What you need to start a successful website design process
Jul 13 2009
Content is King
Our design process begins with the collection of information about your company and your products or services. This practice helps us understand the content needed for your site. Knowing the content for your site is crucial at this stage. While the look and feel of your site plays the important role of conveying your company’s brand, your message will not be effective without the substance to back it up.
All too often, when creating a website, these steps are done backwards: The design is created first with only a vague idea of what the content will be, and then the content is filled in when the site development is finished. This is especially temping when you have the ability to edit all your web site's text though a content management system. The result? New content that wasn’t anticipated in the original design gets jammed into a block for which it wasn’t intended, leaving the page looking unfinished or broken. Or worse, part or all of the site gets redesigned, costing you time and money. Thus, we highly recommend: Decide what you want to say first, then design your site around it.
Wireframes
On a high-level, think about what information you want to convey to your site visitors. Prioritize your content. Whether it’s information about your products and services, press and news articles, or a blog—all of these things need to be thought through critically. This will help you decide what content will go on each page, and what content will go in each block on a particular page.
Your Logo and Brand Guidelines
When you send your logo to a designer, it should be in a high resolution size (preferably around 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high (that’s about the size of a piece of paper held up to your computer screen). The file formats such as .jpg, .png, and .gif are fine. If it’s available in a vector format like Illustrator (.ai), or..eps or .pdf, all, the better. If you don't have this type of image, let your designer know, and have him create one for you. Also let the designer know about any brand guidelines if you have them. If you don't have them, its never to early to start.
Home Page: Grab Their Attention in 30 Seconds or Less
The top 2/3 of the home page is one of the most crucial portions of the entire site. It’s the first thing the visitor will see and it must grab − and keep − their attention. If there is too much text or nothing intriguing to draw them, you will lose them as quickly as it took for them to click to your site.
Consider this section as a marketing block, an ad if you will. Maybe it features your latest product or some kind of visual to market your business. Will there be copy below this block? What will this information be? Will it be about the company? Or your product? How will your needs for this block change over time?
The home page should also have “calls to action,” which is usually a button or widget that tells the visitor to do something, i.e. Buy Now, Learn More, Contact Us, etc. What are your goals for the customer experience?
What other information do you want to include on the home page? Some ideas are Upcoming Events, Slideshows, Videos, or links to your Facebook or Twitter page.
About Page: Tell Them Who You Are
In addition to information about your company or its history, it might have additional about founding partners, etc. One way to retain customers on your site is to engage them on a personal level.
Content Pages: The Meat and Potatoes
Why your visitors came to the site for in the first place. This includes information about products, product images, pricing, lists of services, press releases, articles about the company, initial content for your blog (if you’re going to have one) at launch, etc.
Will you need a contact form? Are you going to need other forms to have your customers send you information? Will you have a search to help your users find what they are looking for? Will there be a shopping cart?
Product Photos, Images, Artwork, Illustrations
When pulling together images for your site, whether they’re photos of products, scenery, or staff, it’s preferred that you provide them at the highest resolution possible. It’s very easy to size images down to appear on a website, but if they need to be enlarged, they become distorted and grainy. We recommend that images be approximately 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high.
Having high quality images on your site conveys professionalism and gives the visitor reassurance that you are a reputable company. Also, if you are going to use images of people, places, things, landscapes, artwork or illustration, BE SURE YOU OWN THE COPYRIGHT OR HAVE PERMISSION TO USE IT. If you need photographs or artwork on your site that you don’t already have, you may find just what you need on stock photography sites, which provide a wide selection of high-quality images. You may also want to connect with a professional photographer prior to creating your website.
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
These are important pieces of information to consider for your site for several reasons, and depending on the type of site you operate or the products and/or services you sell, they may be required by law. Furthermore, they reinforce quality, trust, and professionalism to your customer, whether or not your customers actually read them.
Your Action Items
- Determine your site goals, and prioritize your content.
- Remember, you will need to create your content sometime, so you might as well do it first, and design your site to show it off properly. Knowing early on what content will go on your site not only speeds up the design process; it also ensures that the design created conveys meaning to your audience and strengthens your brand.
- Provide high quality images and video.
These three steps will bring out the best in your designer by enabling an efficient design process. Your company will bring its marketing goals to life on the web in an affordable way, and maximize your customer's user experience.