Before you get to the ins and outs of HTML and CSS coding, you need to understand what is expected of a website. You will use your textbooks to understand what it takes to have an accessible, appealing and usable website for your audience. Garrett describes why user experience is so important today. As a society, we are overrun with the Internet serving a primary way to retrieve information. Webpages are expected to be updated and overall create a user friendly experience. Garrett describes the components of a webpage in Five Planes.

1. Strategy
2. Scope
3. Structure
4. Skeleton
5. Surface

The plans are best viewed from the bottom up, starting from abstract to concrete. They all function together as a framework, but individually also in their own definition and details.

The strategy plan is a two way street for creator and user. The creator of the website wants to give information and the user wants to retrieve the information. This plan hones into the organization and goals of the website. The strategy plan is where a creator determines the goals and attempt to articulate them on the webpage.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What do we (creators) wants to provide to our users?
• What experience are we trying to give?

These questions answer Product Objective and User Needs. Product Objectives is when a creator examines the product or service the website is granting. This is not abstract, it must be clear on the website. The User Needs is knowingly designing a website with the idea it is for others to understand. Identifying the user needs can be a hefty job— there’s research and diversifying the audience. User segmentation is when a creator divides the audience into groups according to certain shared characteristics.

Overall, a Strategy Plane is where a creator must assess how to accommodate a user and their business or company. The organization and goals need to be clear and to achieve success metrics and brand identity. A website fails when the Strategy Plane is not clear, or is not a balance benefit of creator and user needs.