Understanding organizational, user, and website goals - Squarespace Tutorial

- [Instructor] There are three types of goals you should consider when starting a new website project or a redesign project. The answers to these goals can easily drive your product and feature decisions for your site. So getting these goals right is really important. Here's an example. One of my first website design clients in 2001 wanted me to create a website for a large house for sale in Southern Vermont. The housing question was six bedrooms, six bathrooms, and priced at $1.875 million. It had lots of features, like a pool, a bocce ball court, a home gym, a bed that slid out on rails so you could sleep under the stars and so much more. The challenge came from the disconnect between the local population and the homeowner's target audience. Locally, there weren't any jobs that paid enough for someone to buy a house like this. The house is located in the lower right-hand corner of the state of Vermont. This map shows that it's within about a half day's drive of several metropolitan centers, including New York City and Boston. With that background, let's consider some goals for this project. What are the organization's goals? In this case, the organization is the homeowner. He wants to sell this house at a price that reflects its unique value and without waiting more than six months for a buyer. Simple and clear. Next, who will visit the website? Given that the house is selling for $1.875 million, the local population is not the target audience. The seller needs to find a home buyer with deep pockets who is looking for a unique home in a rural area. There are some assumptions we can make about this particular home buyer. First, they don't live locally. To be able to afford an expensive home like this one, they need to have a substantial income. Second, it's likely that the right buyer will be found in one of the big cities nearby or they're a wealthy international buyer. Putting the listing on the Web is a logical savvy way to reach this buyer coupled with more traditional advertising in larger newspapers like the New York Times. And finally, they might be looking for a second home. With a second home, the potential buyer might be looking for a place to relax that provides access to Vermont's year round outdoor activities like skiing, sledding, skating, ice fishing, hiking, and camping. With that information, we know that our target audience is probably a wealthy city-dweller wanting to relax in the country. Therefore, the user goal is to figure out if this home is a good match for that desire. Is it worth taking a weekend to visit Vermont and to see this house and explore the neighborhood? Finally, let's consider the goals of this website and how it can support both the organization and the user goals. Is this website responsible for selling the house? In other words, would someone view this website and put in a shopping cart and checkout right there online, purchase it immediately without ever having visited the property? Well, that might happen occasionally, but it's really pretty rare with a higher-price property like this one. More likely a potential buyer needs enough information about the home and the area to make a decision to head to Vermont for a visit. Because it's about a half day's drive from the nearest large cities in either direction, it's likely that the buyer would visit for the weekend or at least overnight. The site should emphasize the relaxing vacation lake features of the house and the nearby outdoor activities with information about driving distances and access while deemphasizing other features like school system ratings and neighborhood communities. This formation coupled with our understanding of potential buyers' perspectives and goals tells us that our website goal is to generate strong interest with the right audience and offer them a way to take action. In this case, book a trip to visit the property and the surrounding area. What are the organizational, user, and website goals for the site that you're building? Consider this before building your next website.