Developing Site Structure 1 | WEB105

At this point in the process we should have a deposit check in hand and we should be ready to start working.

We must now think like our project site’s users and ask ourselves:

What are they coming to the site to do?
What are their needs?
How can the site’s structure be planned to satisfy their needs?

A) Content-View

Content-View is the sub-phase of Developing Site Structure where you gather existing and potential content for the site, analyze what is there, see what is missing and prepare it for delivery.

Addressing Content

Content is critical to any site. Without good relevant content everything else is merely a placeholder.

You should have dedicated copywriters and content managers
It is strongly suggested (by the book) that the copywriter work client-side

See Also: Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson

Auditing Existing Content

The existing content may be part of the problem with the old site. Therefore, we must analyze and evaluate of every piece of content that the Client may have.

A content audit not only removes unnecessary content, but helps minimize less important content and maximizes the message that fulfills branding and business goals
As the content is audited you may find that the content will naturally organize itself

Outlining Content

At this point, the content does not need to be completely written, but rather it needs to be organized via a content outline.

It is possible that the client, at this point, has created a bulleted list of content
This outline will then be used as your master content document

See Also: Content Structure | Premium Design Works

Creating a Content Delivery Plan

Late content is the number one reason for project delays… plan for it, charge for it.

Hire a content manager to manage, gather, write and submit content
Provide a realistic breakdown of content into deliverable pieces rather than have the content due all at once

B) Site-View

Site-View is the sub-phase of Developing Site Structure where you begin to organize the potential content of the site into a hierarchy of pages called a sitemap.