GETTING STARTED> Purpose : Audience : Content : Image : Planning

Image

What sort of image do you want to put across?

A website is the public face of your organisation. If you want to, you can create a much larger profile on the web than you have in real life. I'm not suggesting for a minute that you make a generic corporate-look site for your small local club - of course there's appeal in keeping it fairly casual-looking, if that suits your organisation. But whatever you go for, make sure it's deliberate.

The real question is how do you want readers to see you? If you're trying to appear professional, maybe you should avoid having gimmicky animated gifs, scrolling text, fancy cursors and the like. If your site looks like a mid-90's homepage, people may be a bit put off.

Write down characteristics you'd like your site to have. Casual, corporate, or somewhere in between? As I've mentioned before, researching other sites in your Industry is the best way to start. When I'm building a site professionally, the first thing I do is provide the business with at least ten links to the best sites in their field. I also get them to look at the sites of their main "real world" local competitors - often this includes some really horrid sites that give lessons on what to avoid.

I use a wide variety of "looks" for my sites, depending on the purpose of the site, the intended audience and the content. With this site I'm aiming for a clean, simple look, but with a bit of character. I've gone for an slightly oriental theme to give it a bit of personality without affecting ease of reading and printability. I've used graphics and fonts to create an integrated overall visual theme.

Consistency within a site shows good planning. Sites that look like they've been added on here, there and everywhere by different people aren't going to instil much confidence in an audience. Your site will change and evolve over time, which is as it should be - but always take care to keep your eye on the "big picture".