Well, you want to create a draft of a website. And regardless of whether you are going to rewrite wholly your current website or just a part of it, or you’re going to create a new one – you are sure to want to lead your website to success avoiding high-cost unexpectedness on the way to the project realization. So let’s discuss the website planning process.
Website planning process
Designing of a website looks like the construction of a house. In the process of a house project making a master builder wants to know how your future house has to look, its size and the number of rooms in it as well as time frames for works realization. Each option is discussed before the initiation of works. The process of website creation as well requires preliminary planning and appropriate documentation before the beginning.
Website planning documentation
The documentation for a website projection includes plan targets, strategies, and tasks. It describes the restrictions like time limits and technical requirements; it also may reflect the info regarding the team working out the project. According to the scope of work, web designers and/or software engineers use the documentation in order to provide a precise proposal for a website projection.
You may become familiar with the info that you can insert in the documentation of your website project in the section below. If themes of the list below don’t correspond to your future website – just omit them. And keep in mind that the documentation of the project is aimed at the provision of the exact description of requirements and restrictions web designers or software engineers should comply with in order to create the best possible website project for you.
Information to include in your website planning documentation:
Overview
- Information describing the company (general information about its creation and some facts from the past, the main activity of the company or what it specializes in at present)
- The management team of the company – their names and posts, their work focuses/spheres and contact details.
- Tasks you want to solve by the website project
- The scope of work – whether you are going to rewrite wholly your current website or just a part of it, or you’re going to create a new one
- Core audience – which audience will take advantage of this website and what users are going to use the website for.
- List all the technologies your current website has – CMS, plug-in software, CRM, blog platform, online sales, LMS, payment service providers and so on.
Objectives
- Make up a list of all the objectives you want to realize by the project (accurate, time-related, etc.)
Stages
- Make up a list of project stages if the project is a part of a major affair.
Design
- Describe the style and restrictions you want to apply
- Describe the signature style of your company (logo style, colors to be used and so on)
- Analyze the websites of competitors – find the most attractive/unappealing things on them.
- Provide examples of websites you find attractive and you will never use them again. Explain your choice.
Keywords/Search engine optimization
- List all the keywords/phrases a user will enter to look for your website.
Domain name
- Make up a list of domain names for your website and describe the way you will use them (if a name changes how it will influence on the sphere of your company activity; whether you have a need in supplementary names, etc.)
Characteristics and functional aspects
- Outline and describe characteristics and functional aspects of the future website
- List external integrations – who is going to be the source of such external integrations and how to make sure that the existing external integrations meet all the requirements?
- Specify the data that should be transferred
- List analytical specifications
Access
- List access specifications
Assistance and maintenance
- Describe your assistance and maintenance needs to be met after project completion.
Assumptions
- List your assumptions regarding the executors of specified challenges (who will deal with the content, website maintenance and support, search engine optimization and so on).
Time limits
- Specify the time limits for the execution of work.
Download now!
You can download this website planning template free of charge. It includes all the themes above mentioned and you will come across no problem while entering your info. It is available in the form of a Microsoft Word Document. With the help of this template you and other people involved in your website creation will be able to create a solid underpinning.
Fill in the form and we will send the document to your email shortly.
If you have any questions, please contact us for further explanations.
