Website Design Notes Workbook / presentation John Wragg Reading Meeting 1 st July 2003

Contents 1. Purpose Purpose 2. Content Content 3. Positioning Positioning 4. Site Structure Site Structure 5. Implementation Implementation 6. Tools and Services Tools and Services

1. Purpose (Why) 1.1 Objectives 1.2 Target Audience 1.3 Most Wanted Response 1.4 Privacy

1.1 Objectives Information only? Why? Outreach? Generate / phone contact? Who handles the enquiries? Encourage visitors to meeting? Show what we are doing? Testimonies? Quaker work? Measurable targets? Part of a co-ordinated plan?

1.1 Objectives (cont) Campaigning? Must be topical Hard work Partnerships? Meeting Support? But not in public?

1.2 Target Audience Public? Enquirers? Attenders? Members? Committee members? Friends from other meetings and abroad? Other?

1.3 Most Wanted Response What action do you want your web site visitors to take? How can you make that clear? How will you get repeat visitors? Visitor registration? Newsletter? Other follow up?

1.4 Privacy Public Good for outreach activities Private Good for: Community building Meeting support Committee support Minutes Calender Archives

2. Content (What?) 2.1 Destination Areas Spirit Quote Testimonies Buildings Lettings Children's activities Meeting times and places Other?

Content (cont) 2.2 About Information Find Us Contact Us (preferably a form) Links Help Frequently Asked Questions

3. Positioning (Where) 3.1 Keywords for Search Engines: Quaker Friends Town Other? 3.2 Domain Name is recommended Not a free ISP's name Other?

4. Site Structure (How) Detailed Content Detailed Content Detailed Content

4. Site Structure (cont) 4.1 Level 1 - Home page The Heading catches your attention Make it the same as the metatag, Both echoing the domain name and target keywords. The sub-heading draws you into: The introductory text, which communicates: The site Purpose The site Contents The objective of the Home Page is to stop visitors moving on immediately.

Home page usability issues Design the home page to make sense for an 800 x 600 display without scrolling Intuitive navigation links then enable you to go deeper into the site for specific content. Multiple menus or routes Keep it fast, with very limited graphics on the home page.

Site Structure (cont) 4.2 Level 2 - Subject Areas Based on destination content areas Expand on the Keywords for each area. 4.3 Level 3 - Detailed Content As appropriate Maximum 3 clicks to access any content.

5. Implementation 5.1 Navigation Horizontal tabs at the top of each page, or vertical table down the left hand side, but probably not both for a relatively simple meeting site. If you must use graphical buttons keep them very simple (small file sizes). Add a plain text [ menu ] [ like ] [ this ] in the footer (which is good for ancient browsers and blind reading software).menulikethis

Implementation (cont) 5.2 Graphical Design Logo (top left hand corner, linked to Home Page) Colours Graphics CSS Style Sheet. 5.3 Usability Guidelines  Jacob Nielson  Bobby Accessibility guidelines

6. Tools and Services Off-line development Internet Service Provider Web hosting Domain name Site Publishing ftp upload Remote test Site update & maintenance

7.0 ISP Requirements 7.1 Commercial Web-hosting service (as opposed to dial up) 7.2 Requirements Good telephone user support No adverts Own proper domain name Forms support (probably via cgi script) Multiple forwarding Linux / Unix rather than NT (recommended) Performance statistics.

Candidate Commercial ISPs Commercial services used by JW Webfusion Greennet Worker co-operative ClaraNet Or Friends