The Project Profiler The project profiler is comprised of three parts. I. Background and Goals II. Audience, Content, and Functionality III. The Field Trip   I. Background and Goals   Company Please provide corporate and industry descriptions, including competitors, along with a brief critique of their sites. Include contact information and a description of the group who will be working on the project. Who are the decisionmakers? Who else would be contracting? Who's responsible for what? What human resources do you have for various stages of the process?   Project What is the mission statement or summary of your project?   What are the basic goals of this project? (e.g., branding/identity reinforcement, improved access to information, direct sales, corporate communication, etc.)   What outcome will make this project successful? How will you measure success?   What are your schedule requirements?   What is the budget for this project? Is there an acceptable budget range, depending on the level and comprehensiveness of services provided? Please explain.   Describe any work that has been done toward designing/redesigning a new web site.   Will the web site reinforce an existing branding or marketing strategy? How?   Discuss any identity/branding assets (logos, other artwork, and fonts) or issues.     Rank the following, in order of importance: A web strategy that fits with our corporate strategy   A web strategy that fits with our marketing strategy   Repurposing existing content   Creating a community of dedicated visitors   Quality execution (graphics, writing, navigation, etc.)   Time to market   Ease of maintenance   Doing better than our competition on the Web   People bookmark the site because they get so much out of it regularly   Staying within the budget   Sending the message that we know the Web and use it appropriately   II. Audience, Content, and Functionality   Audience   What types of visitors do you want to attract?   What are your goals for each type of visitor? What are the products/services involved?   What are your goals for these products/services?     Content   Where will content come from? Will it be new, repurposed, or both?   How often will you add new content?   Who will update the content?     Functionality   What functional requirements do you believe to be necessary? (e.g., download areas, database-driven webpages,commerce, catalog, applications, etc.)   Who will update these functionalities?   Are there extraordinary security issues?   Are there other technical issues or limitations?   Have you budgeted for hosting and maintenance of the site? If so, what is your budget   Who will maintain the site contents?   How will the site be served/hosted?   What types of legacy systems/databases are in place?   What is your long-term plan for the site?     III. The Field Trip   This part of the profile is very important. The more work you put into it, the more your project will benefit. Find the three highest quality sites (more is better) on the Web that relate to your project in the following categories: Branding in a similar situation to yours (new company, new brand, established brand, etc.)   Appeal to same target group of customers   Whether or not you would build the site if you were in a different industry   Colors, look-and-feel, user interface, layout   Size of site   Size of project   Publishing model (frequency, novelty of content, etc.)   Attracting new people to the site (newsworthiness, giveaways, impact, etc.)   Your competitors' sites   Quality of content   Quality of graphics   Functionality (things sites do for people)   Community, special features, responsiveness, other categories important to your project   Overall favorite sites (for whatever reasons)