Overview of the Web Portal Design Process
A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Frances Rhea
Concepts and Theories of a Web Portal
The first in designing a Web Portal is to look at other Portals to discover what makes a good portal. This way you can envision what your Web Portal might look like and contain.
A good Web Portal design should offer Community Collaboration and Interactivity. The goal of your design should be building relationships, learning, meeting the needs of customers or employees, and gathering information. This virtual community should allow people to come together and share ideas, information, and get to know each other.
The main means of providing this type of collaboration is a discussion forum. This is a place where people can post questions and get answers from either staff or other members.
Web Portal Design is More Than Just a Forum
Building an online community with your Web Portal design is not as easy as installing the forum. It takes gathering people willing to contribute so that everyone benefits. There must be a critical mass so people will receive the answers to meet their needs. This takes collaboration.
Collaboration occurs when people benefit from each other's contribution. This is reached when people work together. The result is much better than any individual effort.
Web Portal Design Interactivity
There are many ways to communicate.
Web communication from site visitors can be by completing a form and submitting the information which is useful for applications, questionnaires, etc.. The site visitor can also respond to something on the site by sending an e-mail. A survey will ask questions and compile the results. Your business gets direct and fast feedback while the visitor will get to see the opinions of others.
For business to business communication, a Discussion Forum will allow a business to post and read messages from other businesses. This has a variety of uses including making new vendor or customer contacts. Inventory and other data can be made available allowing a supplier to decide when to ship more products. An auction will allow companies to purchase other products.
Visitor to visitor communication can be auctions, a Discussion Forum, or an online survey.
Reaching Critical Mass with Your Web Portal Design
A good Portal can create a snowball effect where people visit because there are good ads, discussions, products, content, friends, etc.. The more visitors there are, the more it adds to what people are looking for.
The word "sticky" describes a site that causes people to keep coming back. If an individual has left something of his or her self on the site in the form of communication, it makes them more likely to return. This "sticky" principle applies to many areas of a good Web Portal. If the Portal is successful, it must have the participation of individuals or it will become static and soon die.
It is important to provide what you know your visitors need in a clear and concise manner. Knowing that the information they need is readily available, is what having a successful Web Portal is about.
