Website Planning

Website Planning

Website Planning

Website Planning

Agenda

• Introduction to Student Connections• Website Planning:

• Is a website right for you?• Where to Start? Get a plan!• Domain Name & Registration• Website Usability• Choosing webhosting• Choosing development methods• Measurement

Website Planning

Student ConnectionsAn Industry Canada initiative started in 1996 and is partially funded through the Youth Employment Strategy.

Student Connections provides Internet and E-Commerce training to small- and medium-sized enterprises in order to help them develop an online presence and remain competitive in the new electronic marketplace. The program also provides practical technical and business experience to Canadian college and university students in IT-related fields.

Website Planning

• Student Connections has been at the Humber Business School since January 2004, and over 2,500 clients have been trained since.

• We offer standard and personalized workshops, one-on-one training, and enterprise support.

• Topics pertinent to you: Security Audits, Website Evaluation, Online Marketing/Promotion

Student Connections

Website Planning

Is a website right for you?• Canadians ordered just over $7.9 billion worth of goods

and services over the Internet for personal or household consumption in 2005.1

• They (Canadians) placed almost 50 million orders on-

line during that year (2005). 1

• Almost 7 million Canadians aged 18 and over placed an order on-line in 2005 while slightly over 9 million logged on to browse, or in other words, to do some "window

shopping".

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/061101/d061101a.htm

Website Planning

Is a website right for you?• The people who made an on-line purchase represented

about 41% of all adults who used the Internet in 2005.

• Over one half (52%) of adult Internet users living in households with incomes of $70,000 or more reported an on-line purchase last year, compared to 32% among Internet users in households with incomes less than $70,000.

Website Planning

Is a website right for you?• Younger Internet users were more likely to buy on-line

than their older counterparts. About 44% of users under 45 made an electronic order in 2005, compared with 36% among those aged 45 or older.

• Three quarters of adult Canadians who made an order on-line in 2005 reported paying directly over the Internet with a credit or debit card for some or all of their purchases, while about 17% reported paying with a credit card over the telephone.

Website Planning

Website Planning

Is a website right for you?• An estimated 9.2 million adult Canadians used the

Internet to do some window shopping for goods and services in 2005. They accounted for over one half (55%) of all Internet users.

• More than 6 out of every 10 of those on-line window shoppers actually wound up making a purchase not on-line but directly from a retailer.

Website Planning

Is a website right for you? Small Firms Medium Firms Large Firms All

Firms

2004 2005 2004 2005 2004 2005 2004 2005

InternetAccess

79.3 79.4 96.1 95.9 98.5 97.7 81.6 81.6

WebsitePresence

31.6 33.468.9

70.5 79.4 82.3 36.8 38.3

Purchasingonline

39.9 40.4 58.7 62.5 62.2 67.8 42.5 43.4

Sellingonline

6.7 5.5 11.9 10.4 12.8 15.8 7.0 7.0

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International Information

Website Planning

International Information• According to Forrester Research, net-influenced

sales represent three times as much revenue as online sales.

• The good news is that it's predicted that net influenced sales will reach $169.2 billion in

Europe and $37 billion in the UK by 2007

Website Planning

Agenda



Website Planning

Where to Start? Get a plan!• A website plan is a comprehensive guide to your

website!• Remember! The more planning effort you put into

your plan, the less time it will take to get a properly developed website.

• Jane’s strategy:– Start with your biggest bestest dream, and plan it

backwards!– For example, if you want thousands of people visiting your

site daily, you want to make a million dollars in revenue on sales alone, etc. etc. What is your dream?

Website Planning

Planning 101What your plan should cover:

• Domain Names

• Site design

– What not to do & recent trends

• Site functions/features

• Selling online

• Content development

• Marketing the site

• Maintaining the site

• Measuring site performance

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Choose a Domain Name & Alternative

• FAQ: Is a domain name important?www.studentconnections.ca (National)

www.scph.ca (Humber)• Choose an alternative – your first choice may

be taken

Website Planning

Agenda



Website Planning

Canadian Internet Registration Authority

www.cira.caFeatures:1. Who Is?2. Certified

Registrars

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CIRC: Who Is?

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CIRC: Certified Registrar

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Choose a Domain Name & Alternative

• Internet Assigned Numbers Authorityhttp://www.iana.org/gtld/gtld.htm

• .Com domain names controlled by VeriSign Global Registry Services http://www.verisign.com/products-services/naming-and-directory-services/index.html

Website Planning

Agenda



Website Planning

Site Design – what not to do

No navigational menu.

No active links to the next pages

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Writing, from one end of the website to another.

(although, highly suitable for a blog)

Site Design – what not to do

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Site Design – Recent Trends• Future trends are leaning toward more grid-like

structures, clean designs, and lots of white space.• Your website must be fast! (in terms of load time, in

terms of purchasing options, etc.).

• Less text is more! • Usability Tests: Such a hot topic – we will spend a

few minutes on this!

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Usability TestsUsability is defined by five quality components:

• Learnability• Efficiency• Memorability• Errors• Satisfaction

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Usability TestsUser Testing

• Get hold of some representative users, such as customers for an e-commerce site or employees for an intranet.

• Ask the users to perform representative tasks with the design.

• Observe what the users do, where they succeed, and where they have difficulties with the user interface. Shut up and let the users do the talking.

Website Planning

Usability TestsWhen to test?• Before starting the new design, test the old design

to identify the good parts that you should keep or emphasize, and the bad parts that give users trouble.

• Unless you're working on an intranet, test your competitors' designs to get cheap data on a range of alternative interfaces that have similar features to

your own.

Website Planning

Agenda



Website Planning

Choosing Web Hosting

• Research is required• Generally, prices become more cost effective

the longer the commitment contract• Ensure that you know what your site will

require ahead of time (languages; support; services)

• Prices range from Free to $20/month – depending on the features you need, the provider, etc.

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Choosing Development Methods

• Build your own• Using templates• Designers & Developers (yes, there is a

difference!)• Embedded marketing

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Measurement

• One of the most important tools in maintaining your site and making IT successful

• There are free web traffic analyzers available, you just have to look for them

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Tracking website traffic

• A website traffic report is an analysis of the activity on your website. The information they provide can include:– Most and least often visited pages– The number of visitors over a period of time– Which organizations or ISP’s the visitors are

coming from– Which countries the visitors are coming

from

Website Planning

Recap



Website Planning

For More Information Please Contact us at: 416-252-0399

Or Visit Our Website www.scph.ca

Website Planning

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