A Web of Compromises

This post is probably far too detailed for the casual reader but some of my web producer/designer friends may find it interesting.


Construction of the website for the Handicrafts Group is nearly complete, just waiting for a little more copy and the final product photo shoot to be arranged and once those images are uploaded we will be finished.


You can see it at www.hagenhandicrafts.com.

So its a good time to reflect on the process and review what we've achieved.


Essentially the whole design/build process has been a series of trade offs and compromises between what we would really like to do and what was actually possible given the constraints under which we operate here in Hagen.


The first few weeks were spent reviewing the available organisation and technology resources. It became apparent very early on that trying to build an online store with e-commerce capability was a none starter. Technically it would have been a piece of cake to build but distributing individual sales of bilums around the world from Mt Hagen was a logistical nightmare - the distribution/transport infrastructure here simply wouldn't support it. The idea of handling lots of small online sales with a dodgy dial up connection filled me with dread. The banking system and the limited staffing resources here at the Handicraft Group would have made a difficult situation nearly impossible. So no e-commerce.


We developed a strategy based on growing a network of international distributors and supplying them wholesale. Some of our potential international partners would have online stores and we would feature those stores on our website - so anybody visiting the site would still have the opportunity to buy online even though they couldn't buy directly from the Handicraft Group. (This area of the website is a bit thin at the moment since we only have one international distributor with an online store and that's in German! However its a start.)


So at this stage we knew what sort of website we had to build. We then did all the usual web producer stuff:


Clear definition of the Website Objectives


Identified all the stakeholders


Created a PID (Project Initiation Document)


Prepared a time based plan and a budget


Developed the Information Architecture & Wire Frames


Produced various options for Art Direction


Created a detailed Functional Spec.


Created a fully dressed prototype


Some of my professional colleagues will find all the above very difficult to believe since I normally have a strong aversion to all this stuff!


Now we knew what sort of website we wanted, what it would look like and what functionality it would possess. The question was how to build it? We had to accept the fact that all we had to work with was a slow dial up connection and that once I left the project there would be no web development capability in the organisation. So it had to be developed in such a way that basic site maintenance (pricing, new products, new distributor links etc) could be handled by a non web specialist with some training but that major structural changes to the architecture of the site would not be possible.


We also had to find a way of handling lots of photos of our products and ensuring that future photos uploaded after I left would fit in with the layout and design.


So - we have built a basic site using Yola (the main strength of Yola is its simplicity and the quality of the support they provide for non technical people), we use Flickr to host the photo images and Yola has a great Widget which displays them on the site (takes care of spacing, sizing, presentation etc) so all the folk at the Handicrafts Group have to do is upload the photo to Flickr, tag it with the correct tags and hey presto it appears on the website in the right place, in the correct format, mounted on a nice frame and appropriately sized etc etc.


We also use the Flickr slideshow which works well - gives full screen images of our products and is very easy to maintain - just upload photos to Flickr, arrange them in sets and create slideshow from set.

I produced two silent videos using my very ordinary digital camera on "video mode" and edited them with Windows movie editor (!) May be able to add a commentary once I'm back in th UK but not possible to do here. The videos are hosted on You Tube with the embed code on our site.


We use Jotform for all the online forms (contact us, order form, new distributor enquiry) - the back office management of all the form data is done really well on Jotform


We have a Facebook Page and a Blog. Thought about Twitter but that was a step too far I felt.


I have indexed the site map with Google and have included appropriate Google Analytics tracking code within the site.


All of this is free/open source (except Yola which only cost about $40/year including mail and domain name registration)


We produced a beta version of the site before Christmas - send it out into the world for user testing and took notice of the feedback we received.

At the end of all this we have a site which works well, provides sensible user journeys, has the functionality we need and can be maintained by very inexperience people once I have gone. Its even pretty good on the accessibility critera too!


All this was done in about 12 weeks which is something of a miracle here in PNG.


Now we move on to Phase Two - promoting and marketing our site. All suggestions welcome!