[thelist] building websites, instructions on

[Liam Delahunty]

<Chris W. Parker quote>
i sit down with the client and my teammates and we ask some general/specific
questions about their goals and interests and what they might like it to
look like, etc. and it's almost always an ad-hoc process.
...
i'm curious as to how others go about streamlining (meant, wasting as little
time as possible with throwing out old ideas for new/better ones) the
process and if there are books/classes/online tutorials that lay out
a solid foundation for planning and building websites.
</end>

The questions I make sure to ask are:

1. Is this sites main focus:
(Please tick one)
a. to make money,
b. a brochure,
c. a community,
d. an application

2. Is the budget
(Please tick one)
a. < 500
b. < 1,000
c. < 2,500
d. < 10,000
e. > 10,000
f. you have no idea

3. The web site will be considered successful if
(please rate 1 - 10, ten is most important)
a. it earns more than it cost
b. it generates online press
c. it generates offline press
d. it has X users within Y months
e. it has X MB of data within Y months

4. Maintenance / Content
(Please tick all that apply)
a. programmer/designer will maintain
b. maintained in house with HTML
c. maintained in house with CMS
d. No maintenance required.

5. The most important aspect of the web site design is
(please rate 1 - 10, ten is most important; each rating must be unique)
a. Accessibility
b. Usability
c. Functionality
d. Aesthetics
e. Technology
f. Security
g. Cutting edge / experimental
h. Simplicity

6. List web sites you have visited which are broadly similar in design to
what you want

7. List web sites you have visited which are broadly similar in
aim/functionality to what you want

8. List some non web design resources.
E.g. select one from the following selections:
	Q/Elle Decoration/Vogue /Wired,
	Daily Mirror/Guardian/The Times.
	BBC 1/ BBC 2/ ITV/ C4/ Five

9. List your most commonly visited web sites.

This serves a number of purposes. Firstly it gets the clients to really
think about what they need, often it's just "oh, a web site", and they
haven't really got a clue as to what they want. Or, they want _everything_,
an active group, a forum, other applications like auctions, a shop, and all
for a song. At least this way they can have expectations, and rate what is
important to them.

Lastly, if you have one major process then you can more easily compare
clients and sites to one another.

<tip subject="Clients" author="Liam Delahunty">
Test the client. Literally, give them quizzes asking them what they want and
to rate stuff/especially other web sites. In the long term they'll love you
for it and you'll understand a great deal more about what they mean in their
documentation.
</tip>


Kind regards,
Liam

:: http://www.corx.co.uk :: Corx Boy/Corx Girl Sets now in !!