Melanie Paris
COMM 3510-02
Site 3 – Planning Report
Title of Site: Merlin’s Industrial Machining
Statement of Purpose: Merlin’s Industrial Machining provides a particular piece of equipment to a distributor, who then resells it to clients. The main purpose of this website will be to provide the customers with product information direct from the manufacturer. Secondarily, this site will be used to provide an enhanced corporate image for Merlin’s and to secure new clients.
Audience Analysis: The primary audience for this website will be laymen who specialize in carpet cleaning. Thus, information on the website will be written in simple, accessible terms. A secondary audience will include industrial businessmen looking for a machinist to fulfill their machining needs. To address this audience, the website will include information about Merlin’s machining capabilities, previous clients, and pictures of completed projects.
Accessibility Plan: When completed, this site will be loaded onto webspace provided by Merlin’s ISP. Graphics will be annotated so that audience members with visual impairments can still access information. Little emphasis will be placed on this since the primary audience members are carpet cleaners who are, by trade, required to have good/unimpaired vision.
Business Model: This website will not be designed to directly generate revenue, as the product is distributed exclusively through Bridgepoint. It will be geared instead toward providing the distributor with a service to offer their customers; we hope this will secure repeat business with the distributor. The site will also be used as an advertisement. It will be submitted to search engines and we hope to draw some new clients to the machine shop for the business’ secondary operations.
Comparison with Similar Websites:
http://www.nikro.com/ductcln.htm
This site contains some very attractively phrased copy. They put a good marketing spin on their company as “experts” that can help a company expand into air duct cleaning. I’ll try to craft similarly market-driven copy that is still informative. This site gives the specs of their duct cleaning machine, but does not explain how to use it or give any precautions. I will incorporate these elements into Merlin’s site.
http://www.abatement.com/ductcleaning/
This website is VERY informative, but to the point of giving information in too wordy of a fashion. The amount of information they provide automatically increases their credibility with the audience, but it is difficult to find a specific piece of information quickly, since the site fails to use headers or bullet points. I will try to create a site that is as informative but more easily accessible in terms of scanning the page.
http://www.aeductools.com/
This site is easy to navigate and provides good information. They make good use of headings so a viewer can easily scan the page for relevant material. Their layout is fairly uninteresting, so it doesn’t differentiate itself in any way. I will incorporate an eye-catching, memorable layout with solid information to create a resource for viewers.
Design:
Theme and Style – The theme of the website will revolve around the client’s logo. Where possible, subtle and obvious cues to the “magic” or “wizard” elements of “Merlin’s Industrial Machining” will be incorporated. In theory, this should create a lasting impression with the audience, so they will be more likely to remember cues to access the site in the future. Colors will be consistent with the client’s logo and equipment colors. The title font is called “Ringbearer,” which is a free copy of the font used on the “Lord of the Rings” marketing collateral. This is meant to again connect with the “magical” theme of Merlin’s company name.
Navigational Structure – This site will use a branching structure with a kind of bottleneck.
Early Concept Sketches –
Click here to view concept sketches for the home page and for child pages.
Plans for Content Acquisition:
· Part list
· Instruction sheet
· Photos of DuctWizard
o unit
o hose
o brushes
· Photos of in-house equipment
· Photos of completed projects
· Satisfied client list, testimonials
· Precautions list
· Company profile
Plans for Project Evaluation:
Requirements for:
· Staffing – This site will be entirely designed by one staff member. The sole member will take all photos, write all content, and meet with client for feedback.
· Equipment – Dreamweaver, PhotoShop, Adobe Acrobat; a digital camera and a scanner will be crucial to the success of this project.
· Schedule – Preliminary planning will be completed by November 10, 2003 and a functional site will be running by December 1, 2003.
· Budget – Tuition and fees for a three-credit class in web design equate to $680.50. A trial copy of Dreamweaver and a manual for the software cost $44.99. My digital camera and associated software cost $350; my Gizmo device was $25. If Merlin plans to utilize this website, I will be purchasing two stock images. The other necessary equipment has been acquired/paid for on previous projects in years past and I don’t specifically recall the prices. An estimate would be around $1200 for my computer. The scanner cost approximately $150. This project will be completed pro bono, since I am an amateur designer and am not in a position to charge for my work. I estimate that this project will require at least 20 hours to complete.
Merlin’s website will include his logo in the top left-hand corner of each page. The picture below is just a place holder for the actual photo. The title font will be Ringbearer and body copy will be Verdana, so as to allow for easy readability.