Date: June 23, 2003
To:
W. Scott Thume
From: Sakura Wagner, Helen Gardner, Jenna Newton
Subject: BCI Website Planning Report
_____________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
The following is a planning report for the updated BCI website. Since BCI has
expanded over the years, keeping the website updated and accessible is essential to
attracting new customers. Here are some modifications that we hope will expand
business and increase usability. We will begin by discussing BCI’s background
information and target audience. Then we will discuss the basic page design, product
page design, color, font, accessibility, and file structure that we would like to use for the
updated website. Here is some information about how BCI has become the company that
it is today.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The history of Bear Creations Incorporated can be traced back to 1803 when Kenneth T.
Bear founded Best Bear Honey in Bear Lake, Ohio. The company distributed honey
throughout Ohio and the Northwest United States until it merged with Busy Bee Honey in
1820. After the merge the company relocated to Chicago, Illinois and began distributing
their honey throughout the United States. In 1836 B. B. Bear began researching
combinations of bee species and flowers in making honey. In 1842 Best Bear Honey
began selling the made-to-order exotic honey that it is famous for today. In the mid
1800s Best Bear Incorporated continued to expand; in 1864 they joined with other local
companies to form the Chicago Stock Exchange, and in 1867 Best Bear Honey expanded
their own personnel by employing other mammal species. In the 70s they began
researching the use of orchids in the honey making process. In 1876 Robert T. Bear
searched the Amazon for exotic orchid and bee species, and after extensive
experimentation and research, the orchid honey proved to be a success. It was so
successful that they stopped making clover honey and specialized strictly in orchid
honey. In the 90s Best Bear Honey continued to expand. In 1890 the first California
greenhouse was established in San Diego. In 1894 Best Bear Honey merged with
Western Bear Honey to create the corporation that is known today as Bear Creations
Incorporated. Since the merge BCI has continued to be the leader in exotic honey
manufacturing and sales. Although sales have been in sync with the declining economy,
business continues to be considerably stable. Although they began marketing their
products online in 1995, their online business has just started to grow. As BCI increases
and perfects their online services, their business has strengthened. Right now BCI is
preparing for it’s most productive months of the year. Since July and August mark the
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highest selling points of the year, BCI has hired us, a team of E-313 associates, to update
their website. We hope that we can help BCI make this summer an especially productive
season despite the slow economy. Here is some information about BCI’s expanding
audience.
TARGET AUDIENCE
When Best Bear Honey began selling honey, the audience was mostly bears in the
Northwest United States. As business has grown over the years, so has the audience.
When Best Bear Honey merged with Busy Bee Honey in 1820, the audience expanded
significantly. Busy Bee Honey had been trying to market their honey to other mammals
with little success. After the merge, the companies put their heads together to design a
new marketing strategy that would eventually attract a wide audience of mammals. The
company’s decision to employ other mammal species solidified the diverse mammal
audience. BCI continues to attract a wide mammal audience and there has recently been
some discussion about implementing a marketing experiment that would target the bird
population of the Pacific Northwest. BCI hopes that their business will eventually cater
to animals of all types. But for now, their audience remains that of mostly bears and
other mammals. Since the creation of a BCI website, there have been a few international
customers. In Great Britain, there has been a small demand for BCI honey. But since
most of the customers are still North American mammals, we will gear the website
towards their needs. With this in mind, let’s look at the basic page design.
BASIC PAGE DESIGN
The main page will welcome visitors, describe the navigation details, and offer news in
the form of a “bee-orchid combination of the week.” Photographs of each of these
species will appear on the site. We hope that by spotlighting exotic combinations and
providing a link to the product page, we will attract customer attention.
The second-level pages, in addition to linking to the lower levels, will display the latest
news as it pertains to each section. For example, on the industry page there might be a
news items about the latest white paper published by a BCI employee. Products news
items can draw attention to the latest addition to the BCI greenhouses. Corporate news
items include currently available job opportunities.
All pages will feature a menu consisting of the main second-level pages as well as a
home link. Closely related to the basic page design is the product page design.
PRODUCT PAGE DESIGN
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As we mentioned above, there will be a main products page that will offer the latest
product related news and link to the ordering page. The order form will also be linked to
the main page.
For the product selection page we will use an improved version of JavaScript, to offer
visitors links to some of the industry information resources that will be available in
relation to a given product. For the product ordering page we will use a format common
to many sites that offer credit-card-based ordering systems--a first page where the
customer enters what she wishes to buy, a second page that informs her of her total and
takes credit card information, and a final page that confirms information. Of course, BCI
employees will need to check the resulting database in a timely fashion to fill the orders.
Following is some information about the color and font that will be used on the website.
USE OF COLOR
We hope that a more playful use of color will attract more customers to the BCI website.
We will use two background colors for the website--a shade of yellow (#fc6) and a shade
of pink (#fcf). The font on the yellow background will be brown (#630) and the font on
the pink background will be green (#090). The yellow and brown will be used to
describe honey and the bears, and the pink and green will be used to describe the flowers.
This color scheme makes the content easy to read while giving the pages a unique
appearance that compliments BCI’s exotic products. We will also use a different font.
FONT
We chose Arial as the font for the website because the sans-serif font is easier to read
onscreen than serif font. Since most computers already have Arial, using this font will
make this website accessible to a larger group of people. The round letters are softer and
more inviting than sharper, more angular fonts, like Times New Roman. This round
softness compliments the soft pastel colors we will use. Now that we have discussed the
basic layout and design, let’s look at some accessibility concerns.
ACCESSIBILITY CONCERNS
To address the needs of a wide audience, we will follow the following guidelines
provided by BCI:

