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Strategic Goals for Website Design
2007-11-04
As the websites of organizations grow in size and complexity the management of these sites becomes challenging. It is not unusual for an organization to have a website that has grown in a few short years from its original "home page" to several thousand pages. Quite often there are several people in the organization who contribute content, design web pages, and manage the site.
Most first generation websites were developed as static sites, a term used to describe web development technologies that use HTML standards to publish text and graphics. As websites mature and more people become responsible for contributing content we find that many organizations are now considering developing dynamic websites. Dynamic websites pull their text and graphics from a database and format the pages using an HTML template. New content does not need to have a new page designed, the content simply needs to be added to the database and the web server will build the pages on-the-fly.
Traditionally the responsibility for managing a website has been given to the persons who are most skilled at operating computers or who have learned how to design websites with a particular software. In larger organizations there may be many people who design pages for the website, each using their preferred software tools and design style. The result may be a website which is inconsistent in its presentation and organization of information and that lacks cohesiveness in style and navigation.
The Internet has stimulated new areas of research in website usability, information design, and information architecture. Effectively disseminating information through this new interactive medium requires new and ever-changing skill sets. Web designers must learn more advanced technology skills and an understanding of the emerging science of information management is becoming necessary.
The author of this report has consulted with numerous organizations and businesses to help them formulate a strategy for their website redesign. The recommendations and ideas in this report are based on generalized observations of government agencies, companies, and colleges which have recognized the need to develop more manageable and dynamic websites.
This report offers "food for thought" to organizations which find themselves in this transitional phase in their website design. Recognizing the difference between website designers and information managers and realizing the need for both skills will help ensure a successful redesign of the organizational website./p>
