Site Goals

December 28, 2003 | View Comments (6) | Category: Design

Summary: Does your design follow the goals of your site?

When designing any site there are always expectations that go along with it. Some people wish to have a 1000 visitors a day, while others are just happy to get a couple of comments. Ecommerce sites like to have a high conversion rate of people who visit their sites, while sites like Yahoo! wish to have users stay on their sites as long as possible (stickiness). Once you can figure out the site's goals it becomes a tad bit easier coming up with a good design for the site.

I say a tad bit easier only because I have learned that designing a quality site is not easy, especially if you wish to get it right the first time. I explained in detail the goals with this site and you can see the design taking the shape of those goals. You can sort of see Yahoo's goals in the site architecture based on all of the links that they have on different pages. However, they have cluttered everything up so bad it kind of has its own negative affect on keeping users on the site.

If I were to run a website that sold organic goods I would make sure to place those items front and center and make it as easy as possible to buy them. Some ecommerce sites are like shopping malls on the day after Thanksgiving. It just seems impossible to get what you want. Sure it may be great to place information about the foods there also, but why not just show the food (entice them) and then place the buy now button right under it.

The point is the design of your site is based on your content (hopefully). However, the content you have is based on your goals. You have foods on your site because you wish to sell them. You have news articles on your site because you want users to see your ads. You write entries into a blog because you just want people to visit your site. Every site has expectations, but not every design follows those expectations.

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Comments

#1

I think that blogs are hard to set up goals for in many cases because they are used to release creativity, or as a personal diary, and are not really based on the content for most it seems. It all depends on how the author sees things, if he/she is making the blog for others to see and enjoy or get something from, then that is one of its major goals. The problem is sites that are just up for no good reason, just something to do in our spare time. Does anyone else think like me, or am I just weird?

Josh (http://www.radiantrock.com/blog/)

#2

Josh: Yes, it's true, blogs are personal, and are not up for good reasons, rather as a hobby or something to do. But in sports (which to most people is a hobby, excluding the multi-million dollar players) you have certain goals you want to achieve.


And I know this probably isn't the best place to ask it, but Scrives, do you think maybe someday you could write a few articles on making a PHP comments system? Not necessarily code, but ideas, and how it would work. I would apprieciate it.

Tom

#3

When I read these comments, I was reminded of what I got from a line Robin Williams spoke in 'Good Will Hunting' (paraphrased):"I can't learn anything from you if you don't talk about yourself". The first time I read your blog I got the impression that you were both approachable and vulnerable. I liked that feeling; it was like meeting someone in person.
If I didn't find you approachable, I wouldn't be writing this to you. That, it seems to me, makes you vulnerable to whatever I might want to say about what you write or even who you are. I think that makes you courageous, open and honest and that makes you someone who I think I could trust and whose opinions I find valuable.

Jack Burman

#4

Very good points Jack. I agree that Scrives does seem as very approachable in his writing style.

Josh (http://www.radiantrock.com/blog/)

#5

I could probably come up with an article for you Tom on a comment system. As I am sure we all know the ones currently in use are not of the greatest quality. The best one I have seen yet is over at Dunstan's site, http://www.1976design.com/blog

Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)

#6

Thank you, Scrive. You can take your time too, I'm in no rush.

Yes, I've seen Dunstan's site before. I think the comments system is a bit more complicated than it should be, though.

Tom

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