Starting a web project?

There’s two questions you need to ask yourself.

1. Who are our audience?

2. What would we like these people to do?

That’s it.

For example:

We’re a B2C retailer selling hanging baskets. Our audience is over 50s gardeners and we want them to fill in an enquiry form.

From that core statement, you can build out your information architecture, visual design, copy and feature set.

In this case, it has to have a contact form, a clear call to action and – quite probably – pictures of hanging baskets and prices.

Too often the basics of a project are not aligned with its core objectives, and these two simple questions seek to align purpose and strategy.

Two simple questions with a massive amount of complexity involved, but if this is your staring point you’re at least on the right track.

Don’t start a web project without them.