Questions Your Web Site Designer Should Be Asking You

Our company's number one priority is to give our clients the best web design. But before we can do our job, we need our clients to answer some questions to help us determine what they want their web site to look like.

Below are some questions that we ask our clients before beginning the design process:

1. Can you give me your "elevator pitch" or describe your business in a few sentances?
   A brief overview is good, and the more interesting, the better. It gives our designers a better understanding of your business/industry. You'd be surprised--not understanding what a client's industry is all about can make designing a web site quite difficult! 
2. What sets you apart or makes you different from your competitors?
   This may be something that gets answered in question 1 but it is important our designers have an idea of why you are the best at what you do.
3. What is your target market?
   Who are you trying to reach? Are you selling mainly to women under 40? Professionals? Retailers?
4. Do you have a projected "go live" date?
   In order for us to plan accordingly, we need to know when the web site needs to be live by. Our schedule is usually quite busy, so this information is very important.
5. Can you give examples of web sites you like?
   Usually 3 or 4 web sites will suffice. We will never copy a web site design no matter how much you like it, but giving us ideas of what you like will help us come up with a design you'll love.
6. What do you need your web site to do/accomplish?
   For example, are you going to be selling something online? (and if so, there are many more questions that will need to be answered) Do you need an easy way for clients to upload files to send to you? Do you need a custom database, or shopping cart system?
7. What "tone" or personality should the site have?
   Should it be fun and "loud" or more conservative, and professional?
8. What should we not do?
   Give us examples of things you don't want to see in the design. I.E. No large banners. Don't use the colors black and red, etc.

These are just a few of the questions we ask our clients before getting started. The more information you can give us, the better. (and the clearer the better as well!)