Looking Around and Taking Note

This week we studied site designs and PayPal payments.  The key insights I gained from these things were different, but both related to considering other groups of people.  First, during site design, we looked at other websites using the same business model we plan to, and looked for commonalities and what we liked about them.  Second, we worked through creating a button for PayPal, after reading about the service, and had the opportunity to consider what questions we would need to ask during the process.

While looking at other websites that sell merchandise, I had to put myself in the mindset of a customer and website user, which was easy because that’s the role that I was taking.  Looking for commonalities between the different websites helped me look at the details of how the site was designed, rather than just the functionality of it.  This put into perspective the amount of details and decisions that I will have to make when designing my own website.  It could easily become overwhelming, but being able to evaluate what I liked in other websites should make it more manageable.  The key insight I gained from this exercise is that I can evaluate other businesses when considering decisions I’m making for my own.  There are many successful merchant websites that are available for me to look at.  I can benefit from their experience rather than having to figure it all out on my own.  This will help me better use my resources in the future, and will hopefully help me avoid making decisions that cause me hardships.

It was interesting to learn more about PayPal, because I have used it very seldom, and not for many years.  I wouldn’t have considered using it for my website, but after this assignment, I may reconsider.  However, the key insight I gained from this part of the lesson wasn’t about PayPal specifically.  It was about putting myself in the place of my customers, and getting input from other people.  We had to ask a few questions in this assignment, and I was quite surprised at the questions I saw from other students in the class.  My questions were not comprehensive enough, and reading through the questions others were asking made me realize that I needed to understand the topic better than I had on my own.  I realized that I wanted to have the answers to their questions, because I would be much better prepared to make decisions for my business.  I need to get input from others during this process, because I won’t be able to do as well on my own.  Putting myself in the mindset of my customers, and getting input and feedback from others, will help me create a much more successful website than if I did it all by myself.