Download Determining Your Site`s Purpose

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.