How to plan out a website

• Pretend you are a person who needs ________ service, product, information, etc.
• Write down what you would need to know (for real) (write it down) (everything) (on paper).
• Does that information map out to “pages?” If so, write out what they are. Name them.
• What would need to go on each page? Write it out (at least in short form)
• What things will be on all pages.
• Will the pages have sections? Identify them. And Name them for their purpose.
• Which parts of the content repeats / or are a consistent reusable group of information?If so, what are those blocks of content? What are they called? Name them. (for example: in a ‘store’ – it doesn’t matter what the products are. They are ‘products.’ and they have an id, title, price, description, etc.)
• What information is needed for each of those things? (write it out) (what are the properties of that repeatable content)
• Is all of the information a user would need — accounted for?
• With all of the mapped out, can you “do” all of the things you’d need to do on the site? Did you miss anything? Do you want to regroup or reorganize anything?
• Show us the drawings / page of notes etc. – and we’ll help reveal anything you missed.

You don’t need any graphics programs or wire-framing tools – or code to design a website.

You design the visual interface layer – with code and visual language. The actual underlaying design – is about the goals of the user.

Challenges

The client:

• Hair salon
• Anything you can think of…