Web site design briefing tips

Your web site is probably the most important marketing tool you have.

With a well search engine optimised web site you can attract new customers from search engines, your marketplace is worldwide and all visitor activity can be captured and researched to tell you more about their behaviour and preferences.

A web site must be viewed as more than simply a brochure online; it is a way of mediating and directing a conversation with your customers.

It could be a virtual exhibition a shop or a place to talk and share, adding value for your customers.

With all these possibilities it can be difficult to decide upon the best approach for your business or organisation to take.

This difficulty is reflected in the number of web sites that have a poor focus on what visitors might actually need or want.

Commissioning a web site means developing a brief that clarifies a businesses offer and a set of goals and objectives for individual market segments.

Once you understand what you need to say to your individual customer or stakeholder segments, you are well on the way to being able to identify an effective website, including key pieces of functionality the web site should deliver.

The design of your web site should differentiate you from your competitors, site differentiation that includes colours identity, tone of voice and imagery.

It should also be quick to download, easy to navigate and accessible. A good balance of these requirements is not always easy to achieve, which can be seen in the number of web sites that are frustrating to use or even in some cases impenetrable.

Should I use flash web design?

Flash is a double edged sword, providing an emotionally richer form of presentation, but with the trade off being poorer accessibility and the requirement of a plug-in to view the content.

If your goal is to deliver on line games, animation or streaming video then Flash is an excellent choice, however, if you are delivering more straightforward information and images it would not be advisable to build a whole site in flash, as the adverse impact on your site from a search engine and accessibility point of view would be considerable.

In practice, the best approach is to use a combination of HTML and Flash to achieve a sensible balance of the strengths of each.