So you’re looking to finally get your new website design going. Whether you are going in fresh with a new web design or getting a current design redesigned and developed you will need these proper steps to make it easier on you and the designers.
1. Know what type of design you want.
You wouldn’t be getting a website design developed if you didn’t know what you wanted. Get your head on straight and explain to your designer what you want done. You are the customer, the designer is there to create what YOU want. You don’t go into a store and ask what should I get, do you? A nice document would be good to have, explaining your exact goals and what you want created. There are many types of websites out there. From e-commerce website designs, small business company design, portfolio designs, blogs; the list can go on. Know what type of design you’re aiming for.
Related reading: Types of Websites: Choose Carefully
2. Structure your web page design.
The base structure of your website design is very important. You don’t want a website that is all over the place where you can’t even find the footer. You want your audience to get the correct feel of things when they first come to your website. No matter what size website you want, it is very important to think about the structure. Specifically, what how many areas of your website are you going to have. It all depends on the type of website you want to have design and developed. The basic structure of a website consists of knowing the 5 elements of the website.
- Page header
- Navigational tools
- Side bar columns
- Primary content
- Page footer
Related reading: The five different structures of a web page design
3. Know what pages you want on your new website design.
Knowing what you want inside your new web design is obviously very important. It relates to #1 and #2 of what type of design you want and how you want it set up but taking the next step. So think to yourself, what pages do I want on my website. It depends on what type of website it is; a portfolio website design, business website design, e-commerce website design, etc. so they all vary. In this case, I’m going to set up a basic company website design structure. The basics are always the best and for a company website this consists of about 5-7 pages. Here’s what the basic web pages consist of:
Home, About Us, Services, Products, FAQs, Testimonials, Contact Us
- Home: It’s pretty obvious what the Home is used for. When you’re on another subpage and you want to get back, Home link we go.
- About Us: Here you want to get your point across of what you are, and even though you have a services page you still want to explain what you do.
- Services: What do you offer to your customers? A nice summary of what you do and some bullet points of each service you offer is a good set up.
- Products: If your company is offering products here, usually your developer will set this up in their own way. Different platforms use different ways to set up your products page whether you’re showcasing or selling your products.
- FAQS: Frequently Asked Questions page is really helpful and you want to fill this web page with as much questions and answers as possible.
- Testimonials: Let the customers know what others think of your company.
- Contact Us: Your location, telephone number, email, social networks and a contact form.
4. Have examples of web designs you like available.
Being a designer, this is my biggest pet peeve and a must have. I need to have some sort of vision of what you are looking to get designed. Designers are creative and put together any sort of design we want, but we can’t read your mind on what type of design you like and want. Browse the web for some website designs that you like. It doesn’t have to be the same topic as what you’re going for but what your eyes like.
Final Notes:
Make it easy on you and your designer to get exactly what you want designed. Have everything prepared for the first talk with your designer. What type of website you want, what pages you want integrated, and examples of what you like the most out there. You give us examples, we make it ten times better!
