Do I Need A Website?
- It's almost a heretical question these days; everybody needs a website, right?
- and everybody seems to have one - even if they don't have any substantive content to share.
- examples of content-light sites: Morphosis, Brooks Institute
- These kinds of sites are more like a "Web presence," which is OK to do, as long as it's clear that you're not promising more.
- So first decision should be: site, or presence? Info, or just "vibe"?
I Audience
- "Thinking" is more important than "doing" at this stage.
- First and most important consideration: how do you know what to say if you don't know who you're saying it to? Identify your primary audience.
- No one publication (print or electronic) can be all things to all people.
- Who are you trying to reach: on campus? off campus? age? gender? educational level? any socioeconomic characteristics to consider? etc., etc.
- Why are you trying to reach them? What do you want them to do, or be able to do, after visiting your site—call for more info? register for something? send money? feel warm and fuzzy about Caltech? etc., etc.
- How will they link to you—through the Caltech website (through the home page or a primary/secondary link) or through a search engine such as Google? How they reach you may determine how much information or what links you need on your site. (Do they need to know more about Caltech?)
- Think carefully about this before you start writing/organizing content or designing graphics or back end, because it will help you determine the best way to do those things.
- Try to put yourself into your audience's head and imagine them trying to find things on your site. Keep in mind that the site is for them, not for you!
II Content
- What is the main message I'm trying to communicate? Try and do that in one sentence.
- Can be mostly verbal, or mostly "vibe," or a combination of both
- Content can come before design, or can evolve simultaneously with design, but it should never come after design. The message should drive the medium.
Beginning to organize:
- Start with a "kitchen sink" outline— everything you'd include in your wildest dreams, as if you have all the space in the world—because you actually do!
- Organize content into 2 levels: main topics and subtopics.
- Outlining techniques: don't feel you have to restrict yourselves to a Word document. Sometimes a tactile approach helps you visualize. Try index cards or the "Beautiful Mind" approach (stickies on a wall). Easy to move things around.
- Refine outline. If you have a lot of top levels, try to merge them. Ex: undergrad admissions, grad admissions, financial aid => Applying to Caltech. You may find you have topics with no home, but donÕt worry. As you work with the content, they will either find a home—or you can toss them out.
- Redundancy isn't necessarily a bad thing (unlike in print pubs). If you can't decide where your audience would be more likely to look for particular content, put it in more than one place (or in one place with links from others)—a good example is how we treat the IRC (ÒExecutive EducationÓ) on our site. That secondary link is on 6 of our 12 primary links.
Turning the outline into prose:
- Where is your content coming from? Does it already exist, does it need to be written from scratch, or some of each?
- What sort of tone should you aim for? (Hint: this has everything to do with your audience.)
- What editorial style will you follow—e.g., Chicago, AP, your own house style?
- Who will do the writing? (Are you really up to it?) If not someone in house, how will you find a freelancer?
- Who will edit the copy to make sure that the material coming from different sources doesn't sound like it did?
- Who will load the copy onto the site? Who will proofread it for spelling, punctuation, grammar, adherence to style . . . ? An important component of this is checking all links to be sure they work!
- Don't be tempted to ignore these things just because it's easy to fix mistakes online. A sloppy page reflects poorly on your work group, undercuts/distracts people from your message, and makes your audience mad to boot.
Beginning to design:
- This is the latest point at which you should begin meeting with your design/development team. (Our definition: "design" = front appearance; "development" = back end functionality). Two separate skill sets.
- If your team is familiar with Caltech and/or your content, you might want to bring them in at the "kitchen sink" stage. They might be able to suggest content and/or organizational principles you'd miss.
- Make sure your team understands your audience as well as you do before you give them your content and they begin designing.
- This is also a good time to include the person(s) in your work group who will be administering/maintaining the site—especially if they will be processing information submitted by site visitors (i.e., registrations, applications) or if your site has an e-business component. They will know best how to make your site internally efficient.
- Design/development team should also be aware of this person's Web skill level (e.g., can they do basic html programming? Have they used a content-management system before?)
- Think about the research that shows how people read Web pages ("F" pattern; short attention spans). Avoid both long lines and long blocks of copy, especially light type on dark backgrounds—very fatiguing to the eyes. Better to provide most important points on first page then link away to details for those who want to read more.
- Think about whether you can use bullet points, rather than paragraphs of prose, in some areas.
- Also, be aware that your audience members don't all have the same size monitors. Don't put important stuff "below the fold" of a page.
Images are content, too!
- Think about how you want to use pictures and illustration early in the design process.
- Sometimes a picture (with or w/o captions) can convey info better than a block of text.
- Who will be your image provider(s)? Your site's design should accommodate the kinds of pictures you're most likely to get.
- Do you want to be able to change pictures easily, or will they be a static part of the design?
- Will photo "boxes" be all the same size or orientation (e.g., requiring you to use only horizontal or only vertical images)?
III Maintenance
- Who will be responsible for maintaining (updating copy and images on) your site? Someone needs to have ownership!
- Is that person already on staff, or will you need to hire someone?
- Be aware of the pitfalls of hiring students to do this . . . .
- If person is already on staff, know their skill level and include them in planning (as mentioned earlier) and development of back end.
- Make sure they receive adequate training on how to administer site, and that they have someone to call with questions or problems.
- Also train a backup person to fill in if the main administrator is unavailable.
IV Resources
The Public Relations Publications department can provide:
- referrals to writers, designers, photographers, proofreaders
- advice re: writing and editorial issues
- a style sheet
Contacts: Paula DiConti and Barbara DiPalma