Introduction
There are millions of websites out there, so obviously it must be easy to make one yourself, right? Not so fast. There are websites, and then there are websites. Beyond the surface plane — that is, how your site will eventually look — there are several other factors that should be taken into consideration. Why this website now? Who is it for? What are my resources? are all important questions to ask yourself before you open that text editor (or hire a web designer), armed with a dream color scheme. Using this website as an example, this guide will touch on all those rhetorical factors, plus a little more, to help get you on your way.
Why?
The most important question you should ask yourself is "Why?" Why do you want this website? What do you want it to do?
There are many reasons for having a website. Brad Walker of Lipscomb University offers several, including:
- to share new ideas;
- to advertise, whether it's a product, service, or even yourself as a professional;
- to teach others or share information (as this website attempts to do).
Obviously, that's not an exhaustive list, but if you stop and think about the most recent website you visited, I'll bet it fit into at least one of those three. Even a travel blog seeks to share something new and share information, often in the form of dazzling photos from the writer's latest destination.
Strategy. Author Jesse James Garrett breaks down what he calls the elements of user experience. In his book — aptly titled The Elements of User Experience — Garrett describes this process, or element, as the strategy plane, writing, "The foundation of a successful user experience is a clearly articulated strategy." Importantly, he adds: "Knowing both what we want the product to accomplish ... for our users informs the desicions we have to make about every aspect of the user experience" (emphasis added) (p. 35). Starting with asking yourself "Why?" before beginning with your website is an important place to start.
Using this website as our practical example in this how-to, why am I building it? Surely there are several resources out there with similar information, so why another? Simply put, it's an assignment from Dr. Douglas Eyman of George Mason University for my English 507 class. I will use this website as an example throughout to discuss the rhetorical and design decisions as we go along, as well as draw heavily from Garrett's book, to discuss the rhetorical and design decisions that go into building a website.
An important aspect of this strategy plane, as Garrett calls it, are user needs. As he writes:
We aren't designing for ourselves; we're designing for other people, and if those other people are going to like and use what we create, we need to understand who they are and what they need [p. 42].
But before addressing user needs, you have to identify who those users are. Garrett suggests two identification approaches: user segmentation (in which the audience is divided into smaller segments with similar characteristics; and psycographic profiles (which factor in the attitudes and perceptions your audience has about the world and the subject matter of your website) (pp. 42-44) You should also consider your audience's attitudes toward the Web and even technology (p. 44). In our practical example using this website, my main audience is my professor, though I'm also writing for my fellow students and anyone who happens upon this corner of the World Wide Web. Given the title of this site, it's safe to assume that everyone toward whom this site is geared is comfortable with technology — after all, it is a Web authoring and design class.
Scope. Once you've finished identifying your users and your overall strategy, you must determine your content requirements and functional specifications. Be realistic not only about what you want to do but also what you can do. Not a list person? Become one! Write things down — even the minor things — so you don't forget. You need to know what exactly you're building and, importantly, what you're not building. The greater the scope of your project, the more details you'll likely have.
When defining the scope of your content and the requirements needed to bring your website to fruition, you must (again) consider your audience and its expectations. A significant part of your content will likely be text, but photos and other media might be required necessary to get your message across. A simple, well-functioning website that addresses your users' needs is more successful than something with a lot of bells and whistles that doesn't. Conduct research to find out what your target audience is looking for and resist adding things that aren't needed and that take you off message. For example, with this website, I didn't have to conduct research regarding the content. My professor provided the requirements in the module assignment, which spelled out the layout, the length, and the scope of what the content should address. Information regarding method is content-heavy, so incorporating videos or images could be distracting in this discussion.
Finally, be as specific as possible regarding requirements and write them in a way that demonstrates when a requirement hasn't been met.
What?
Structure. Structure and its more refined cousin — what Garrett calls the skeleton — give shape to the requirements arising from your strategic objectives (p. 107). Structure defines how the website will work. For content to be successful, its structure should be organized in a way that allows the audience to navigate it efficiently and effectively (p. 89). Garrett stresses that "the challenge isn't creating a structure, but creating the right structure for our objectives and the needs of our users" (p. 97).
The skeleton defines the website's functionality. That functionality is based on three elements:
- Interface design. This element involves giving users the ability to do things. "Successful interfaces are those in which users immediately notice the important stuff," Garrett writes (p. 114). This website allows you read more detailed information, check out more digestible tidbits off to the right, and navigate to other content.
- Navigation design. Good navigation design should give users the ability to move easily from one point of your website to another, as well as communicate the relationship among the elements it contains the relationship between its contents and the page currently viewed (which is why the links in the above bar go to the next steps for building a website and not to, say, Oscar Isaacs' filmography) (pp. 118-119). This website allows you navigate to other pages using the links in the navigation bar above. Further, pertinent links regarding other subject matter are throughout.
- Information design. This element is all about communicating your content so that your audience can use or understand it easily (p. 124). Dr. Eyman wanted a "significant amount" of content that could "work as a website design guide for students in the Writing and Rhetoric concentration or PWR graduate program" at George Mason University, so it's heavy on text. Highlights are included as a refresher for those who've already read the material.
Surface. Now that you've completed all the behind-the-scenes grunt work, it's time to get busy putting all those considerations into action with some design considerations and general information about coding. Spoiler alert: Your audience factors in on these decisions as well.
