The strategic intent of a website can be defined as the goals or purpose of the website. Identifying the strategic intent or purpose of the website is an activity that occurs in the requirements analysis phase of website development. In this phase it is common to interview the client and gather information in order to define a business opportunity and an understanding of how to exploit that opportunity.
There are many reasons why a client may decide to build a website, for example:
- The website may be seen as a marketing tool
- To provide e-commerce facilities for international customers
- To communicate with customers or suppliers
The goals or purpose of the site will determine what type of site is developed. Websites can be loosely categorised according to their purpose and audience. Some website categories include:
- Community sites. The community site provides a service (such as information, a communication forum or entertainment) to a group (or community) based on some area of interest (eg open source software, music, crafts and consumer information and discussion groups). Community sites are generally non-profit.
- Brochure sites. The purpose of a brochure site generally is to promote the company and products. Similar to an electronic catalogue, it has no e-commerce facilities, although it is likely to have contact information for purchasing. Brochure sites provide potential customers with a means to browse the product range in a convenient manner.
- E-commerce sites. The main difference between a brochure site and an e-commerce site is that the e-commerce site provides the ability to purchase the product directly from the website. It therefore must provide payment and delivery options. E-commerce is a general term, which covers business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) sites.
- Business to consumer sites (B2C). A business to consumer site is a retail e-commerce site (sometimes called e-tail!).
- Business to business sites (B2B). A business to business site provides electronic communication between organisations. For example, to provide the ability to order from a supplier or gather credit information about customers from financial institutions.
At the end of the requirements analysis stage of systems development, a Requirements Report is produced which should identify the business opportunities and functions that the website will perform. The Information Architect will use this report to design the website Information Architecture.
Complete Activity 1: Website categories
