Website Design
Simply Effective!

Website Design Points

There is a fair bit of information you should consider before you design your website.

Some of these points are;

Before you race out and build a website or get your website built, you should consider the 6 points above. This may seem a bit silly if you have not made a website before but it will save you hundreds of hours of wasted time and frustration. The dollar value that equates to will vary from person to person, yet this simple process will benefit anyone wishing to build or design their own website! Consider this as laying a solid foundation from which to build from.

Ok lets look at each of these points that need to be considered before we build our website

What do you want your website to look like

This may seem a strange point to place at the top of our list, yet it is a very important point. Not all website programs are created equal, there we go, the cat is out of the bag. This is a big point as you will see as we move through our list of points. But as for now it is enough to know that not all website design programs are capable of making your website look and behave the way that you want it to. You will not know the answer to this point till you have a very clear answer to the other 5 points you need to consider before designing your website.

What do you want your website to convey to your web visitors

What do you want your website to convey to your web visitors may sound the same as point 1, yet we are now looking at what is the message you are trying to get across to your website's visitor, rather than what they will see upon arriving at your site. Think of this one as what are you going to say and how are you going to say it. Words and pictures are the most common way of conveying your message on the internet. Though in recent times some websites are starting to use sound and videos with mixed results.
An important point to remeber if you are going to use sound to deliver your message is to have a visual means on the page to display your message also in case your visitor has their sound turned off or no speakers at all.

What Usability and Functionality will you require for your website

Seeing as this point is actually two points and both are so vast we will just look at what each point is and a few examples to get us thinkibg along these lines of thought.

Usability

Usability is refering to what will your visitor be able to do at your web site.
Some examples are;

And the list goes on and on

Functionality

Functionality on the other hand is referring to what you are able to do and how you can interact with your website visitors.
Some examples are;

1. Can you allow people to sign-up for emails from your website so that you can contact them
2. Can people place orders from your website without having to contact you first 
3. Can you track your orders easily
4. Can you modify your website quickly and easily
5. Can you run all of your website from a few programs easily

1 can easily be accomplished using an auto responder like aweber or a similiar product.
2 can also be done easily using PayPal or a shopping cart program.
3 can be achieved from most shopping cart companies worth using.
4 will depend on your website design program and how interacive all of the software you are using are with each other.
5 will depend on wether or not you have gone through this process at the start.

Will you require a shopping cart on your website

You will only require a shopping cart if you are actually offering a product or service to be purchased from your website. Even then if you are only selling one item, say a downloadable item or a product you will ship via mail, then in most cases PayPal will be enough for your needs.
A shopping cart is more for people who are going to be offering mutiple products or services from one site. The biggest benefit of a good shopping cart apart from being able to accept multiple orders from a single visitor at one time. 
For example you are selling books on your website and have 1500 different book tiles available to choose from, with a shopping cart the customer is able to make a selection and then continue browsing the other books and add more titles to the shopping cart until they are ready to pay for their order, which the shopping cart handles.
Apart from this a good shopping cart will allow you access to a wealth of knowledge about the movement of your website visitors  throughout your website, as well as telling you what term the visitor used to arrive at your site. This is the sort of information you will need to fully optermize and monetize your virtual enterprize.

Who will you use to Host your Website

This may seem like another silly one, yet it is as important as the other factors to consider if not more so. Once again the more you are going to put into your web site as far as functionality, time and cost, the more your web host will count.
Points to consider are;

These are just some of the things to consider, but they do get you thinking in the right direction. When I first built ownwebsitedesign it was Hosted at a different place than where it is now and I had nothing but problems, so after a lot of searching and research I now use HostGator, and would refer them to anyone.

Will you need Help bringing your website to life

As you can see from the brief descriptions we have covered, there is a lot to consider before designing your own website. So now you need to ask yourself do you need help doing it?

First off, you need a very clear idea written down of what you want your website to both look like and how you want it to function, which will depend on what you want to use it for.

Now it is time for some research, into what programs and services are available for you to bring your website to life as a real live and operating website. After you have all of this information it is time to do a ROI on the cost factors. As an example how long will it take to learn what is required to run your website and how much will it cost to purchase all of the software and the running costs associated with it such as hosting and time to upgrade it as well as responding to the mail.

Once you have a clear idea of all this, it is time to get a price from a website design company and compare the costs as far as Real time and dollar values. In most cases it is easier to employ a company to design and manage your website if it is a commercial website. Being aware of all of the above features will still be a benefit to you as you will be able to direct the project from a point knowledge rather than "Oh, so that is what my website looks like."

As you will recognize, the above is mainly aimed at a commercial website owned and operated by an existing company. The same factors will need to be addressed by anyone looking at designing a website, though a lot of the features such as a shopping cart would not be needed on a non-commercial website. This process of designing your website should still be followed with the end result in mind from the beginning.

Ok, I hope this information on website design and what points you should consider before building your website has been of some help to you.