A non-profit website doctor helps a patient through the gestation period of a website design project. Presented at the NetSquared DC meeting on October 16, 2012.

1. What to Expect When
You’re Expecting A
New Website Design
NetSquared DC Meetup
October 16, 2012
Ryan W. Ozimek - cozimek@picnet.net
@cozimek

2. The doctor is in...at PICnet
@cozimek

3. The doctor is in?
@cozimek

4. The Dr. Dre is in?
@cozimek

5. The doctor’s surgical crew
@cozimek

6. The story...stat!
• @DrOz Ryan Ozimek
• A website doctor diagnose the gestation
period of one penguin's organization's
website, one tweet at a time
@cozimek

7. The patient
• @Someorg Someorg.org
• We're a small D.C. non-profit in need of a new website as well
as a staff person to manage that website
• @Somephil Phil Penn Gwynn
• Promoted from Intern @Someorg.org to Webmaster today
when org learned that I am only one with Facebook account,
assuming that makes me most technically savvy
• @Somephil Phil Penn Gwynn
• In charge of new web project. Blimy! Where to start?!?
@cozimek

8. Website gestation
• Internal Planning
• Discovery
• Design
• Development
• Content Population
• Quality Assurance
• Launch
@cozimek

9. Prognosis: Design
@cozimek

10. Prognosis: Design
• Draft design mockups
@cozimek

11. Prognosis: Design
• Draft design mockups
• Revise mockups, based on feedback
@cozimek

12. Prognosis: Design
• Draft design mockups
• Revise mockups, based on feedback
• Finalize design mockups
@cozimek

13. The Story: Design
• @SciRulz Bunson Honeydew, Marketing
Director
• @SomePhil I don’t care how hard it will be to
update. We need to have GREAT design that’s
really eye catching with a lot of images and
catchy stuff unique to each page. We can hire
someone with advanced HTML experience to
update later on, if we need to. We can’t let
that hold back a great design!
@cozimek

14. The Diagnosis: Design
• @DrOz Ryan Ozimek
• Discuss balance of design complexity vs. ease
of updating with your developer
• Plan for the staff you have, not for the staff you
might get
@cozimek

15. The Story: Design
• @Foo-Foo Ms. Piggy, Executive Director
• @SomePhil I want the Apple.com site design!
It's great!
@cozimek

16. The Diagnosis: Design
• @DrOz Ryan Ozimek
• Aim for a design that supports your
organization’s mission and content
@cozimek

17. The Story: Design
• @NotEasyGreen Kermit the Frog, Board
President
• @SomePhil We’re not happy with the design.
Can the designer make it more beautiful? It
should be more outside of the box, too.
@cozimek

18. The Diagnosis: Design
• @DrOz Ryan Ozimek
• Be as specific as you can when giving feedback
to your development firm
@cozimek

19. The Story: Design
• @SciRulz Bunson Honeydew, Marketing
Director
• @SomePhil We’re doing a complete
rebranding effort with a communications firm
that is providing pro bono work. That won’t
affect the website redesign process, right?
@cozimek

20. The Diagnosis: Design
• @DrOz Ryan Ozimek
• Be aware of the larger organizational context
and communicate that to your firm, as
appropriate
@cozimek

21. Prognosis: Development
@cozimek

22. Prognosis: Development
• Create development site
@cozimek

23. Prognosis: Development
• Create development site
• Build site structure, as per approved site map
and wireframe
@cozimek

24. Prognosis: Development
• Create development site
• Build site structure, as per approved site map
and wireframe
• Develop template for site based on finalized
design mockup
@cozimek

25. Prognosis: Development
• Create development site
• Build site structure, as per approved site map
and wireframe
• Develop template for site based on finalized
design mockup
• Content creation, gathering and editing
@cozimek

26. Prognosis: Development
• Create development site
• Build site structure, as per approved site map
and wireframe
• Develop template for site based on finalized
design mockup
• Content creation, gathering and editing
• Search engine optimization
@cozimek

27. The Story: Development
• @WakaWaka Fozzie Bear, Project Manager
• @SomePhil Great news! We’ve finished the
design mockups based and gone ahead and
templated the site. I know this will be the first
time you’ve seen any of the design work but it
should be exactly what you wanted. We’ll be
ready to launch soon!
@cozimek

28. The Diagnosis: Development
• @DrOz Ryan Ozimek
• Clarify the review and sign off process for the
phases of the project with your firm
@cozimek

29. The Story: Development
• @Foo-Foo Ms. Piggy, Executive Director
• @SomePhil I just saw the site design for the
first time. This is all wrong! This will not work!
It MUST be redone.
@cozimek

30. The Diagnosis: Development
• @DrOz Ryan Ozimek
• Get organizational buy in and involvement
from key stakeholders and decision makers for
major decision points
@cozimek

31. The Story: Development
• @NotEasyGreen Kermit the Frog, Board
President
• @SomePhil Hey, we need a searchable map of
all of the meal service locations in the
Washington D.C. area - and an integrated
shopping cart. A friend’s organization has a site
with those things and they said they were
easy. Let’s add that! But we need to keep the
same launch date!
@cozimek

32. The Diagnosis: Development
• @DrOz Ryan Ozimek
• More functionality means more time and more
money
• Phased projects can be successful projects
@cozimek

33. The Story: 4 months later...
• @BeatDrum Animal, Marketing Manager
• @SomePhil Thanks for warm welcome to the
new job! It looks like our website could use
some updating. I’ve got some great ideas for
that. I think we need a complete overhaul. Let's
talk!
@cozimek

34. The Diagnosis: 4 months later...
• @DrOz Ryan Ozimek
• Choose a firm that will be around in the long
run and who can help your website grow with
the changing needs of your organization
@cozimek

35. It’s delivery time!
The End?
@cozimek