You are ready to move forward with your website design. You have chosen the person with whom you will work for the next step (hello!), namely the creation of your website or your online store. It’s time to dive into the details of your needs and expectations. No, I’m not talking about the discovery call, which is also called the initial consultation. I’m telling you what happens after you decide to work together: the kick-off of the project and the 5 assignments that await you!
5 homework! Yes, yes, although you are putting this project in the hands of web specialists, you will need to get involved so that the result conveys the essential elements of your business well and that the final product conforms to the overall idea that you had in mind.
Here’s a little metaphor to illustrate why you’ll need to get involved in web design… You decide to renovate your kitchen and you hire a kitchen designer to do it. She’s a pro! You give her carte blanche, because she knows how to cook well. But then the plan arrives: it’s beautiful and functional, but… you don’t like the color of the ceramic proposed, the counters are pretty but not in granite as you had in mind, the sink is not double and deep like your style crush modern farm house seen in a store recently, the island is not oriented towards the living room as you would have liked… Well…what happened? You forgot to communicate several key elements, shaping the end result.
Websites (or kitchens…), there are a million ways to make good ones. But they will never be really good if they don’t correspond to your reality and your needs. Hence the importance of sharing several crucial information with your service provider to have a PERFECT website. It’s easy, I dissect you here your 5 homework!
Assignment #1: Be able to clearly define your business and products
Being able to briefly describe what your company does sets the tone for the conversation. Be prepared to answer questions like:
- What is your positioning?
- How would you describe your business in a sentence or two?
- Are certain product lines more important than others in your online presence?
- How does your business perform compared to others in your niche or industry?
- Do you want to sell your products online or only present them on your site?
- Who are your biggest competitors? What are they doing better or worse? Why?
So many questions I want to know during my web design process , and I know all good web designers ask that too. The more your web designer understands what you do, your needs, your challenges, etc., the easier it will be for them to come up with design solutions that solve your problems. Because remember: design is an exercise in problem solving.
Your goal is to share as much as possible with your service provider, so they can explain your business as if it were their own. So don’t hold back on sharing information.
Assignment #2: Clarify your brand image with your web designer
Branding isn’t just about your company colors (although that plays an important role), or your logo . It encompasses everything that defines you; your personality and how you want your brand to be perceived by your audience.
If we’ve already done the branding process together, you should have a branding guide that you can share with your website designer. If you have a logo – but no graphic charter – and you are not in a position to take branding your web designer can help you define these elements and propose an artistic direction at the same time as the website design exercise. But keep in mind that this art direction could/should then become what you stick to for the rest of your branding tools, because we aim for consistency . It’s very important not to spread yourself too thin in terms of style and to always align yourself with your brand image, except for a few campaign variations.
Homework #3: Ask yourself about your target audience
Have you identified your ideal client? This will allow your web designer to learn who you’re trying to appeal to and find the best visuals and strategies to appeal to that audience. A website cannot be designed to please everyone. Both in its design and in its navigation experience. Even in his tone! Because people are not all the same. We will therefore not present ourselves in the same way if we speak to men aged 35-55 working in the industrial sector than if we speak to female students interested in skin care.
Be prepared to answer questions like:
- Who buys your product or service?
- How do you welcome them in store?
- What level of service sets you apart?
- How do you talk to them?
Important note: Perhaps through your website, you want to attract a new type of clientele. It’s doable, but it’s a business decision that’s usually made early in the process, and it should be supported globally by different actions.
Bottom-line , knowing who your audience is will guide your web designer in identifying what elements to include in your website. And if you have budgeted time for user testing (congratulations!), that will ensure we include the right people in those tests!
Assignment #4: Prepare comparables and inspirations
From a stylistic point of view, nothing is worse than leaving the famous carte blanche to your web designer only to realize afterwards that you would have preferred a completely different style. Remember my cooking anecdote above. So before you start the project, get an idea of what’s out there and come up with a list of your likes and dislikes. If you give complete artistic freedom to your web designer, be sure to fully appreciate what that means, and be prepared to possibly pay overtime if you change your mind after giving an initial direction a go.
Review the websites of other businesses in your field, of entrepreneurs you admire and follow. In the process, also take note of who you dislike and why. This way, you can better guide your web designer on what elements you like or want to see on your website. You will then obtain a web design much closer to what you have in mind and in keeping with your brand.
Homework #5: Think about the strategic content of your site
A web designer “can” create a website without content: a shell. The latter will discuss what “should” be found on each page. This is what the many templates for sale on the web do. But there will come a time when it will be necessary to fill it, this site. Having designed several low budget websites in the past, I can tell you that to start this kind of project without prior content, it will not help you for 3 reasons.
- First, if your web designer has to make a site by having to “invent” content without having been paid to put in the time also means that the content that will be there will not be optimal. It will undoubtedly be more corporate: a safe bet, more generic. And often this kind of content goes unnoticed on a site. It’s just… okay .
- Secondly, because the pages cannot be optimized from the outset to obtain a better organic referencing according to the traffic that one hopes to obtain. It’s quite catastrophic as an impact. It’s like opening a restaurant in a remote row of a tiny village and hoping that a few customers drop by. If you want Internet users to find your site, it must absolutely be well optimized, and this includes strategic writing.
- Third, the pages will necessarily be less efficient. Indeed, the creation of the pages is made to highlight your web content, and the sections are built for impact and conversion Without content, this exercise is very difficult and the design will necessarily be simpler because your web designer will lack pillars. strategic.
If you don’t currently have content, you have a few options. Depending on the service provider, he or she can potentially recommend the external help of an editor or offer you strategic support and/or additional content writing. If your budget does not allow you to outsource the writing, at least try to get some guidance. In general, the content intent of each page should be defined when creating the sitemap. Later, when the site is being designed, you can get to work and write by sticking to these guidelines. You can even do some of the preliminary SEO research yourself, if you’re interested.
For me, I’m often able to pick up the slack and work with the client’s content while improving and optimizing it to meet each page’s goals. My past in the field of communications allows me to offer this strategic support.
BONUS: Visual elements
If you plan to use photos that you provide, make sure they are high resolution images and of on-par quality with the level of quality you want to exude as a business. Ideally, hire a photographer!
You don’t have any photos yet? No problem. By discussing the design of the website and your brand, you can come up with ideas for images that better match the design.
In the end, a project of this scale requires planning. Prepare yourself adequately by thinking about these ideas to get the most out of your investment! And if you haven’t yet chosen the person who will accompany you on this adventure, take a look at my services .
