A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Features Meaningful for Your Visitors.
A website can do almost anything.
The more important question is what it should do.
When planning a website, it is easy to think in terms of features: a photo gallery, event calendar, staff directory, resource library, video section, online registration, customer portal, FAQ, or something you’ve seen on another website.
I can build those things.
But deciding that you want a feature is only the beginning. Before I build it, we need to understand its purpose, determine what content it requires, decide how that content should be organized, and make sure everything necessary to support it actually exists.
Before Requesting a Website Feature, Answer These Questions
You don’t necessarily need complete answers to every question. Part of my job is helping you work through them.
But these are the questions we eventually need to answer:
- What do you want this feature to accomplish?
- Who will use it, and what should they be able to do with it?
- What content does the feature require?
- Do you already have that content?
- Is there enough content to justify the feature?
- Does the content need additional context, such as titles, descriptions, categories, photographs, dates or instructions?
- If content is missing, who will create it?
- How much content will there be?
- How should that content be organized so visitors can use it?
- Will the content change, and how often?
- Who will maintain it after the website is built?
- Does the feature depend on anything outside the website, such as a payment processor, scheduling service or third-party account?
- Do we need it now, or should we prepare the website to accommodate it later?
Those questions may sound like a lot for something as simple as adding a section to a website.
They aren’t.
Each one answers a different part of the same fundamental question:
What are we actually trying to build?
1. What Do You Want It to Accomplish?
Purpose comes first.
If a company regularly holds seminars, classes or public meetings, visitors may need an easy way to discover upcoming events and find the information necessary to attend.
Now we have a purpose.
We aren’t adding an event section because websites have event sections. We’re creating a way for people to discover and attend events.
That distinction matters.
Seeing something on another website can certainly give you an idea for your own. I encourage clients to look at other websites and show me things they like.
But seeing the solution doesn’t necessarily tell us what problem it was designed to solve.
Before recreating the idea, we need to determine what it would accomplish for you.
Sometimes the original idea is exactly right.
Sometimes a simpler solution works better.
Sometimes the discussion reveals that you need something considerably more sophisticated.
The purpose helps us determine which one.
2. Who Will Use It, and What Do They Need to Do?
Once we know the purpose, we need to think about the visitor.
It isn’t enough for information to exist on a website. People need to be able to use it.
If we’re building a directory, are visitors simply browsing it, or are they trying to locate a particular person, service or location?
If we’re displaying documents, do visitors know exactly which document they need, or do they need help finding it?
If we’re showing projects, are visitors casually looking at photographs, or are prospective customers trying to find examples of a particular type of work?
The answer affects the structure.
Website organization should follow the way people need to use the information.
3. What Content Does the Feature Require?
Now we can identify what actually needs to go into it.
A gallery requires photographs.
An FAQ requires questions and answers.
An event section requires events.
A staff directory requires information about the people.
A video section requires videos.
But that is only the raw material.
An event may also need a title, description, date, time, location, photograph, directions, registration information and contact information.
An employee profile might need a photograph, position, biography, phone number, email address or areas of responsibility.
A project might need photographs, a description of the work, location, completion date or other relevant details.
We don’t automatically need every possible piece of information.
We need the information necessary to accomplish the purpose we already defined.
4. Do You Actually Have the Content?
This is where an idea becomes something we can build.
Wanting a video library and having videos are two different things.
Wanting a portfolio and having completed projects documented with good photographs and useful information are two different things.
Wanting an FAQ and knowing the questions customers actually ask are two different things.
This doesn’t mean the idea is bad.
It tells us where we are in the process.
If the necessary content doesn’t exist, perhaps we need to create it first.
5. Is There Enough Content to Justify a Separate Feature?
Having content doesn’t automatically mean it needs its own section.
Sometimes separating a small amount of information actually makes the website less useful.
A few photographs related to a particular service may provide considerably more value when they’re incorporated into that service page than when they’re isolated on a separate gallery page.
A single annual event may be better promoted prominently in an appropriate section of the website than placed inside an elaborate event system.
A few downloadable documents might fit naturally on the pages where visitors need them rather than inside a separate resource library.
A feature should exist because the content needs it—not simply because the feature can be built.
6. Does the Content Have Enough Context?
Files are not necessarily useful content.
Imagine receiving hundreds of photographs with no titles, descriptions, categories or explanation of what they represent.
Technically, I can display them.
But what does the visitor learn?
The same problem can occur with almost anything.
A document without a useful title doesn’t tell someone why they should open it.
