As you are beginning your home page design...

You need to keep a few points in mind. I will want you to answer these questions in the design document you'll turn in with this project at the end of this semester.

Website Plan
1. Who is your target audience?
(I have defined this a few times, but be sure to put this in the document, and refer to it often. Whenever you get a chance, show it to children you know in the target age range, and see what their reaction is. You want to appeal to both boys and girls, so try to strike a good balance in your design.)

2. How can I design the site to best reach the audience?
(Of course, visuals are a big part of it, but think about how you present the information. You want information blocks to be succinct, easy to understand, friendly, and memorable. How will you reach your audience? Will you present your factoids in diagram form? List? Map? Timeline? Q&A? Flash cards? Comic strip? Characters explaining in an animation? Rollovers? The possibilities are endless. Just keep in mind the time constraints, and be realistic about what you can take on. By the same token, don't take the path of least resistance. :) )

3. What are the goals for the site?
(Not just for you to get an A and add to our project...you want these goals to be something that can be measured, something quantifiable. Will your site help raise kids' scores in math by a certain percent? Is your goal to keep the users on the site for a certain amount of time? This falls into the section of the document based on Site Strategy. We will talk more about this.)

4. How will I gather the information?
(You have been working on this, and hopefully you have gotten the information gathered. Now you must refine your writing and hone your site's organization. You should keep an asset list as well: list all of the graphics, photos, and illustrations you need to create for your site.)

5. What sources will I use for content (facts and images)?
(I want the content to be original writing, nothing lifted from another site. Definitely reference the sites where you gathered your facts. All of your graphics should be original, except in the case of the art section, where Sarah is referencing specific works of art.)

6. What is my budget?
(None for this project, but when you actually end up working on a website in a freelance scenario, you'll want to give an hourly estimate up front, or you may decide to price by project. I prefer to estimate hours and give clients a range (on the low end, I estimate 60 hours at $X, and on the high end, 80 hours at $X. You get better at estimating the more you do it. When you estimate, specify up front the number of rounds of revisions you are including in your budget, and let your client know that any more than that will require additional hours, which translates into additional costs.)

7. What is the timeline?
(For us, 12/9/10 - Thursday)

8. Who is on your team?
(The whole class is essentially, but mainly the others in your subject group, and myself. When you work a large site in the professional world, you may have other designers, Creative and Art Directors, Marketing reps, User Experience experts, Information Architects, Content Strategists, and the client company's CEO or CFO. A large scale website can involve "many cooks in the kitchen", but as a designer, you must work with them all.)

9. How often will the site need updating?
(Is it a site that can stay as it is and rarely need changing, or does the content rotate out on a hourly/daily/weekly/monthly basis?)

10. Who will be responsible for handling the site updates?
(In this case, me I suppose. ;)

So - work on three home page comps for Thursday. Think in terms of designing within a grid. This definitely will help expedite your development if you think of how your entire page is divided into sections. Think of easy-to-understand organization and navigation. We want these to be both easy and enjoyable to use.

See you Tuesday! Have things to show me then.