Planning a Website

Begin with a Plan

  • purpose of the website site
  • why are people going to visit your website
  • use a flowchart to configure the structure of a website
  • consider how your client will navigate through the website
  • what the content will be
  • how will your website fit into the overall Baylor University website in philosophy, content and design
A well-designed website can make it easy for your audience to navigate and get the information you want them to receive. It can also make it easier for you to manage and update later on.


Know your audience

  • gear your website towards what your audience is searching for in order to encourage them to visit your site again
  • knowing what information your viewers want and how often you should update that information will help you maintain your site so that it’s fresh and useful
  • The more you know about your audience, the better you can serve them with your site
  • Remember to not only include information for current students, but also prospective students. Try to paint a clear picture of what your department is all about and the benefits your department has to offer a student who may be considering Baylor or a current student who may be trying to decide on a major.

Consider all options

  • experiment with several designs for organizing information and consider multiple ways people can navigate to the individual pages in your site
  • most people will experience your site one page at a time with the home page as the starting page
  • the home page will often have some sort of table of contents that describes what’s on the site
  • use a flow chart or site map of your site to understand parent child page relationships
You can resolve any design issues and change the overall structure of the site before you create the actual pages and links.


Things to consider when meeting with your Web Consultant

  • A template that includes the desired overall Baylor look and feel and one that individual elements can be added that relate to your specific department (i.e. graphics/pictures)
  • Site Navigation
    • Top Navigation Bar
    • Left Side Navigation
    • Right Side Navigation
    • Links included in the body of the page
    • Footer Navigation Bar
  • Organize what information needs to be included and how you would like it presented. (i.e. main content, important dates, announcements, FAQ’s, news and events, electronic forms, etc.)
  • Decide who in your department will have time to regularly update the site. The amount of time this designated person can allot to website updates must be considered at this point. An extremely complex website that contains a large amount of date sensitive information will definitely require more time to upkeep. A well designed site can facilitate easy maintenance.
  • Timeline of the project
Baylor's content management system is a tool for academic and administrative units to create and manage websites.