Thinking of getting a designer to create your website? Here are 6 basic areas to think about and provide to your designer to ensure your brief is exactly what you want.
It is important that you have good communication with your web developer. This is just the same as if you were communicating with your Internet service provider, your accountant, your trainer, etc. These are relationships that will only succeed if you are able to tell the person what you need and what your expectations are. The best thing that you can do is to do a web design brief for your developer.
A good web design brief will include a summary of what you want the website to look like. This will help the designer get a clear picture of what your requirements are. It can be difficult to write a really good web design brief but if you follow these 6 basic things you will have an easier time with this.
Web Design Budget
This is the most important part of the website brief. You have to let the designer know how much you are willing to pay for his services. You need to set as exact an amount as possible so that they designer has an idea of what you can comfortably spend around. Having a budget from the start will help you avoid extra costs that may surprise you.
Business Details
You need to include in your website brief what the general idea of the business is. The designer may be familiar with what you generally do but he may be at a loss as to how the inner system works. You need to give the designer a concise description of how you operate, who your target audience is, and what sets you apart from competitors. Once the web designer understands these things, he will be better able to create a site that fits your business.
Timeline
Creating a website is something that may take a long time to do. You can speed things up by having a timeline with expected deliverables from the start of the project.
Target Users
These are the customers that you currently have and will potentially have. Think about how the website can be useful to your customers. Who are these people and what do they want to see in a website?
Site Updates
How will the site updates happen? For a site to be good, you need to always keep the content fresh and updated. What kind of content will it have and who will be the one to update it? Knowing these will help you with smoother management.
You can also include a list of websites that you find appealing and would like your site to be modelled after. This will help you to better communicate your expectations with the developer.