STC Montreal

By Jim Royal

Building a web site is a multidisciplinary job. And the skills required vary widely depending on the task at hand. The staff you’d need to hire to create a media-rich web site for a consumer product would be very different from the people you’d need to build an documentation portal.

However, in many small and mid-sized companies, the job is often handed down to one person, who — regardless of his actual background — is invariably referred to as “the web guy.”

So what should you expect from your web guy?

The most important skill for a web designer is the ability to organize information for an audience. You might find this surprising, as many people assume that web design means the same thing as graphic design — that is, the ability to make things look pretty. But the appearance of a web site is secondary to its prime function, which is to deliver information to your customers when they need it.

An ugly web site that allows people to find what they need is infinitely preferable to a pretty web site that cannot be used effectively.

Or to put it another way: Design is not about appearances. Design is about how things work.

Your web designer should have a firm grasp of your organization and its goals, your products and services, and most importantly, what your customers expect from you. This last part is the most vital, because if the web designer does not understand the needs of your customers, how can he possibly create an effective tool for them to learn about you?

A web designer who asks questions about your customers and their needs is on the right track. If he is instead spending the planning phase of the project on the graphical appearance of the site, then you need to take a step back and evaluate the direction of your web site.

The first deliverable that your web designer should present to you is a breakdown of the flow of information on the site. This breakdown should answer questions such as:

• What information goes on which pages?
• How do different pages relate to each other?
• What is the path (or paths) that typical visitors will take through the site?
• How do the site navigation tools work?
• If the site will have interactive features such as shopping carts or online profiles, the designer should have flowcharts that illustrate how people will use these features.
• And does all of above tie into your business goals?

Once these things have been locked down, only then should your web designer move on to the graphical design.

Jim Royal is an information architect working in Montreal. Visit his web site at jimroyal.com