Site planning lowers problems

Many church webs sites would benefit greatly from better planning. While in the military, I heard an old maxim ... "One minute of planning saves 12 minutes of execution". In other words, a good plan prevents wasted time later. This certainly pertains to web sites.

When thinking about creating or changing a web site, a good place to start is Gospelcom's " Your first two questions" page. The page even has a Planning Worksheet.

Plan for:

• Clear writing (it doesn't come easy)
• Good accessibility (by people with varied disabilities)
• Great usability (for example, is text easy to scan and the site is easy to navigate).

"Who-What-Where-When-Why" is a standard journalism standard for writing a straight news story. Let's apply that standard to web site planning:

• Who do you want to reach with your web site?
• What results do you hope to get from your web site?
• Where will you host the site? Costs, services, and support vary widely.
• When does you church want this done? Be realistic.
• Why have a web? If your church can't answer this with enthusiasm, forget it.

Some related links:

• Planning your web site design (Macromedia -- now Adobe)
• Planning (Web Style Guide)
• Web site planning (TechSoup)
• Site Planning Basics - what you should know before you design a web site