Site Requirements

Once the site goals are established, we can begin to get more specific. Itemizing site requirements means determining the details of how your web site will fulfill the goals you've established. This may include things such as:

• Content areas
• How interactivity will work (such as shopping cart options)
• Visuals (important photos and images, color palettes, etc.)
• Emotional effects (for instance, do you want visitors to feel excited or soothed?)
• Branding techniques
• Programming required (discussion boards? database integration? etc.)

Determining site requirements on the fly as the site is being built can often result in lost opportunities--things you wish had been done differently. While less exciting than the development phase, where you see your web pages actually coming into being, the importance of thorough preliminary planning cannot be overemphasized. Determining site requirements is one of the essential steps.