1. Planning a Web Site Identifying the Audience for Your Site

2. Steps to Planning a Website Determine your audience. Determine the Site's purpose. Plan the Structure of the Site. Understand the best tools to serve your site's purpose. Complete a Planning Table

3. User-Centered Design A client hires you and tells you what they want in a website. So, what do you do? Is there anything missing from this scenario?

4. Users! One of the most difficult things about designing websites is getting the client to remember the customer.

5. 3 Design Considerations Organization-centered Technology-centered User-centered

6. Organization-Centered Designed from the company or group point of view Design reflects company’s culture and structure Uses the company’s language Content parallels internal company document

7. Organization-Centered Check out the site below Think about a filing cabinet Organization-centered site often appear to follow that type of system Let’s take what’s in our list of things we should share and slap them on the site http://www.uwm.edu/Library//AGSL/linksA-G.html Ask yourself – would this site work well for the general public?

8. Technology-Centered The website is built around the tools available to the designer. For example, let’s say that I’m a HUGE fan of Adobe Flash – then, every site I design will be a Flash site. Remember…technology for technology’s sake is not the way to design anything! Too much technology could overshadow the message.

9. User-Centered Step 1: Identify the audience Define the visitors to the site What do they need? How do they work? Check out this site: http://www.rpslmc.edu/

10. Demographics Characteristics of your audience are called demographics

11. Demographics Demographics to consider in website design: Age Gender Geographic location Residence (urban, suburban, rural) Income Level Education Level Race/Ethnicity Interest (why the user came to the site) History (path of Web pages the user has visited before)

12. Demographics National Geographic Kids Children between 8-12, looking for information that will support their schoolwork and personal interests. Fidelity Brokerage Adults, living in large, urban areas who have money to invest and are interested in online trading.

13. Define Your Audience Be thinking about your final project – what type of site will you be designing? The following slide has a list of questions you need to keep in mind…ALWAYS!

14. Define Your Audience Questions to ask: Who are they? Why are they at the site? How did they get there? How old are they? What’s the range of their ages? Where do they live? What gender are they? Mostly men? Women? Why? How wealthy are they, compared with the rest of the population? What’s their history of dealing with your organization? What have they done before at your Web site? Are there any common characteristics that stand out?

15. Define Your Audience The answers to these questions are the basis of the audience definition. Use the answers to “draw” a picture of the audience Paint a clear picture for the client – make sure they “see” the audience

16. Define Your Audience Here’s a sample definition – can you identify the demographic info?The audience for the LeftyStuff Web site is potential purchasers of LeftyStuff products who have responded to one of LeftyStuff’s banner ads and are interested in items designed especially for left-handed people. Most are adults, equally divided among men and women, between the ages of 25 and 50, who live in the US or Canada, are sports-minded, and have family incomes greater than $50,000. Most have never visited the site before.

17. Compare and Contrast Look at these these sites: Aultman Hospital - http://www.aultman.com/ Mercy Medical Center - http://www.cantonmercy.com/ Summa Health - http://www.summahealth.com/ Akron General Medical Center - http://www.akrongeneral.org/portal/page?_pageid=153,144849&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

18. Compare and Contrast Based on what you’ve learned, choose two of the sites and assess them based on the content of this presentation. Identify what you think works and what you think doesn’t. Identify the demographics. Why did you choose those audiences?

19. Discussion Forum Go to Week 2, Measures. Post your observations from the previous slide in the discussion forum. Your post must be a minimum of 50 words.