Beginner's Guide

•
What is the goal of the organization? (Examples: end world hunger, make money by selling knitting
products, provide updates about my latest activities)
•
When was the organization founded and who does the organization serve?
•
Why does the organization need a website? Does a website already exist, or is this a new site?
•
If a site already exists, what is worth keeping in the old site? What would you add to the content of
the old site? Is the site's message still on target, or has the organization changed since the last site
design?
•
Who will be maintaining the website? (Examples: IT staff, in-house webmaster, the secretary in
addition to other duties, or the organization sends its updates to you to complete)
You will likely want to ask many additional questions to these above to fully understand your client
and the answers to the following three key questions:
•
What are the goals of this organization?
•
What are the goals of the website, and how does it support the goals of the organization?
•
What do the site visitors want from the website, and how does that fit with the goals of the website
and the organization?
Out of this discussion, you should identify some extension types you'll need to include on your site
(for example: a calendar with an "upcoming events" module; a blog with comments and tagging; a
shopping cart that interfaces with PayPal).
You should also develop a site map for your website. This is a detailed description of all pages on
your site and how they link together. The term site map also refers to a page on your site containing links
to every page on the site. The first site map you create is spelling out all of the pages and navigation
structure on a piece of paper, and the second site map can be generated by an extension like XMap.
For more information on website planning, I recommend the following resources:
•
The Elements of User Experience
92
, by Jesse James Garrett
•
"Website Strategy and Planning"
93
, lynda.com video training, by Jen Kramer
NEXT, CONSIDER THE TECHNOLOGY
If you are reading this book, and particularly a chapter called "A Joomla 2.5 Website from Scratch",
I assume you have chosen Joomla for building this website.
Joomla! 2.5 - Beginner’s Guide
Monday, 30 January 2012! Page 235
92
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321683684/
93
http://www.lynda.com/Interactive-Design-tutorials/websitestrategyandplanning/53259-2.html