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Prepare to Plan to Prepare for a Development Plan

Nobody ever wants to plan anymore. People don't have the time. They just want to get going. It's like that scene in Spaceballs where Dark Helmet says to Colonel Sandurz, "What are you preparing? You're always preparing. Just go!" Then he gets dumped into his seat. Good news, though: There's coffee!

I'll admit, planning isn't the most glamorous thing to do, but I really enjoy parts of the process, like organizing content and especially coming up with a design template for the entire site. The more you can determine upfront, the easier the actual site construction will be. Most people are really eager to start building pages right away and don't bother with any planning at all. Trust me, this results in a lot of extra time spent reworking pages, changing navigation structure, and so on. But before we get into the nitty, let's cover a most important subject...coffee!

This chapter is more theory based, so we won't be using Dreamweaver much. You may want to save this chapter for the bus ride to work, your next court hearing, or any other time you're away from your computer.

Noteworthy

Cut down the time it takes to develop a site by planning as much as possible up front. Get away from the computer and use two of humankind's most greatest inventions: a piece of paper and a pencil.

First Thing's First: Coffee!

How can anything be planned without everyone's favorite drink? Sure, some medical experts say coffee could be a health hazard, but they've obviously never built a web site before! So what if coffee's been linked to anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophreniadoesn't that describe every designer you've ever met? So get yourself buzzed with this tasty treat: Irish coffee!

What You'll Need

One Irish coffee glass or a 5 or 6 fl. oz. glass

One long shot of good espresso (some people use black coffeego big or go home)

Two fingers of decent Irish whiskey (check your boot flask)

Two tablespoons of brown sugar

Fresh heavy cream with a dollop of white sugar, beaten until it's the thickness of custardbut don't whip it to fluffiness (store-bought will do in a pinch)

What You Do

Warm the glass by pouring in warm water. Once the glass is warm, remove the water and insert a spoon.

Pour the brown sugar and Irish whiskey into the glass at once. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Flame the whiskey for just a second or two with a match (get Mom or Dad to help). Experts say this adds a je ne sais quoi and brings the whiskey and caffeine into balance.

Pour in the espresso. Your glass should be three-fourths full at this point.

Add the cream overtop by carefully pouring it down the back of the spoon resting inside the glass. Enjoy.

There's a whole lot more brewing at [coffeefaq.com].

If you drink more than eight cups of coffee a day, your head could explode.

What Do You Want to Say and Who Do You Want to Say It To?

There's a cold, hard fact in marketing, and I think it applies here. It may come as a surprise, but here it is (brace for impact): Not everyone wants what you have to give. It's true. When asked who would buy their product, many inexperienced entrepreneurs immediately say "Everyone! Everyone will want my widget!" That's why we see shotgun marketing like spam, mass flyer distribution, and telephone blitzes. The truth is, there's a very specific group of people who will want an entrepreneur's widget, and the same goes for your web site. Not everyone is as exited as you are about guinea pig migration patterns, conspiracy theories behind your neighbor's vegetable garden, or the Travel Buddy comb/toothbrush/nasal trimmer toolkit.

If you can define who your site is for, you can focus your site's design on that.

If you can find out who your niche audience is, you'll build a much better site. So ask yourself: Who specifically am I trying to reach, and what am I trying to say? Once you know that, then you can begin to tailor site content, navigation, and functionality to what your audience wants, not what you want. Would the Granny's Club of St. John's Anglican Church appreciate thundering death metal intro music? Well maybe. You know those wacky granny clubs... But seriously, design it for them. The idea is that if you can define who your site is for, you can focus your site's design around that.

It's slanted toward do-gooder sites, but hey, it's free and full of good stuff for sites of any kind. It's all yours at [championsofphilanthropy.com/downloads/Nonprofit-Websites(revised).pdf].

Get the GlueWe've Gotta Build a Navigation Model

Web Page Types" later in this chapter.

Consider which nav model best for your siteor consider using several.

Keep 'er Straight with the Linear Approach

Before the web was born, our media was linear. A book has a page-by-page sequential order. A movie has a definite beginning and a definite end. But when the web came along, suddenly information could be conveyed in whatever order the visitor wanted. However, many sites still want to control the sequence of content, maybe for an online tutorial or a slideshow. These examples require a specific, orderly web page sequence that doesn't provide a way for the visitor to jump to different topics or locations.

The linear nav model.

