Web Design - Using The Family Tree

When it comes time to work on a web design you should work to develop the site before you actually develop the site. What I mean by that is try to map out what you are wanting in your website and how everything should break down logically.

Think of it like a family tree. Each branch is the father, mother, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma or grandpa in the tree. There is a logical pattern to the tree as it branches from one generation to the next. When you view a family tree it doesn't take long to figure out where everyone fits in the history of a singular family.

If you take this same idea and begin to work on your website you find the 'patriarch' of your website and make it the home page. What does that page look like, what will be most important to the proper functioning of the home page.

Each additional page is another branch in your web design tree. What are the most important 'next generation' pages? These should have some of the other vital categories.

You may find that some secondary categories won't have any branches. They may work all by themselves. These would be pages like the "About Us" section or the "Contact Us" page. However, many secondary pages may include other branches. These could be pages filled with knowledge-based content, photos or product pages.

You might even find that these third generation pages have sub topic content.

Remember, you can make the job of website design much easier my mapping out the web design (site map) prior to actually developing the site.

This is also a key step that shortens the time it can take to produce your own website design using template rich web building technology.

It is interesting that many businesses will spend quality time developing a business plan, organizing the office and developing a strategy for marketing, but they are never really very sure what they should do for their website design.

The good news is you can develop a 'tree' for your website and it really doesn't have to take a significant amount of time to develop. It might take a time of devoted concentration, but you can aid your website design time by visiting other sites to see what you like and what seems to work really well.

Consider this a time to devise a map for your customers. Sometimes sites that are not easy to navigate are the byproduct of a website design that was never fully developed and suffers from pages that were added in unusual places.

Take the time to map out your website design first, It's good for you, your customers and even highly valued search engines.