A photograph without context may not explain what it demonstrates.
A donation button doesn’t tell someone what their contribution supports.
An event date doesn’t tell someone what the event is about, where it occurs or how to participate.
Content needs enough context for someone unfamiliar with the organization to understand it.
That’s an important standard because your website isn’t being built for people who already know everything you know.
7. If Something Is Missing, Who Creates It?
Discovering that content is missing isn’t a problem.
It gives us a task.
Perhaps photographs need to be taken. Depending on their importance, that could mean using a phone, using photographs you already have, or hiring a professional photographer.
Perhaps descriptions need to be written.
Maybe we need information from employees.
Maybe someone needs to collect frequently asked questions from the people who actually speak with customers.
I can help determine what is needed, organize it, improve it and help develop it.
But first we have to identify the gap.
8. How Much Content Will There Be?
Quantity can completely change the design.
Ten items may need nothing more than a well-designed page.
Ten thousand items may require categories, search, filtering, pagination, a database or an entirely different navigation structure.
The same principle applies everywhere.
A small staff and a national organization don’t necessarily need the same directory.
A handful of resources and an archive containing years of material don’t need the same resource library.
A few products and a large product catalog don’t need the same interface.
This is why I sometimes need to see the content before deciding exactly how I will present it.
The amount of content is part of the design requirement.
9. How Should the Content Be Organized?
Once the volume becomes substantial, organization becomes part of usability.
What distinguishes one item from another?
Date?
Location?
Subject?
Department?
Service?
Category?
Type?
The answer depends entirely on the content and how visitors think about it.
The goal isn’t merely to organize information neatly.
The goal is to help someone get from “I need something” to “I found it.”
10. How Often Will It Change?
A feature that changes once a year and one that changes every morning may look similar to the visitor but require very different systems behind the scenes.
If updates are occasional, you may simply send them to me.
If employees need to add new information regularly, I may create a custom template that allows them to enter the necessary information without designing a new page every time.
I can then train the appropriate people to maintain it.
How the content will be managed tomorrow can affect how I build it today.
11. Who Will Maintain It?
This deserves its own question because outdated information can be worse than no information.
An event section full of events from last year makes a website look neglected.
A staff directory containing people who no longer work for the company creates confusion.
Old pricing creates problems.
Broken resources frustrate visitors.
If something needs regular attention, we should know who is responsible for it before creating a system that depends on that attention.
12. Does Anything Else Need to Exist?
Some website features are only the visible end of a larger system.
A payment button needs somewhere to send the payment.
Online scheduling needs a scheduling system.
Email signup needs a mailing platform.
Event registration may require payment processing, confirmation messages and a way for someone within the organization to receive the registration.
The visible element might take five minutes to create.
That doesn’t mean the system behind it takes five minutes—or already exists.
Before building the visible part, we need to understand what happens after someone uses it.
13. Do You Need It Now?
There is nothing wrong with planning for growth.
In fact, I want to know where you expect the website and the business to go.
If you expect to begin publishing videos, hosting events, adding products or building a large resource collection, tell me.
That information may influence decisions I make today.
But preparing for something isn’t the same as displaying an empty version of it.
Sometimes the best solution is to build the website so a feature can be added easily when the content exists.
We can prepare for tomorrow without making today’s website pretend tomorrow has already arrived.
The Content Helps Determine the Website
This is the larger idea behind all thirteen questions.
Website design isn’t simply creating empty places and then filling them with whatever information happens to be available.
The relationship works in both directions.
The website gives content structure.
The content also tells me what structure the website needs.
I can’t always know the best way to present information until I understand its purpose, volume, context, organization and how often it changes.
That’s why I ask questions.
I’m not expecting my clients to understand website architecture. That’s my job.
I’m trying to understand their business well enough to build the right architecture for them.
You Don’t Need to Figure This Out Alone
You don’t need to arrive with thirteen perfect answers.
Bring me the idea.
Tell me what you’re trying to accomplish.
Show me what you have.
Tell me what you don’t have.
Tell me what you expect to have in the future.
From there, we can determine what information is needed, what needs to be created, what belongs together, what should remain separate, and how everything should work.
Sometimes we’ll build exactly what you originally requested.
Sometimes we’ll change it.
Sometimes we’ll make it simpler.
Sometimes we’ll discover that what you actually need is considerably more capable than what you originally imagined.
And sometimes we’ll prepare for it now and build it later.
The objective isn’t to add features to a website.
The objective is to build the things your website actually needs—and give them the content necessary to do their job.
