Definition of Site

By: Mary Anne Winslow
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:23:29
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As internet has become so widespread all over the world, online business turns out to be extremely popular. We have to agree that no matter what aims we’re looking for – open or develop the web site its targets must be met. These targets may be revenue based or they may be more abstract, seeking to present the organisation as effectively and efficiently as possible to its audience. The publicly available Web is developing at breathtaking speed. A recent report estimated that 7,000,000 new pages are added to the Web each day. The current total size of the public Web is over two billion documents. No matter what the content, purpose or location of your site, at some level you are competing with much of this information for the attention of your existing or anticipated audience. Developing an effective service to achieve your objectives requires a strategy; and an effective strategy requires a plan.

The through which the planner has to move to create an effective project plan are the awareness, familiarity, understanding , and readiness. Although your site may be designed by other staff, or by an outside contractor, it is essential that you, as the site manager, understand the broad principles of site design so that the correct decisions can be made at the outset. Many of the readers of this book are not designers but managers, who will be hiring in the designers or managing the web team. Just understanding the jargon and the basic principles of web design can go a long way towards preventing misunderstandings by the designers about your requirements. There are as many methods for designing web sites as there are designers, but use of a simple methodology, and available tools, can avoid confusion and a lack of clarity in the design, purpose and presentation of the site. A relentless pursuit of the cutting edge of design and development can mean that nobody is actually comfortable with the tools being used, and everybody is learning new possibilities all the time. At one level that can generate a highly creative environment and a stimulating atmosphere, but on the other hand there does need to be some stability if the web site is expected to perform reliably on a day-to-day basis.

If you understand your requirements you will be better placed to communicate, monitor and implement them. Conversely, if you have only a limited grasp of the medium, how it will affect your organisation and how you intend to use it, then it will be difficult—even impossible—to communicate your needs clearly and accurately to the design and development team. Like many processes, the design of a web site can be broken down into simple steps, and each step can then be further broken down in to tasks and actions. This book is based on the principle that most large projects can be reduced to ‘bite-sized chunks’, thus reducing the fear factor and avoiding the sense of being overwhelmed by the gargantuan nature of the task ahead. Creating an action plan, setting achievable targets within sensible deadlines, and distributing responsibility appropriately, will ensure that the project moves forwards as smoothly as possible.

There are many potential site outcomes, but essentially they are divided between internal and external results. Internal outcomes might include satisfying your organisation’s core mission, justifying a departmental budget or staffing level, or reducing costs in delivery of information and services. External outcomes might include providing new outlets for your products, information or services through customer acquisition and increased sales value, or raising awareness of your organisation in the wider marketing environment.

Article source: Expert Articles