Communicationinvestigative Report on Website Development

2. INVESTIGATIVE REPORT ON WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

For a website to be successful, you must have clear identified goals and compelling content that draws your audience to your site again and again. A good site requires a delicate balance between content, visual appeal and technology, but most of all content (Leonard-Wilkonson, n.d.). Knowledge of the market, product or service and business environment is also essential if you are going to improve business (Barnett & O’Rourke, 2006).

2.1 WHAT MAKES A GOOD WEBSITE

2.1.1 The Audience

Content is the reason people visit websites, it forms the basis of a good site. You need to know who will look at your site, what their expectations are before starting on the content. The content will need to match up with your audience’s expectations (Barnett & O’Rourke, 2006). One sample audience would be prospective students looking for a programme that might interest them (“What makes a good…”, n.d.). A site that reflects this is Massey University, where you can “match interest to programmes”.

2.1.2 Compelling Content

Content is the most important single element on a website, this will be the reason why they visit your site in the first place (Barnett & O’Rourke, 2006). It will need to provide the visitor with the information and grab their attention.

You will need to create simple, inviting and informative content. The use of headings, short paragraphs and bullet points is highly recommended (Ekins, n.d.). A good example here is the Eastern Institute of Technology’s (EIT) webpage on their programmes. It outlines the programmes in an easy to read content with breaks between headings and bullet points to make important information stand out.

Another important factor is to keep your content updated, if it is not updated regularly, you will loose your audience (King, n.d.).

Dominate a subject area, become the site for that subject (King, n.d.). The Wellington Institute of Technology and Unitec is good examples that shows that they dominate the area of electro-technology studies.

2.1.3 Visual Appeal

Create a visual theme that is consistent