Limited use of graphics and Flash

Limited color palette derived from the web safe color standard

Consistent page design

No drop down menus
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
Support for these Windows browsers: Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape 7.0

Support for these Macintosh browsers: Internet Explorer 5.1 and Mozilla 1.3

Support for this UNIX browser : Lynx

Support for browser window sizes from 800 by 600 up to 1600 by 1200

Use of a site index
We hope that by using these standards, the website will be more usable and attractive.
File structure can also play a role in this.
FILE STRUCTURE AND RELATIONSHIPS
Our proposed file structure is hierarchical and closely follows the categories discussed in
the above guidelines. Aside from a main page, there will be a main product page, a
contact page, a main corporate page, a main industry page, and a links page. Products,
corporate, and industry will all have further levels of pages as outlined in the guidelines.
From the main page, a site map will be available that will also describe the overall
structure of the site and provide direct links to all pages. The following drawing shows
how each of the requirements fit into the structure of the website:
main page
Our Products
Product Ordering
Product Selection
Contact Us
Bee Descriptions
Industry Information
Flower Descriptions
Links
White Papers
About BCI
Investing in BCI
Site Map
The History of BCI
Job Opportunities
Working At BCI
Employee Profiles
Secondary links between product and industry pages will help users learn more about
honeys, orchids, and bees.
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BENEFITS
We are confident that these modifications will increase BCI’s online business. As
businesses become more technologically advanced, there is an ongoing competition for
who can deliver goods and services the most efficiently. With the new page layout and
link navigation, BCI will be able to offer customers a cutting-edge service that is easy and
fun to use. With a new color scheme, the use of photographs, and product news we hope
to allure new customers to the unique service that BCI has to offer. Here is a summary of
what we would like to do for the BCI website.
CONCLUSION
To meet the changing needs of BCI we would like to make the following changes:

Reorganize the basic page design and the product page design

Introduce a new color scheme and font

Follow an updated set of accessibility guidelines

Redesign the file structure
Once these adjustments are made, the website will be much more accessible and fun to
use. Our new design will make ordering BCI honey easier than ever before. We hope that
these modifications can help make this summer BCI’s best yet.
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