Twenty Questions to Plan Your Web Site Project
Billy Heaton
3 min read
- How would you describe the audience you want to attract?
- Do you want the design to reflect your organization or your audience?
- What is the primary message you wish to convey to your audience with this project?
- What are the secondary objectives you hope to achieve?
- Use three adjectives to describe how the overall design should be perceived by the end user. (Examples: conservative, progressive, friendly, formal, casual, serious, energetic, humorous, professional, fun.)
- Would you like to see a group of stock photos? If yes, provide a range of the number of final photos that you estimate will be necessary to represent your product or company (e.g. 6 to 12 final photos).
- Would it help to see 2-3 design comps? (different color schemes and text treatments)
- Is there a color scheme, logo use, and/or photo(s) that you indent to use? (Do you already use marketing materials that should be followed for this project?)
- What is the background, product line, and/or mission of your business? (This will help communicate the heart of the company to your audience.)
- Please list URLs (web site addresses) of your competitors. Next to each specify what you like and don't like about these sites.
- Please list any other URLs of sites that have look and feel and layout aspects you would like to emulate on your site.
- Please give a range of the number of pages or screens that you feel will be sufficient to meet your project objectives (e.g. 20 to 25 final pages/screens).
- For E-commerce Projects:
- Please estimate the total number of products (SKUs) and product categories.
- Do you have a merchant account with an online payment gateway (e.g. PayPal)?
- Would you like to use flat rate for shipping fees or live quotes from shipping providers?
- Have you established a budget for the web site?
- Do you have a copywriter for the content of your upcoming Web site? Do you need legal counsel to prepare 'terms of use' and 'privacy policy' pages?
- Do you feel that Flash animation will help your visitors 'catch' your marketing message? if so, how many concepts/animations do you think will get the message across?
- Are you interested in a dynamic or static web site? Dynamic sites use a database to update/edit content and/or product listings via your web browser. Static sites can be packaged with pre-paid maintenance plan for updates/edits.
- Do you plan on advertising your products/service online? (Pay-per-click and banner ads, e.g. Google AdWords)
- Do you have a strategy for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for 'free leads' and/or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) for maximizing online advertising? SEO includes keyword research and planning your content for performance in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
- Finally, and perhaps most important, what is your 'unique selling proposition'? (i.e. How will you compete in the marketplace? What does your prospect need to know about the advantage of your products/services in order to become a client?)