At some point you would have to face the necessary evil of getting yourself a website. When that time comes, and it will, trust me *wink*, you would be better off knowing what the requirements are, from you, to ensure the smooth running of the design process. So you don’t have your web design agency or freelancer calling you up too frequently. Just in case your web design personnel doesn’t give you a list, here’s a short one for you to run through containing all the basics, I am assuming you are developing a standard site, if not, then you would probably need more than is written on this list. Especially for specialty sites like ecommerce shops and product catalogs.

What your web design personnel needs

1. Your company or personal name and logo
2. Preferred domain name
3. Estimated traffic to site to decide hosting plans
4. Contact information
5. Preferred color theme for your website
6. Target market niche to help fine tune design detail
7. Website pages e.g. “About me”, “sales process” or “how we work”. Where they would not be thought of by the designer you would need to provide this info.
8. Web content like text and pictures

1. Your company or personal name and logo

Almost as vital to the company or personal profile as the site is. A logo is the one brand element designed to be recognized anywhere and everywhere. So it goes without saying that you must have one for your web design personnel to carry out his job. In most cases, this can be done by the personnel where one is not available at an added cost. However, your website cannot, and should not be designed without a logo.

2. Preferred domain name

If you require web design services then you must be looking into purchasing a domain name. Although this is usually the job of the web designer, you would need to provide him with the preferred name of your domain for example, mydomain.com. Proper research should be done to ensure its availability and take into account errors that are most likely to occur. These could be errors like using “.com” instead of “.org” for your website address. If you are a large company and can afford it, buy closely related domains to reduce error rates. For a more definitive guide, read Ezinearticles “A simple guide on how to choose a domain name”.

3. Estimated traffic to site to decide hosting plans

Now if you are building an ecommerce site, the traffic you would get would probably be higher than that of a personal blog. in web design, factors like these should be considered to help the web design personnel select the right hosting plan for you and prevent a bandwidth limit from being reached and locking out potential visitors.

4. Contact information

If you decided to have a website designed for you then you decided to get found online. But what happens next is up to you. Giving your contact information on your website would help visitors get across to you to contact you regarding your services and information as provided on your website. So come up with professional contact information and have them on your site.

5. Preferred color theme for your website

Many times we already have a picture of what the website should look like in our minds. Most times there is a color theme attached to that picture, sometimes you just want a really nice looking white”ish” site. Its is always wise to pas this across to your web design personnel to help him avoid doing something outside your taste. However, consider the impact the color has on your visitors before going ahead with it.

6. Target market niche to help fine tune design detail

A website designed for 50 year olds would definitely not look the same as one designed for 20 year olds. So when discussing the job with your web design personnel, be sure to explain your target market and how you want them to perceive your website. This could be very important in getting them engaged on the website. For more on this check out the article How to define your target market by Inc.com

7. Website pages

In a lot of cases, your web design personnel advices you on the pages to create and how best to populate your website, however you are the business owner and you probably have an idea of some specific things you would like to have on your website. Explain these pages to your web design personnel and ensure he has a very good understanding of what you want from those pages.

8. Web content like text and pictures

For a web design to be appealing to its audience, visual elements have to be well organized. So having things like personal pictures and web content for your about us page is crucial to the success of your website. However, it is clear that we all don’t have the resources to create such content. So where possible, ask your web design personnel to provide you with content creation services. But be ready to work closely with him on this, its about you remember, not him.

In some cases, the web design personnel may provide you with a concept note that details, in his opinion, what he thinks your website should have. Then using this he could create content for you where the service is required and even provide you with pictures to use, or at least help you coordinate the photo shoot sessions. This is where the web design service, as a whole, is seen.

So there you have it, a short checklist you could use to prepare yourself for your website design. Requirements would certainly change between different web design personnel, so don’t expect to have it all yet. Have anymore points add to this list? Share them with us.