Back to: home > articles index > starting a web design project

The What, Where and Why of the World Wide Web

If you're going to build a site, do it right

The return for companies having a presence on the World Wide Web may or may not be realized immediately. Yet the future potential is enormous...in commerce, increased customer contact, enhanced customers' perceptions of your company and its services, and the resulting competitive advantage. But establishing a Web site without a clear purpose is tantamount to failure, because the rules governing an electronic medium for delivering value to your audience -- maintaining their interest and inspiring return visits -- are more demanding than any other delivery channel.

Unlike a personal encounter, where you have the advantage of gauging a customer's reactions or probing for more information, "visits" on the Web are usually anonymous. If a visitor is frustrated by a site's poor organization, lack of valuable information, or complex (read: slow) graphics, then they will simply exit the site and you will never know why. Worse yet, they may leave with a poor first impression of your company and not return for a second visit.

Clarity and simplicity are the keys
To design any Web site, several important questions need to be addressed: What do you want to accomplish by being on the Internet? Are you there to sell products and services? Do you want to market your capabilities through awareness building? Do you want to become a resource for education and information? And who is the site for...current customers or potential customers? What are the demographics of your target audience?

Content
Once these questions are clearly answered, then the site's content can be more easily determined:

• What information are you offering that customers will perceive as valuable?
• How are you encouraging people to visit again and again?

Navigation
Once these questions are clearly answered, then the site's navigation can be more easily determined:

• Is it clear to viewers where they need to go to find what they are looking for?
• Is there so much information or so many avenues to take that they could just as easily get lost in the site as find the desired information?

Branding
Branding a Web site is no different than branding a printed piece of communication. It should be instantly recognizable as belonging to the organization that produced it, in look, style and tone. And it should be clearly, undeniably, and powerfully branded.

Lastly, a Web site offers you an opportunity to reinforce desired imagery or, if needed, affect a transformation in your customers' perceptions of you. This is particularly important for companies whose business requires the perception by customers that you are always current, always on top of things, and in touch with much-valued information that will help customers make decisions.

With information that is prioritized and then organized for maximum ease, efficiency and effectiveness, your company's Web site can become an important extension in a line of strategically planned and cohesively designed communications materials.