You must decide what the purpose of the website is going to be and what you want to focus on in the project, plan out your goals and make a way to know you have reached these goals like a tick list. This is where you can look back at the focus of the project and build from the ground up instead of trying to put the icing on the cake straight away. You must think about who your audience will be and everything about them, what are their ages, geographical location, learning styles, specific interests and do they have special needs? It's good to focus on your timescale at this point and plan out how you are going to do thing, what point it has to be finished by and if you are in a group then plan out what everyone will do, have plenty of deadlines before the actual deadline. You don't want to be cramming in all the work in the last few days.
You should plan ahead and have specific dates to finish tasks by and if you are working with a budget then base your plan around when you will be paid and how expensive it will be to do specific tasks and how much you can spend on them. You should get a timetable set up as soon as possible and write down everything you want and need to do and make sure to note what can be done at the current time with the current budget until more funding is acquired.
Things to think about with the budget are:
- Copyrighted material
- Purchasing software
- Hiring web/ graphical designers
- Purchasing website templates
- Hosting companies
- Computers for making the site
- Materials for designing the site
While thinking about your budget you should think what materiel you are going to use so you can make sure not to accidentally use copyrighted materiel or if you do want to use certain copyrighted content then you should try to get permission and/or look into how much it will cost to use.
Do some research on other websites with similar content to what you are making for inspiration for your project. Examine what content is in the websites, the structure and animations of the websites and the details they have used. You should not directly copy these sites but it is always good to get an image in your head of what your kind of website should look like. You should, however, go far away from the other styles of those websites and make your own but keep in mind what it is you are making. While designing the website think about how long the site will take to load, make sure to keep it light or users will get bored and skip your website if the loading times are too long for each page. Also make sure you keep the right size as many users may be on slow and/or small computers.
The next step is to start planning out specific features in the website once you have decided the purpose of it. Think of what animations you will have, what pages, login page, shopping cart for an online store, search bar and anything specific to the what the project is whether that is a web store, game site, branding website and so on. The more detail you have the better. Not everything may make it into the project, think about what is really necessary and what will not fit in.
After planning specific features about the website and what you want to have in the website you should start mapping it out. Before you get straight in with building the site think about how it will be organized and structured, what information, video, visual elements, what guidance will be provided for the users and what level of interactivity is necessary, which was a big factor in the last project I did. When thinking about your design its important to think about the accessibility of your website; how will visually impaired users access the flash website and are there suitable instructions and easy to use layouts for new users? This is where it can get difficult as Flash websites do get a lot of criticism for not being accessible to everyone because the text in Flash works differently to standard websites and alternative text can not be given. You can, however, use the accessibility panel to incorporate text equivalents for any graphical images on the site like buttons, animated text and navigation otherwise those with poor site will not be able to navigate or read anything on the site normally. When thinking about those with special needs you may need to create an entirely different copy of your website or build accessibility into the Flash project.
Once accessibility has been thought through you can start planning the website with paper and pencil then move onto photoshop to map out the structure of the major sections of you website. Draw a sketch of the home page and design and incorporate any animations you want. Its important to have an image and style already thought and planned out and have a vision of what the website will look like. Web pages are usually 800 wide by 600 pixels in height. Plan where the header, footer, navigation buttons and main content will be. Make sure the navigation in the site is clear and easily accessible. It's debatable whether you need a homepage on Flash websites but it is always good to have one so users are familiar with the layout of the site. On the homepage should be all the buttons with links to subpages.
The final content for the project is the most important part and the site is always based around it and the content makes the website effective and successful so when it is left to the end, the structure often has to be changed, that is why it should be done early into the design. So think about and write out what text, images, videos and other content are going to be put into the site and how you are going to incorporate it into the websites structure. It's better to make these changes early on rather than making changes close to the deadline.
You should always have a style in your head that really suits the website and users will find easy to use and read by making your own design. However it may be beneficial for the quality of the website to hire a graphical designer or a web designer but it is also an option to buy a website template and save time and money. If you do design your own website you should create your own graphical content to avoid copyright infringement.
Once you have the style and the structure planned and saved somewhere easy to find you can actually start building the website. This should be at least a week into the project if not two weeks depending on how much time you have. If you have done all the planning and made the foundations for your website it will be a much easier process to build and do the coding for the site and there will be a much lower chance to need to go back and make changes.
Once the website has been made the pre production is still not over, you still need to test the website and make a lot of changes from the data you will receive. Test the website by getting at least 10 people to use it and write down what they think of the website. Make sure you have made the website accessible for the visually impaired and those with special needs. It is a good idea to collect data in graphs and lists of changes you should make. In the pre production document you should write down any quotes that made you make visible and coding changes such as the design being changed or faulty coding being fixed or made to look smoother/ better. You should always be doing primary and secondary research for each project.
Once the website is built leave it for a couple of days and come back to evaluate what testers have said about it so you can apply the changes. It is hard to notice anything wrong with your website if you do not take a step back and let others tell you what they think about it and look into it yourself then make the changes.
All the pre production should let you easily make a website with:
- Clean easy to update design/structure so you can return to the website and make changes to make it more accessible and so you can update any content on the site in the future.
- Good usability in the design so it is easy to use and accessible for those who are visually impaired and those with special needs
- Fast loading 'light' pages, or the users will most likely skip your site because it does not load fast enough
- Intelligent use of technology, use the site for correct purposes not just to make fancy introductions and animations
- The website ability to convey the meaning/message and purpose of the website quickly if not instantly, make sure the website has no unnecessary content
If you have planned your budget carefully you can get to a good hosting company to upload your website and register a domain name with leftover money.
Sources for pre production planning:
Website Production Management Techniques
Producing for Web 2.0
The 8 steps of web design
Website Publisher.net
How to build Flash Web Sites
How to build a website with Adobe Flash
Building Flash Websites.
No comments:
Post a Comment