Plan a web project

Posted on: 07 May, 2009

The job of successfully designing and implementing a project on the web relies on lots of things. It doesn’t always follow that employing a professional web design team will result in the happy resolution to the project that everyone wants. The best projects, and the best work is accomplished when client and design team work in unison towards the same outcome.

If the client trusts the people that they have employed and has faith in their decision making, it will enable the design team to flourish. It is my experience that there is a much better chance of producing excellent work if you have the support of your employer. At the same time the client has a well of useful information about the requirements of the project and the company as a whole, and it is important for the design team to recognise this and tap in to this valuable information. The project cannot be a success unless the client is happy. With this in mind I often pose three simple questions to my clients when beginning a web project. These are the questions that absolutely must be answered to have the highest probability of being successful in endeavours relating to building projects on the web.

The premise is simple but illusive: Make as much as possible objective, quantifiable and testable. Here are my top three questions that need answers:

What is it that we are designing and why?

This seems like such an obvious question, but it is amazingly helpful to constantly ask this during the planning of a new project for the web. It helps to maintain focus on the overall objective of the project. What is most important, and what specific needs are to be fulfilled? This should be among the first questions that a client asks when embarking on a new web project. If the answer to this question appears to be a little hazy then diligently repeating it over and over can help to bring ideas out of the creative, subjective, and unquantifiable, and solidify them into known goals and requirements.

Who will use it?

This seems like such a simple thing to be asking that often our first response is to dismiss it. On closer inspection there is a hidden depth to this question. The more informed you are about the kinds of people that you want to use your service, the easier it will be to design something for them that they will really love, and will return to use time and again. Having information about the people that visit existing web sites or on-line services can be a really good place to start here.

How will we know if we have been successful?

This is all about setting testable objectives. Success can mean anything that you want it to mean. Try and set realistic, obtainable objectives and then try to attain them. If things don’t work out the way that you imagined immediately, test against the results you have, plan to make changes, put them into action and then test again. Repeat this process until the objectives of the project have been met.

Without clear obtainable goals and a testing system that will show when they have been attained it is very difficult to say whether or not a web project build has been a success. This ambiguity can lead to general discontent with the project, and a feeling of disorientation. Were we successful? Does this work? Am I happy? Does this solution provide value? Without clearly defined goals it is hard to know what context to put anything in.

That’s all for now, I hope you’ve found this article helpful. Be sure to check back soon for more advice on how to successfully plan design and deliver projects for the web.