Steps to building a website
Why do you need a website?
Do you actually need a website? Or are you just building one for the sake of it?
Firstly you should think about what you want to get out of the website at the end, and if you decide that the website is worth building then continue.
User outcomes from my website
What is the goal for users on my website?
We want to make it as quick and easy to get the user to complete the goal on the website, whether is signing up for a newletter, or buying a product - the user always needs a clear and easy way to complete their goal.
Here you will also need to take into consideration the navigation of the website, make sure it all makes sense and that pages are found under the correct navigation links.
Website design
How do you want the website to look?
Do you already have any website style guides to go by?
Think about your target audience - age, message we want the website to give, male or female, marital status, there's so much you could take into account here - but at the same time you may be building the website for a wide range of users.
By the design stage of a website you should probably already have a logo (if you don't then you should be thinking about this), try and match the colour schemes and the feel that the logo may portray.
Website images
We've heard it a million times before - "A picture paints a thousand words" - but it's true, you need to think very carefully about the images that you use and make sure that they're giving your users the correct impression of your company.
Website functionality
You need to think about the functionality that you want your website to have.
The website functionality should also be thought about at the design stage to make sure that your website page layout has room to fit in any functionality that you may want the website to have.
THink about whether you want your website to be content managed using a CMS, or whether it's going to be a static website that isn't updated often.
Do you want your website to have it's own blog, news area, articles, contact forms, picture galleries, online shop, downloads area, events, use of Google Maps, or any other functionality you can think of.
Website accessibility
Throughout the complete process of designing the website and deciding on your website's functionality you want to take your website's accessibility into account.
Will people with screen readers still be able to use your website?
Will people be able to view your website on a mobile phone?
Will visually impaired users be able to use your website?
So here you need to note not to use a font size that's too small, don't use bad colour scheme (e.g. pink text on a red background), give all your website images alt text to allow those with images switched off to still know what the images should be.
Summary
There's a lot of information to consider.
The design and functionality and accessibility stages all overlap in places.
To make life easier many folk hand the project to a professional website design and development company like Apex Business Support, when you do this we will do all the hard work for you!
Take a look at some recent website design work.
What about getting my website found by my customers?
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