Project Profiler

It can be difficult to think of all that is involved in building a website. Use this profiler to help you get a better idea of what you might need to consider. The idea is not to overwhelm you but, again, just to get the process going and start thinking about all that can end up being parts of the whole.

The Project profiler is composed of two parts:

1. Background and Goals

2. Audience, Content and Functionality

1. Background and Goals

Company
Corporate and industry descriptions.

Contact information and a description of the group who will be working on the project.

Who are the decision makers?
Who else would be contracting?
Who's responsible for what?
What human resources do you have for various stages of the process?

Project

What is the mission statement or summary of your project?
What are the basic goals of this project? (e.g., branding/identity reinforcement, improved access to information, direct sales, corporate communication, etc.)
What outcome will make this project successful?
How will you measure success?
What are your schedule requirements?
Is there an acceptable budget range, depending on the level and comprehensiveness of services provided?
Describe any work that has been done toward designing/redesigning a new website.
Will the website reinforce an existing branding or marketing strategy? How?
Discuss any identity/branding assets (logos, other artwork, and fonts) or issues.

Project

Rank the following, in order of importance

A web strategy that fits with our corporate strategy.
A web strategy that fits with our marketing strategy.
Repurposing existing content
Creating a community of dedicated visitors
Quality execution (graphics, writing, navigation, etc.)
Time to market
Ease of maintenance
Doing better than our competition on the Web.
People bookmark the site because they get so much out of it regularly.
Staying within the budget
Sending the message that we know the Web and use it appropriately.

2. Audience, Content, and Functionality

Audience

What types of visitors do you want to attract?
Who is it the site would serve?
Who is the existing audience?
What do you know about them?
Is a goal of the site to attract an expanded audience? Who would that be? What do you know about them?
What are your goals for each type of visitor? What are the products / services involved?
What are your goals for these products/services?
What would constitute quality service to your users?
Will changes in the site affect serving your current audience?
How much emphasis is to be placed on serving your current users
How much focus is to be placed on attracting and serving an expanded audience?

Content

Where will content come from? Will it be new, repurposed, or both?
If it does need to be repurposed, who is responsible for doing so?
When will it be available?
Who is responsible for and delivering it to developer?
How often will you add new content?
Who will update the content?

Functionality

What functional requirements do you believe to be necessary? (e.g., download areas, database-driven web pages, commerce, catalog, applications, etc.)
Who will update these functionality's?
Are there extraordinary security issues
Are there other technical issues or limitations?
Have you budgeted for hosting and maintenance of the site?
If so, what is your budget?
Who will maintain the site contents?
How will the site be served / hosted?
What types of legacy systems/databases are in place?
What is your long-term plan for the site?