DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT
Specialists on both the technology and creative end will work simultaneously on the project. The project manager must coordinate the efforts. In the early planning stages, the project manager has identified strategic objectives for the site with key stakeholders. In order to answer the basic three questions outlined previously, the project manager has gathered information from others around the organization, including team members for the project. Moving beyond the 90-second executive briefing, the project manager will probably want to bring together the team to further develop the concept.The project document developed in Chapter 3 makes a good starting point for bringing people together. As explained later, suggested documents for both functional design and technological design include a brief and a specification, which is more refined. You will also prepare a creative brief for designers and writers. They will not be able to dig into their work until some functional and technological questions have been answered. For instance, graphic designers may brainstorm and identify graphics for a site, but they cannot design a navigation bar until the navigational structure is in place. Bring the team together and present your 90-second answers to the three basic questions. Share written documentation that is available, such as briefs. Then brainstorm, discuss, and debate. Strive for consensus and make decisions, even if these decisions are subject to change.
Your challenge here is to be as open-minded as possible. Your client may have delivered a navigational structure for the site with the initial request for proposal or project description document. Perhaps you have drawn up your own plan. At no other stage in development will changes be more doable than now. Do your best to shed preconceptions and allow for the perspective and insight of others.
Phase 1: Menu-Tree Diagram
When developing the concept and working with the initial layout of the site, you will probably want to create a menu-tree diagram or schematic. A menu-tree diagram is basically a page-by -page layout of the site, with the top-level menu (the home page) at the top of the page, divided into submenus, each of which is broken down into its component pages. Consider the following menu-tree diagram for the fictional company Campus Posters, Inc.
As a bird’s-eye view of the various sections and subsections, the menu-tree diagram clearly shows the relative sizes and relationships among the different sections. It reveals the complexity of the site, its richness, and its potential pitfalls.
The menu-tree diagram is a useful visual aid for a brainstorming or concept development meeting. The diagram helps everybody visualize the site and presents talking points for design and structure. You may want to use self-adhesive notes on posterboard, so ‘pages’ can easily be moved around. Some developers cover whole walls with index cards, pushpins, and thread.
The menu-tree diagram shows pages, links, and some description of content. As your site plans develop, you can fill in specific details on content types, such as images, video, and copy. The menu-tree diagram helps the team members understand what is on the page. Designers will see both the big picture and all the elements that must be fit onto individual pages. If there are too many pages, this issue can be raised and addressed during concept development. Later on in production, it can help people track the content assets.
Design teams use a variety of software products to create diagrams. Adobe Illustrator or Microsoft Visio work well. You can also use Microsoft Word. The menu-tree diagram can also be created in outline format if you feel more comfortable. An outline consists of the same information as the schematic. Shortcomings of this approach are that it is more difficult to show linking and that it is not as effective in illustrating site structure as a visual diagram.