Long Live the Queen: The Hierarchical Model

Also called a tree structure, the hierarchical model the most popular navigation model online. With this structure, a site would begin with an opening page that provides several choices that link to main category pages, called landmark pages. Landmark pages provide links to more specific subsections. From this point, the site might branch into more subpages, getting more and more specific as the structure continues.

The hierarchical nav system.

Burning Rubber with Spokes and Hubs

In a spoke-and-hub structure, the home page is at the center, with spokes linking to the different categories of the site. From these categories, the site might be organized into deeper structures, depending on the organization and content.

Spoke-and-hub navigation.

Get Your Fill with the Full-Web Design

The full-web or full-mesh style uses virtually no structure at all, with each page linking to every other page. This is great in that it allows visitors to explore the site in any way that they want, but navigation can get complex and frustrating.

Public sites are available to anyone online; intranet sites are used within an organization; extranet sites are available online, but users must have access privileges.

The full-web model.

Sorting Out the Types of Sites

There are all kinds of web sites, large and small, online. Here, we'll take a look at the major types and the audiences they target. These site types are certainly generalized, and there are countless sites that fall into more than one category, or none at all. In addition, sites can be grouped into three categories according to who can access them: public sites, intranet sites, and extranet sites.

Public sites are the most common. They're available on, and useable by, anyone on the Internet. There are no restrictions as to who can access a public site. Intranet sites are sites used within a company or organization to provide internal information to employees. Extranet sites are accessible on the public Internet, but users must have access privileges, usually a username and password are needed to log in.

The site types that follow typically fall into the public site classification, but theoretically they can occur in all three.

Cashing in on Commercial Sites

A commercial site is one whose primary purpose is to generate profits by providing goods and services to a body of customers. Some companies build commercial sites to support their "bricks and mortar" locations, while other companies are based entirely online, with no physical store that a customer could visit. Good commercial sites provide multiple ways to browse, search, and shop their catalog of goods. Consider, for example, the king of them all: Amazon.com.

Get Informed with Information-Based Sites

If a site's main purpose is to inform and educate, then it's considered an information-based, or content-based, site. Such sites include government service sites, the sites of nonprofit organizations, travel information sites, and news sites. A small site for your church would count, but so would a massive news site. An interesting thing about news sites is that they all have a similar look and feel in their design and navigation. Compare [cnn.com] with cbc.ca.

TV'S DeadEntertainment Site Takeover

Many everyday people have made names for themselves by creating sites that simply entertain the rest of us. An entertainment site might be the site of a funny online comic, a sports analysis site, or even a site where you can watch web-based movies. There are lots of them out therebut check out [www.storewars.org], a site that delivers a great message in a very funny and entertaining way.

Find Your Way with Navigational Sites

Search engines, community portals, and online directories are considered navigational sites, because they help people find their way around. Unless you know the exact site you want to visit, a navigational site will be your starting point. Many nav sites are now offering additional services to gain surfer loyalty. For instance, [Google.com] now offers e-mail, catalog searching, maps, and a zillion other very useful services.

Bust a gut and learn something too at [storewars.org].

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Join the ClubCommunity Sites

Community sites provide a centralized place for people with similar interests to meet and interact, usually in online forums. Here, they can discuss current events, ask and answer questions, and share information. Whatever your niche or unique interests may be, there's a group out there sharing ideas about it. If you're a Lego nut (or if you'd just like a good example of a community web site), click on [brickfilms.com], an online community of Lego movie makers.

Expressive Artistic Sites

Artistic sites may provide content and information, but often these sites are a work of artistic expression themselves. Many artistic sites are simply a place for someone to express his or her opinion, feelings, or interests, with no economic considerations. My own site, [geoffblake.com], is entirely artisticjust a fun place to express myself creatively.

The home page of yours truly. [Geoffblake.com] is an example of an artistic site.

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Personal Sites (Getting to Know You...)

Sometimes called a person's home page, personal sites are often a forum for personal expression. Often, they're used to share photos, stories, and recent events with friends and family members. Others use their sites to test and experiment as they lear98 and web design. My friend Jason Allin has a great personal home page that he uses to keep others up-to-date on what's new with his acting endeavors. Say hi at [jasonallin.com].

Noteworthy

Consider registering your own name as a URL, making it easy for friends, family, and clients to find you online. Once you register your URL, it's yours for life, as long as you keep renewing it.