If you have arrived at this page you're on the right track towards educating yourself on how you should approach a website and help to execute the design and planning phase of your project. Our goal at Jems Media is to bring your business into focus and design your site for the evolving web. Your website is a great opportunity to sell your business, bring visitors in, and give YOU an opportunity to close the sale. The three steps outlined below will help you and us, to create the perfect website. Whether you are doing our $399 package or something more inclusive, we explore these steps with you, and assist you in creating the definition of who your site visitors are.

Step One: Definition

Effective information architecture starts with defining your site's goals and its target audience. Do you want your audience to:

• Read your content?
• Buy your product?
• Look up information on your company?
• Register as a member?
• Use your links?

Defining your goals in terms of specific user tasks, and prioritizing your site goals are essential to proper planning and design. If you already have a website but want to revamp it, this information is just as vital. You may consider interviewing your current users about their wants, needs and concerns. Or we can do this for you.

Consider doing a targeted survey. We can help you gather important demographic information through the use of survey tools via email or during website visits.

Your current staff, managers, and investors are also important. Anyone who comes in direct contact with your users can help. Once you know your users, you can define them. Don't fall into the trap of designing for the average user, because this will lead to a generic, compromised design. Even the most basic of businesses can employ extra tools, gadgets, widgets, etc. to help draw their customers in and keep them returning.

Step Two: Site Content and Functionality

The next step is to specify the content and functionality that will support your business and user goals. To do this, marry business and user goals with ideas for your proposed site content and functionality.

Try building a table to make this a visual process. For each Business Goal assign a User Goal that the Content and Functionality will support specific to each Scenario.

Business Goal: Selling T-shirts     Increasing Sales

User Goal: Looking Cool     Finding Cheap Clothes

Site Content: Visuals -Music - marketing to the young -     Website Sale

Functionality: Interactive shopping cart  -   Offer 1 free for every 3 they buy

Scenarios: "Bob" likes the cool look, buys plenty     "Sally" likes a sale, intended to buy 1 shirt, buys more -

Step Three: Your Site Design

Your site design focus should be on the user tasks outlined in your scenarios. Start with tasks that support your highest priority business goals. After you've designed individual tasks, you can then focus on an overall structure that links everything together.

Once we have explored the three steps above together, it's time for Jems Media to go to work. We take all of this information along with any logos or branding, and design for structure, eye appeal and SEO/SEF navigability.