You'd be surprised how many people don't think about their potential visitors before they start to design their site. Somehow, if the site works for them, it's going to work for anyone that turns up. Reader - I was that person!

My first thought was to get the design as I liked it. Then I decided what pages I wanted and finally made sure that the site was working as it should. Finished! At no point whatsoever did I stop to analyse who would be coming to look at my site. Yes, it looked good. Yes, it worked. But as an advertisement for my business it failed dismally.

Think before you start!

I knew that the site wasn't very clear about what it was offering, but somehow I couldn't see where I was going wrong or how I could make it better. Then one day it came to me. I sat down and methodically thought through all the people who might be interested in what I can provide. Person A might want their site hosted by me. Person B is coming to get a new website for their business. Person C has a website but feels it needs a re-design. and so on. Then I tried putting myself into their position. "I'm Person A, this is where I'm coming from, this is where I want to be, these are my goals, these are my concerns. I've arrived at this website - is it telling me what I want to know?"

Suddenly I could see where my site could be radically improved. How does Person A know from my home page that I do hosting? What is Person C likely to want to know about the re-design work? What other services might Person B want to find out about? From then on I had a clear focus for all my design decisions. I knew the direction I wanted the site to go in and, better than that, I knew that the end goal was a site which had the interests of my visitors at heart.

Know your audience

Now, on every site that I work on, I spend quality time right at the beginning sitting down with the client, talking through their audience and their requirements. Often it is an eye-opener for the client too! Then I write all the scenarios into my report and refer to them throughout the design process - and beyond.

Knowing your audience in advance means that you can give them what they want when they arrive. That way they are going to stick around and chances are they will return too. It's obvious. Now why didn't I think of that from the beginning?

>> Article (3) Am I getting my message across?

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