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Determining Your Site’s Purpose After you know who will be using your site, you must think about what they will be using it for, and why. Part of the site’s purpose comes from users’ reasons for visiting the site and so is already evident in the audience definition. The rest of the purpose is based on the organization’s reasons for publishing the site. Here is a sample statement of purpose, based on the hypothetical LeftyStuff Web site described in the preceding section. The purpose of the LeftyStuff Web site is to increase the direct online sales of high-end tennis racquets by 30% over the next three quarters. The site will display six key items from the racquet line, with two types of color photos: the racquets alone and the racquets in use by left-handers on the tennis court. The site will make it easy for customers to find racquets that best meet their needs and will make it easy to purchase the racquet online using a credit card. The site will also communicate the mission of the LeftyStuff Corporation and its special emphasis on the needs of this minority group. This definition of purpose reflects both the organization’s needs (to market and sell racquets) and the customer’s interests (to find and purchase a specialty racquet). It explains why the site is being published (to increase sales) as well as what it will include (product displays, a purchasing system, and the company mission). The key to the definition lies in the verbs that describe the site’s functions: Increase sales Display items Find the racquet Purchase the racquet Communicate the mission For each of the Web sites pictured in Figures 1.6 and 1.7, how would you state the purpose? Figure 1.6 New York Times Web Page Figure 1.7 J. Crew Web Page The purpose of the Web site of The New York Times might be to provide the newspaper’s news and advertising content to online readers along with additional searching, updating, and multimedia features not available in the printed newspaper. The purpose of the J. Crew site might be to increase purchases of J. Crew clothing by displaying selected products with photos and written descriptions, and making it easy for the customer to select items, check availability, order the items, and pay online. Goals and Objectives The statement of purpose for your Web site should contain both goals and objectives. Goals state the desired long-term results, such as “to increase the direct online sales of high-end tennis racquets by 30% over the next three quarters.” Goals are most often organization-centered, but they can be user-centered as well, such as “to provide a wider range of services to online readers of the newspaper.” Objectives include specific means and methods used on the site to accomplish its goals, such as “to provide online readers of the newspaper with hourly updates of key news stories” or “to display six key items from the racquet line, with two types of color photos: the items alone and the racquets in use by lefthanders on the tennis court.” Objectives are most often stated in user-centered terms. In planning your site, you need to create both kinds of statements. The goals keep you focused on the larger purposes of the organization, and the objectives set forth specific and measurable features that the site must include. Here is the statement of purpose for an actual Web site: [[Eds: It appears that the author is quoting the following material, and it’s not apparent whether he has obtained permission (inasmuch as the identity is disguised). I can’t tell whether this statement of purpose has been published on the site in question or whether this is from an internal document. It’s not clear whether the sponsor(s) of this site are aware this material is being quoted and have requested anonymity, or aren’t aware it is being quoted. I have made minimal edits to conform the material to the book’s style, but if this is quoted material they should probably be stetted. BH]] [This is indeed quoted from an actual Web site’s statement of purpose. The site is one that I designed for a client, the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The words are my own. The site is used later in the book as an illustration. I will make sure the permissions editor knows of this, and will contact the appropriate officials myself as well. JGL] The chief purpose of the XYZ Web site is to expand and broaden the reach of the program so that it makes a greater impact on American education. A secondary purpose is to create a virtual community of educators interested in XYZ, who can use the Internet to share ideas and promote sound teaching in this field in middle and high schools. A tertiary purpose of this site is to serve as a model or template for other XYZ programs that seek to promote change and improvement in education. To achieve these broad purposes, the site will comprise three key objectives: To inform its audiences about XYZ happenings To educate its audiences about XYZ To promote intelligent conversation about XYZ among all three audiences From this statement of purpose, can you pick out which are goals, and which objectives? Organization and User Purposes In the statement just discussed, can you also pick out which goals and objectives are user-centered, and which are organization-centered? A user-centered objective might be “to promote intelligent conversation about XYZ among all three audiences.” An organization-centered goal might be “to expand and broaden the reach of the program so that it makes a greater impact on American education.” A good statement of a Web site’s purpose will include both user-centered and organization-centered goals and objectives. Some Web sites also include technology-centered statements of purpose, such as “to show the capabilities of ABC-VR software by including four virtual reality panoramas on the site” or “to allow users to view video excerpts from the summer institutes in a variety of formats, including QuickTime and RealVideo.” Most Web sites serve a variety of purposes, and during the planning stage it’s important to consider and include all of them. Evaluating Success How will you know whether your Web site is a success? How will you measure its effectiveness? After the site has been published and people have used it for a while, you certainly should evaluate it based on the purposes that you developed in the planning stage. You will list each purpose and determine whether it has been accomplished. Did the sales of left-handed tennis racquets grow by 30%? How many new readers registered at The New York Times online? How many virtual reality panoramas were included in the site? How much intelligent conversation took place among members on the site? The answers to these questions will determine whether the Web site has succeeded in its mission. So it’s important that the purposes of the site be described completely and carefully at this early planning stage. Stating Your Site’s Purpose Do It Yourself: State the Purpose What is the purpose of your Web site? Include both broad goals and specific objectives. Speak to the goals of the sponsor as well as the needs of the individual users. Include enough detail to assist in planning the site’s structure and in evaluating its success. Set goals and objectives for what will be displayed and what users will be able to do in terms of interactivity and communication. Include any specific technologies to be used. Use the form shown in Figure 1.8 to help you develop your statement of purpose. Goals of the organization Goals of the user Objectives for display Objectives for interactivity Objectives for communication Objectives for technology Figure 1.8 Template for Statement of Purpose You’ll use this statement of purpose in developing the structure of the site.