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Web Design Checklist
We believe that the web is possibly the best marketing tool ever invented and that properly planned and executed, almost any business can obtain significant amounts of business via internet marketing. However, to do that you need to treat your website as part of your marketing plan and armoury - not just looking at design or development but how it fits in to the overall plan. To this end we have developed the following web design checklist to help.
Business overview
Please pretend you are inducting a new director – what would you tell him?
Include information on what your company does, what you sell and to whom, where and how you sell, what sets your company apart from the competition?
How many people do you employ?
What is your approximate annual turnover?
Please describe your company or product
Please describe your products and services and the average order cycle and value.
Who are your target audiences?
Please describe them in as much details as possible and indicate geography and business type details with examples.
- Customers (please describe):
- Partners (please describe):
- Investors (please describe):
- Employees (please describe):
- Other (please describe):
Please list and describe your current marketing programs.
What problems do your prospects have that your business solves?
What is there that sets you apart for potential customers?
Why should site visitors do business with you not a competitor?
Brand statement
A brand statement is about communication and experience – it guides what we will tell customers and how they will experience what we tell them. Our communications must tell a story that the consumer wants to hear and can relate to, that can be encapsulated rationally and emotionally in a message that tells the story simply and quickly and that is then supported by the experience.
Developing a brand statement involves:
- Defining yourself in terms and finding real differences from the competition
- Describing your customers, stating how you stand out to them and why they should care about you
- Explaining your greatest benefit which must be real, credible and durable
- Putting it all together into your brand positioning statement
- Using the statement to drive all customer and stakeholder communications and actions
My brand statement is: (please insert)
Example brand statements:
American Express:
“The American Express Card is the most highly valued and prestigious payment means on the market. It offers unexcelled worldwide systems designed to offer the best personal service to Cardmembers, who are professionals and business managers. We will always demonstrate that the American Express Card is desirably different from other payment methods and offers a level of value that far exceeds its price”.
Tesco:
“We will create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. We express this through our 'every little helps' customer commitment theme.
We aim to:
- Offer value through competitive prices, product choice & high food qualit
- Be helpful through customer service, product availability & customer communications
- Be inclusive, appealing to a broad range of customers and offering something for everyone
- Be innovative, leading new customer & new product developments”.
Website
What is the purpose of your site?
- To act as a brochure
- To generate leads
- To generate online sales
What objectives are set to measure this purpose?
How will objective(s) be measured?
What will be measured?
What constitutes “success”?
What will be your site structure?
- Will there be more than one domain?
- Will these be aliases?
- Will these be multiple TLDs that are localised?
- Will localisation affect site structure and how?
- List of sections e.g. product ranges etc [affects navigation]
- Please list full navigation ‘family tree’
- Number of pages in site
- Images per page average
- Are these images all available?
- Number of forms
- Are these forms already designed?
- Is an intranet required?
- Is an extranet required?
What will be required in your content management system?
- Advert Management
- Content
- Batch upload
- Global search & replace
- Live or hidden
- Preview
- Reuse
- Scheduling
- Spellchecker
- WYSIWYG Editor
- Document management
- Microsoft formats (which?)
- Other
- Localization
- CSS
- Resizing
- Local resource files
- Localised SEO
- Non Latin characters
- Translation management
- Media management
- Automatic thumbnails
- Flash
- Images
- Video
- Menu management
- Multiple menus
- Multiple sites
- Localised TLDs
- Multiple domains
- Mini/Sub-Sites
- On page SEO management
- Alts
- Friendly URLs
- Link titles
- Meta-description
- Page title
- Others
- Report builder
- Template editor
- CSS management
- User management
- Login history
- IP restriction
- User permissions
- Audit History
- Granular Privileges
- Roles Based
- Web browsers compatibility for administration
- What else?
What will be required in your site?
Have you researched your online competition so you have an idea of what you do and don’t want on your site?
Do you need any of the following:
- Accessibility standards
- Blog
- Booking or event management facility
- Calendar or diaries
- Bulletin board, message board or discussion forum
- Business / database integration with:
- Accounting (system?)
- CRM (system?)
- Stock control (system?)
- Others……….
- Client interaction / publishing
- Add to wish list (item / seller)
- Bookmarks / sharing / tweet this / send to a friend
- Item followers
- Item ratings
- Item reviews (and / or comments)
- People who liked this also liked…
- Reviews / user generated content – what?
- Rate item (‘love this’ / 1-5 stars, etc)
- Tell a friend
- Content elements
- About us
- Articles
- Case studies
- Client list
- Contact details
- Helpful hints or trade secrets
- How to find us instructions and / or map
- Links to other relevant web sites
- Locations - address and phone number
- News management
- Press area
- Press releases
- Project portfolio
- Sitemap
- Testimonials
- User guides
- Customer database
- Customer management or tracking
- Directory or link management system
- Downloadable product or service catalogue
- Email management
- Newsletter management system
- Mailing list subscription form
- Mass mailing
- Pathways
- Scheduling
- Forms – purposes?
- CAPTCHA?
- Intranet / extranet
- Affiliate management / tracking
- Password protected pages for clients / members only (details?)
- Job vacancies
- Job application forms
- Legal & procedural
- © Copyright
- Disclaimer
- Privacy policy
- Procedural
- Complaints
- Returns policy
- Terms and conditions
- Live chat with service reps
- Online call-back
- Media
- Flash
- Games
- Images
- Music
- Polls
- Surveys
- Video
- Navigation and selection
- Breadcrumbs
- Error pages
- Menus
- Site search
- Advanced - category, fuzzy, Boolean etc.
- Payment solutions
- Credit and debit cards
- Direct debit
- PayPal etc
- RSS feeds – for what?
- Search engine optimization (reminder)
- “Shopping cart”
- Add to / change cart
- Cross-selling / up-selling (buy with X and save £££)
- Offers (bogof / loyalty / discounts / vouchers / free postage)
- Delivery
- Date expected
- Options – types of addresses / allowed and not allowed
- Emails
- Registration
- Purchase
- Abandoned basket
- New product
- Other…..
- Featured products
- Images (thumbs / views / zoom)
- My account (user / password / password reminder / change password)
- Past orders
- Order tracking
- Price (currencies)
- Product
- Availability
- Best sellers
- Brands
- Categories
- Colour options
- Date added
- Descriptions (short / long)
- Detail (materials used / dimensions / weight / cleaning / washing)
- Name
- Number
- Samples
- Shipping (weight /delivered to / carrier options / fees / offers)
- Sizing / size guide
- Recently viewed
- Upgrade / upsell pathways
- Shop and content management / administration
- Special requirements
- Site analytics / statistics
- Social network features
- Profiles
- Friends
- Comments
- File uploads
- Messaging
- Other
- Social media integration and level of integration (simple image link à API use)
- Flickr
- YouTube
- Other….
- Supplier database or management
- Third party advertising management
- Trust
- Authentication seals
- SSL
- What else?
Do you need the following services?
- Brand development
- Copywriting
- Direct marketing
- Email marketing
- Graphic design
- Web hosting
- Pay per click advertising
- Photography
- Public relations
- Search engine optimization
- Statistics and analytics
- Video production
- Web design
Timescales and milestones
- What is the prospective launch date?
- Functional spec agreement
- Wireframes finalization
- Design finalization
- Content provision milestones
- Build milestones
