Functional Design
The functional design is a definition of what the website will enable users to do. What are you building? Answering this question is the starting point for any design work. You need to clearly determine what the website will do before you can plan how to accomplish it, what the site will look like, or what it will cost. The functional brief answers that question. Execution is not described in the functional brief. How a site will execute a particular function is a matter of technical design.We were recently approached to build a website for a small floral business. The owner said he realized that he needed a ‘home page.’ His first question was, ‘How much will it cost?’
‘What do you want it to do?’ we replied. ‘Let people get in touch with you? Take orders? Show products online? Search for delivery locations and rates?’
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘all that stuff.’
‘It could cost a quarter of a million dollars.’
‘I thought I could get a home page for a thousand dollars,’ he said.
Clearly, the functional design was the starting point for this project. In the end, we built him a nice little site for $2,500 that serves his real needs. He’s even planning to get an e-mail account.
The functional specification is a continuation of the brief, delving into greater details, such as specific features, content topics, and user interactivity. The functional specifications also describe the organization of content and the site’s navigational structure.
Examples of items in the functional design documents for Campus Posters, Inc. might include the following:
* The Campus Poster website will allow customers to search the database of approximately 1,000 posters stocked at the downtown store and thousands more that the store can special order from suppliers.
* Search will be on artist or source of poster, a short description of the poster, and broad
categories such as music, sports, nature, and fine arts.
* Users will be able to browse categories for in-stock items.
* Search results will indicate whether the item is stocked or special order.
* Thumbnail photos will show up with search results, and a larger image will appear on the product listing page.
* A section of the site will be dedicated to special promotions and new releases.
* An e-commerce module will allow users to purchase posters online.