Getting Started with a New Website Design

Working with us, together.

We do things a little bit differently. Instead of just asking for your requirements, going into our cave, and producing a design, we work with you to create something that’s not only beautifully designed, but effective.

What is my role during a website design and build?

A lot of clients think that they should stay away from the design process. They often don’t want to ‘influence creativity’ but you actually have a much bigger role in the success of a project than you may think. So here are some ways you can get involved with your project.

Be the expert.

No matter how good we are as designers, you’ll always know more about your business than us. Of course we undertake extensive research on your company before each project, but your experience is much more valuable than most things we can dig up.

Don’t be afraid to give context to everything. Even if you think it’s not relevant. Because the more we know about your business, the better equipped we’ll be to create solutions that are tailor made for you.

Use every opportunity that you can to talk about your business. Unless you’re a designer, your strengths don’t necessarily lie in design. But that’s ok, we are here to help. Play to your strengths, and we’ll play to ours. Between us, we’ll come up with something that both looks great and works for your business.

Manage your team.

It’s also your job to get your team in order and decide who is responsible for what. It’s best to set roles at the very start of the project and clearly state who is responsible for signing things off.

If that person is you, keep in mind you need to be involved in the whole process. If you’re coming in periodically through the project, you’re going to really struggle to know what’s going on and be able to make informed decisions.

Ask questions.

When working with us, feel free to ask as many questions as you like. Questions usually lead to better results than asking for a specific change.

Don’t worry about annoying us — we are absolutely thrilled when we see that you’re taking such a keen interest in the why’s behind our work.

Overall your role in a project is a big one. Sure, you’re hiring us to create a website but without your input and knowledge, the project won’t be half as successful as it can be.

So get stuck in!

Content.

Should I have all my content ready before beginning a website design project?

Content is essential to the design process and communicating to your audience. It’s best if we can review the content before we get started in the design process. This includes all of your text content, photos, products, page content and anything that will be used as part of the project.

Logo and branding guidelines.

A consistent and coherent brand that extends through all business interactions is important to your image. To achieve this we request that you send us your high quality logo files and branding guidelines.

Photography and video

Photographs and videos are the most consumed content on the internet. They communicate clearly a message, making it easy to understand. So, it is important to have clear, professional photos that communicate what it is you do.

Use a professional photographer.

Professional photos generally produce the best representation of your business. If you can’t engage a professional photographer please provide the best quality photos you can obtain. Snapshots are fine provided that they are clear and not too dark. We can retouch photos, but the better they are to begin with, the better your site will look.

Consider using a professional photographer where you can, yes we are happy to make some recommendations.

High resolution photos

Please send us high-resolution images big enough for us to use, we recommend a minimum size of 1920px wide. Please send images in JPG or PNG format. If you are not sure about size, pixels, and dpi, that’s fine, do your best or ask us – we’ll love you for it!

Stock photography

Don’t have any of your own images?

If you need to use stock photos there are several services that offer free photos or there are other great stock libraries. We however use Envanto Elements which is also a great option. Feel free to look through their library and share any photo links with us for your project.

Sending files and documents.

For us to receive your content we’ll connect you a Google Drive folder so you can upload all files in one place and we can keep it all nice and organised together.

If the content is not of high enough quality, such as poorly worded pages and low quality images, then we will advise that the content is not created to an appropriate standard.

If you are unable to create this content, we have a network of photographers and copywriters that we can recommend someone to do this for you.

What we don’t work with are images embedded within Word, PDF’s, Powerpoint or scanned images etc. These images can lose quality when inserting them into these document types.

Feedback, revisions and change requests.

Throughout a project there will be space for you to give feedback and comment on work and progress. This will be scheduled in meetings or communicate comments and feedback about what you like and don’t like throughout the process. Wireframes and prototypes are a great time for this to happen as the design is still very flexible during these stages, you don’t want to wait until just before launch.

Revisions are a normal part of a project make sure you communicate and bring up concerns as they arise.

Project Launch.

Once the project deliverables have been created the website will launch. Wahoooo!

And once launched… celebrate the project success!

If you are wanting to build a website brief make sure you read our post about Developing a website brief to get the best results for your business. Or if you just want to dive straight in start with our Website Getting Starting questioner.