When you start a web project, you want to ask several sets of questions to make sure the website will meet the needs of the client. Here are some basic things to think about when developing your site. You will find asking them in this way, and basic order, will make the most sense and give you the most information.
Business Questions
These are the questions that see how the website will work within the business. If it doesn’t fit into the overall business perspective, then it won’t be successful, and you’ll have an unhappy client.
- What is the purpose of your site?
- What type of site will you have?
Website Operations
This is how will the website work. These questions are especially important if you have a back-end operation/support – which includes Databases and Scripting languages. However, I’ve found that Windows Server designers approach other things more casually as well, because they don’t have to worry about file case sensitivity.
- What type of server will you use (Windows or Unix based)
- What files will you need
- What type of directory structure will you use?
Design Questions
This is where we start, but really should be the last things we ask. Make sure the site looks like what the client/customer is expecting.
You also need to remember you are designer for the end-user, not necessarily the client. Designing for the wrong person can make the site fail. So ask questions about who will be using the site the most.
- What will your navigation look like
- Will you need sub-navigation (what will it look like)
- What style will your website use?
- What colors will you use?
- What types of images will you use?
- What will your navigation look like
From a different perspective
If your website was a “motor vehicle”, what type of “motor vehicle” would it be?
What about other sites
Don’t forget to ask about their competition and sites they like. You want to match or improve upon what the competition can do, and still fit within the site design/use they like. I usually ask them to give me a list of 3 to 5 websites that they like, so I know what they want.
Once you have those answers
After you get the answers you need, you can start to collect assets and design the page, because you know what is needed.
The Website Preproduction Process was originally found on Access 2 Learn
