amazon without the buy button? Depending on the products your client sells, a full product catalogue could do little more than annoy their customers.

If they are not going to sell their products over the web, why do they want a catalogue? If they want to use their website to increase their sales, there are better ways to do this.

In neither case is their actual goal to simply have a product catalogue. The client sees the product catalogue as a means to achieve their true goals. Discovering and clarifying these goals is one of the most important parts of making a website.

This site

You may be wondering why I'm mentioning this, as I'm designing my own site. But my client is myself, and in many ways I am the worst client possible. I may assume I need a certain feature on site, and push it through without making certain that it is necessary. It's easy to make such assumptions when working on personal projects.

O, and I'm paying myself terribly.

Why, for example, do I need a blog on my site? The answer is that I don't, unless it helps achieve a goal that I have set.

The goal of the new site is, first and foremost, to earn me more money. Goals like this need to be clarified. How do I intend to achieve this?

One of the things I'm working on is a product that will be very useful to a lot of web designers. To help me sell this product, I want to attract web designers to my site. A good way of attracting web designers is to become a solid resource to them. One way of doing this is by writing content that is of interest to designers, such as a running case study of a redesign.

I also offer web design and development services myself. I want people to hire me, so I must display my competence.

The goals of the new site

The site goals are:

• Help me make more money.
• Increase the number of visitors to my site from the target audience.
• Display competence in my abilities, so that I am more likely to be hired.
• Provide information about my product(s), in manner that raises interest and drives clients to contact me.
• Encourage potential clients into a one-to-one conversation with me as soon as possible.

Remember this: design is, at its most basic, problem solving. By setting clear goals, you can understand the problem well enough to solve it.