Priority Level 1 compliant, or rank in the top ten results for a particular keyword string, or

halve the time required for a copy editor to add text through the CMS, then the final

product can be compared against these tangible measuring sticks.

Some goals are fundamental to the redesign, while others provide only peripheral bene-

fits. In drafting a list of targets, rank them by importance.

Primary objectives

Primary objectives are the big targets, the mountains in the path of the river. These are the

core driving factors of the redesign, and as stated previously, should be clearly and objec-

tively measurable. You may very well have only one primary goal, such as making your site

Section 508 compliant because you do business with the United States government. On

the other hand, you may want to accomplish several core objectives in the redesign.

Consider the following wish list for a fictional redesign:

1. Make the website standards compliant by using semantic markup and CSS-based

design. Construct the site with valid XHTML.

2. Reduce the average page weight by half to decrease load time.

3. Make the website more accessible by complying with WCAG 1.0 Priority Level 1

guidelines.

4. Add the new company logo and implement the revised style guide for corporate

colors.

5. Create consistency in the site’s navigation by replacing the current disparate menus

with a collective drop-down menu.

6. Halve the number of steps in the shopping cart checkout process.

7. Use Ajax widgets to improve the interactivity of the shopping cart process.

8. Add a corporate blog written by the CEO.

While these are all good objectives, tagging each one as a critical, red-alert, priority-one

intention simply dilutes the resources for the core, must-meet goals. Budget, time, and

technology constraints might force a team of designers and developers to distill the list

down to only two or three.

These few top-level goals are unique to every situation, and only the web developer and

his marketing team would be able to accurately rank the preceding list. For instance, it