Once upon a time there was a young child. They didn’t have many friends, so they spent most of their time inside, on the computer. While on the computer they… What? That’s not what you meant by “website story”? OK… let’s start again.
Creating a website is a lot like writing a story. One is about putting words in such a way that the reader creates this idea of a fantastical world or can describe a character as if they have known them for years.
The other is about putting words in such a way that the reader can see information that’s relevant to them, and that speaks to their ambitions and concerns, and adding in graphical touches to gain and retain their attention.
They’re not very similar when described like that, however, the process behind them is a lot more similar than you think.
Knowing the end goals before you finish
I remember when J.K. Rowling said that she already knew how Harry Potter would end before she had finished writing …The Philosopher’s Stone.
As I had never thought about the process of story writing before, all I could think about was “How could she know the ending before it had begun?”
But, the more I dug, the more I learned how common it was for writers to know exactly how the story will end before they know the journey to get there. And, of course, not all stories have a concrete end before they are finished. Sometimes the writer may change the ending as they realise a more interesting outcome could happen while they are halfway through writing the story.
This is very similar to websites having an expected design and functionality before the development even starts.
When we complete a website project for a client, the website is in its final chapter, ready for a client to add the finishing touches.
The websites which we, and our clients, believe to be some of our best work are the ones where, upon reaching this final chapter, everything draws to a gentle conclusion. They are the sites that closely resemble our original end goal: late changes might include new form fields, adding a blog page, maybe switching the order of some things around.
Nothing too drastic – if you put the finished website next to the design, you’d be hard pressed to notice any striking differences.
However, this isn’t to say that the moment you sign off a design “that’s it”.
We have built some incredible websites where somewhere along the journey, we decided that instead of slaying the dragon and becoming king, we’d make the character run in fear and have a larger, more epic, fight later down the road with the whole village involved…
I mean, we had a drastic change in how the website should operate, which ended with a website which ended up being more akin to a younger, more energetic, sibling of the original design.
The jitters, and how to beat them
Anyone who’s ever tried to write a story, or spoken with someone who has, will know of “the jitters”. You’re halfway into writing the book; the main character no longer seems likeable, the love interest they should have by now still seems like a background character, and the alien invasion is just about to start.
How do you start writing the next chapter? Maybe you should just start all over again and ignore the love interest this time?
This can be equally true for everyone involved in the creation of a new website, and at every stage.
You’ve spoken with a designer who now is tasked with creating a design for your site. You may change your mind about a key aspect you want on the design, or the designer may have a design that is 90% complete yet feel like an element seems out of place.
You have seen the design and like it, so the development starts. The developer comes to a section on the design and believes it would work better in a different way than how you’d like, or you may wish to see things “working” before the development is complete.
The development is completed, and you get the website to test out. You suddenly start questioning if the design is right, or the team behind your website starts to wonder if maybe something could have been done differently to give a better experience.
No matter if you’re writing a story or making a website, the need for perfection is always there. Nobody wants to have to slog through a boring chapter to get to the good part of a book, just like how nobody wants to have to deal with a counterintuitive website to be able to contact a company.
To beat the jitters, thinking ahead is always key. Much like focusing on the end goal, focusing on the next goal is just as important.
When my friend was writing her first book, she told me how she’d jot down a few bullet points of what the next chapter would contain before starting on the current one. They were nothing too complex, but enough to remind her that jumping into the action straight away may seem more exciting, but it doesn’t always make for the best story.
This is similar to how we design and develop a website. We will talk with our clients about what they want from the website, and make notes of how it should look and function.
The designer will take these notes to create a tailored design and make notes of how a user should interact with certain sections, and the developer can look over these notes and finish the story that came before them.
Laying the perfect groundwork
Have you ever tried to write a story?
It’s so easy to get the first chapter or two written out, as you have ideas flowing through your brain, and the words just never seem to stop. But then, whether it’s at chapter three or chapter 10, they do.
You find you’ve put your main character in an impossible situation, they give up the thing they swore to protect in the first chapter, or they die right then and there. How do you get them out of this situation without the outcome being unbelievable?
Had you took a bit more time to think about the ending to your story, or considered that they would enter an unwinnable moral dilemma beforehand, you may have just included that scene you cut which had them charming a shopkeeper to get a better deal, so they could charm their way out of a future situation without it seeming unrealistic.
This goes the same for a website. The more information there is at every stage, the less traps there are to fall into with the final product. Something as simple as saying “I like short, snappy, sentences” can help a copywriter create more appealing copy, which fits in with your style of engagement with clients.
Or having the designer create another variation of a section which you like the idea of, but maybe not the design, to help you decide if maybe it’s the colour, the layout, or something else which didn’t sit right with you the first time.
And when you do this right, you’ll get to the final chapter and not feel confused as to how you got there. You will know that everything is as it should be, because the character/website followed the path that was planned out in advance, and every foreseeable obstacle was prepared for.
If you’re looking for your website’s happily ever after, email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call us on 0115 896 5300 now to learn more.