Day 9 - Mapping and Speccing
I’m eager to finish up the design spec so I can start soliciting proposals from visual designers. My four wireframed pages are now ready, and today I made a site map - a structural outline of the site elements and how they interconnect. 
I also fleshed out the web pages that make up the design spec, which I will point prospective designers to when I solicit proposals. In addition to the wireframes and site map, these pages have details about the specific items I’ll expect the designer to deliver, the format they must be in, the rights I want to have to them, and so on. (For example: “Each page design to include (1) design comp as layered Photoshop or equivalent file , and (2) browser-neutral, valid XHTML + CSS (table-less) layout ”)
There’s one more section I want to add to the design spec - a set of links to sites that suggest the context Online Primary will be part of (such as candidates’ campaign sites), and sites that have some of the design qualities I’d like to see in the Online Primary design. Today I made a tour of candidates’ sites, capturing links and screenshots, and making notes about parts of them that might be relevant to the design I plan to commission. Tomorrow I’ll add a similar set of links to non-political sites that have the lightweight, simple feel I’d like to see for OnlinePrimary. These will become the “gallery” - the last thing I’ll add to the design spec.