A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. – Lao Tzu
Putting together a website can be a daunting task. I build websites for businesses and individuals every day and know how difficult it can be organizing all your items and getting everything done. Well, even for an experienced web designer like myself, putting together a website for my own business can be even tricker! Sometimes you just need an outside perspective to get things done well.
For this project, so far there is only one perspective…mine. So let’s see what kinds of challenges come up.
But as the wise philosopher Lao Tzu suggests, we just need to start with one step.
Starting Each New Project
The first thing I do when starting any new project is I discuss with my client about the site’s goals and objectives, and the kind of experience they want their user to have. So I did this with myself. Nothing fancy here. Just a few notes going over the Vision, Voice, and Style of the site.
My vision
What kind of emotions does the site need to portray? What does it need to reflect about my business? What are people coming to my site to accomplish?
My voice
What do I need to tell my audience? What kind of tone do I want to set? What do I want my audience to do?
My style
What is it that is going to make this site uniquely “flair?” What kinds of textures do I want to use? What kind of rhythm will the site have? What kind of timber will there be? What will the site feel like?