Website Design Checklist
A purpose driven website
There's nothing more frustrating than going to a website with an unfocused goal. Some sites can take 10-20 mins. to figure out what the site's purpose is. Guess what, in that time 99% of your visitors, your prospects/leads, will have bid your site aduex.
This most often occurs when the designer is on a different page with the client, and somewhere in the midst of it all the visitor gets lost.
Have a specific and easy to understand purpose for your website. Your web designer will thank you, your visitors will thank you, and your sanity will thank you.
Come up with your own domain name
Chances are you're creating your website to sell a service or to sell information so why rely on your web designer to pick out your domain name? What does he know about your industry? Domains are getting snatched up everyday so you need to be creative.
Perfect example: marketing is a pretty saturated market. Try coming up with a nice short domain name, good luck! Well unless of course you are a seasoned marketer like Don Willis who recently launched a company with his son. The company name: Two Targets. The domain name... twotargets.com. A web designer would have no concept of the idea of hitting two targets (well, okay so we here at Elegance in Design do but we're the exception to the rule). Be creative and choose your own domain name.
Sketch your own web design!
I can hear you grumbling now, and I know--you're not a web designer. But guess what, you don't need to be. Sketch your design. Take a piece of paper and pencil and start placing your content. Want a banner up top? Draw a rectangle and write the words 'banner', or 'logo'. Want a fancy RSS button, draw a very basic box and write 'RSS'. It's that simple. If you think your navigation links should be on the right, or under your banner sketch them there. Geometric shapes are easy and it's all you need.
You will be surprised how easy it is and how greatful your web designer will be. In fact, Elegance in Design not only encourages this practice we actually offer a discount on your package.