1 The Planning Process

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 2 Business Web Site Design Steps in the Planning Process u Software u Purpose u Audience u Organization u Links u Page Length u Graphics u Image Maps u Navigation u Netiquette u Security u Quality

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 3 Business Web Site Design SOFTWARE u Microsoft Word u Adobe Site Mill/ Page Mill u Microsoft Front-page u Netscape Composer u Other HTML editors

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 4 u Providing a Service u Search Engines u Selling a Product or Service u Marketing (hooking the user) u Presenting Information to an Interested Audience u Providing a Collection of Links Business Web Site Design PURPOSES

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 5 Business Web Site Design AUDIENCE u Who will be using your pages? u Customers? u Employees of your company? u People familiar with your subject matter? u People just learning the things you will be discussing?

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 6 Business Web Site Design ORGANIZATION

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 7 Business Web Site Design HyperLINKS u Menu of Web Site Links [ Product Info | Purchasing Info | Cool Links ] u Use Paragraph Form for Links to another Web Site: u Informational Link: This link will take you to the home page of California State University Northridge u Limited Information Link:

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 8 Business Web Site Design PAGE LENGTH u Try to keep your pages to the length of a window. u The user may not realize there is more information below u Displaying large blocks of text. u May be longer than one window u Be sure to use Targets to help the user navigate the page.

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 9 Business Web Site Design GRAPHICS u How many graphics should you include? u The more graphics a page contains the: u slower that page will load. u hard drive space needed will increase significantly! u Use Graphics that are CRITICAL to the information content of your page.

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 10 Business Web Site Design IMAGE MAPS

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 11 Business Web Site Design NAVIGATION u Include a “Menu of Links” (or Navigational Header) for your Web Site u Consider including this Menu at the top and bottom of your pages. u Put a title header on each page. u Keep the color scheme consistent on all of your pages.

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 12 Business Web Site Design NETIQUETTE u Do not insult people. u Be careful of multiple interpretations of your writing!  Do not publish “registered” or “copyrighted” material without the permission of the owner. u Do not publish links to someone else’s pages unless you are sure they want the exposure.

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 13 Business Web Site Design SECURITY u Keep “company proprietary” information secured behind a firewall. u Use a “Secure Feed” when asking for a customer’s Credit Card as a form of payment! u New Software Packages designed specifically for this function.

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 14 Business Web Site Design QUALITY u Test EVERY Link u Keep your Web Site up-to-date u Check your spelling u Write for ALL Internet Browsers u Most third-party software packages will do this for you!

Creating a Business Web Site By Paul Lazarony 15 Business Web Site Design QUALITY continued u Put a link leading to a comment mechanism on every page. u Link to u Make it easy for your audience to give you feedback. u RESPOND to people who do comment on your pages

16 The End