GroundSwell Design

A mission statement sounds like the dreaded management speak but in this case I think it is a pretty useful simple first step in creating a website. The statement should be a sentence that will be used to remind everyone involved in the project what the website is designed to do, and who it is for. Referring to this statement throughout the project will ensure that the site always retains its original purpose and that each new feature added to the site supports this goal.

An example mission statement:

“A website for MP Swim Coaching to provide information on the coach, locations and training programs that is updated regularly with an ability to enquire about course availability and booking for individual fitness and club swimmers of all ages wanting to improve their technique”

The first half is all about functionality:

“A website for MP Swim Coaching to provide information on the coach, locations and training programs that is updated regularly with an ability to enquire about course availability and booking...

The second half is about who will use it:

..for individual fitness and club swimmers of all ages wanting to improve their technique”

Part One of the Mission Statement: The What

The first part of the mission statement focuses on what the site should do. The site should provide information on the coach, her methodology, experience and qualifications. The site should also provide pool location information the coach operates from, and a breakdown of the type of training programs on offer and the dates/times these courses run. All these information articles will need to be kept current by the owner of the site, in this case Michelle Phelps.

As well as information prospective swim students will contact Michelle via the site with questions and booking enquiries.

As we can see expanding on the first part of the mission statement immediately starts to tell you about how the content of the site will be organised into clear sections which in turn dictates the navigation structure of the site enabling potential and returning students to find the relevant section and information. This navigation structure may need to be backed up by a search facility depending on how large the site is expected to grow.

Some of the site content would be in article form, but the mission statement also suggests that a calendar of available courses would be a great format to employ in this site.

The information on the site may change often and should be easily updated by Michelle as dates and course information change, or when Michelle gains a new coaching qualification. This means the site needs to be built upon a Content Management System (CMS) such as Joomla. We also might wish to consider a map component to display the pool locations so clients can find them easily.

The site will require an accessible contact form that will send a confirmation email to the client that their request will be answered soon and send a email to Michelle detailing the nature of the enquiry. The mission statement also tells us that the site does not require as yet any online payment mechanism as this is handled ‘offline’ by Michelle when she receives a query from the web form.

Part Two of the Mission Statement: The Who

The second part of the mission statement tells us who the site is for. This will help tailor the look of the site so it appeals to the target audience. We can see that we are designing a site that should appeal to active people who enjoy the water, are of all ages and a range of abilities, but take their swimming pretty seriously. The look of the site should be clean and visually appealing with perhaps an aqua based theme.

The second part of the mission statement also helps you tailor the content of the site to your target audience. As we can see Michelle should be providing coaching sessions for people who can already swim to a good standard, some of whom may compete, and are looking to improve and tweak their technique in order to train and race more effectively.

Had the second part of the mission statement read “ for children and adults who are wanting to learn to swim” the graphic design of the site may be adjusted to appeal to a younger market, and the content will certainly be quite different.

Getting good content that is kept up to date and is relevant to your target audience will dramatically increase your sites chance of being near the top of search engine results executed by your target user group. Your mission statement will help you achieve this. To find more information on this please see our "Content for your Website" article.

In Summary

This is just one way of starting to think about what your website is there to do, who it is aimed at, and how to structure the information on it. You may find another method equally as good or better for you, but it is an important process to go through in order to build a successful website.

As always any further questions on how to start specifying a website then just drop us a line at GroundSwell.