Tips for Working with Website Designers
So you’ve decided to work with a website designer, huh? Let me give you some pointer events:
Clearly Define Your Goals
Clearly articulate your goals for the website and what you hope to achieve with it.
Who is your audience and why are you trying to reach them?
Are you trying to attract local customers?
Are you trying to grow your brand globally?
Do you just need to give your customers a place to go to find answers?
How many pages do you need?
What features do want? (e-commerce, contact forms, member area, plug ins for online payment systems, scheduling features, etc.)
What do you expect to earn? How much revenue? How much savings?
Define a Timeline
Establish a timeline for the project and stick to it as much as possible to avoid delays and ensure that the website is launched on time.
Designers usually establish the timeline themselves after finding out the scope of the project, but it’s important for the client to also clearly define when they need the website launched. Even if it is more open ended, the timeline should feature distinct milestones and strict rules for reviews and edits. If you keep coming back to change every little thing, you’ll never finish the website. Constraints and rules for creativity can bring out the best in art.
Set a Budget
Set a budget for the project and communicate it to the designer.
This isn’t just about setting a budget, It’s coincides with your goal. Figure out how much this investment is worth to you. How much revenue do you expect to make from this? How much will you save on costs? Is $80k in revenue worth a $8k website investment?
Time is money, design and development is time, research is more time, expertise and knowledge WAS time. All those fancy features and beautiful designs is a learned expertise. Like paying a lawyer, you're not just paying the person to give you advice, you’re paying for all the energy, time, and money they put into becoming an expert in law. How much is it worth to not get sued for $10 million? Whatever it is, it’s probably a bargain. Anyway, talk about the scale of what you want then figure out how much you can invest and what you could do without.
Provide Relevant Content
Provide the designer with relevant content, such as images, text, and other assets to help them create the best possible website.
A designer can fill content to a certain extent, but only YOU can provide the most personalized version of this. Find some great photographers, hire a copy writer, or ask your designer to help you find someone. Professional looking content is just as important as the design of the site.
Establish Good Communication
Maintain open and clear communication with the designer to ensure a smooth and efficient design process.
Oh boy this one is so so so so important. When you’re in the web design process, it's not just a “hit it and quit it” kind of thing. You need to commit to your timeline and be available to discuss with your designer daily. It doesn’t need to be every single day, but especially when it comes to your homepage, you should be discussing and reviewing the work as often as possible.
Provide Detailed Feedback
Provide detailed and specific feedback to the designer to help them understand what you are looking for.
Piggy backing off good communication, feedback is important for the designer to know what you want. It’s a guessing game and designers are very good at it. But if something misses the mark, it's not personal, so let them know. Designers are trained to take criticism and flip into something new and beautiful. Thats the whole gig!
Be Open to New Ideas
Be open to new ideas and suggestions from the designer, but also be willing to stand your ground if there's something you feel strongly about.
Don’t be afraid to question the designer as well. Ask questions, get clarification, learn more about why they do what they do. It will help you understand when you should push to change something and when to compromise.
Be Prepared to Compromise
Be prepared to compromise on certain design elements to ensure that the final product meets your goals and the designer's standards.
This is a tough one to swallow for both the designer and the client. You want what you want, and the designer does too. But, you have to be willing to trust them and compromise if your vision is either too difficult, too expensive, hurts accessibility, causes SEO issues, or simply just doesn’t provide the polished and professional aesthetic your website deserves.
Review and Test
Thoroughly review and test the website before it's launched to ensure that it meets your expectations and performs well.
There is plenty to do when the website is so called “finished”. Make sure you check everything and test all the features. The designer will do this as well (lots of SEO tests, mobile friendliness, GTMetrix, blah blah blah), but this is your baby, your investment, your life! So do the work and make sure everything is exactly how you need it to be. Plenty of things go wrong post launch as well. Most designers will give you a 30 day maintenance period, so be sure to check your website often and listen to customers if something isn’t working.
