6 Things We Need From You Before We Can Design Your Website

When you start your website building journey, it can be hard to know where to start. Let's assume you've employed a web design team to build your site - what's next? What do they need to get started? As a web design company, INCUB8 are starting new web projects all the time. The following list are the most important things that we need to know from our clients before we start building.

1. What is the goal of your website?
   Before a web designer can start building your website, they need to know what you need to achieve. Do you want to build a newsletter audience of a thousand people in the first eighteen months? Do you want to sell $3000 worth of product in the first 2 months? Your website can be built with these goals in mind, and will inform design and implementation decisions.
2. Do you already have your content written? And will you need a blog section?
   It’s a good idea to have your content written for your website before your web designer starts building. This will inform the layout of the site, and the web designer will be able to know exactly how to weight elements on a page if they already know exactly what written content they are dealing with.
3. What colours and font styles do you want to use?
   Chances are that you’ve already decided on colours and fonts for your physical marketing material – these decisions will help to inform the look of your website, as you want to be consistent to help build your brand. At least have an idea about this when you engage your web designer.
4. What is your brand story? Who is your target audience?
   A brand story is the narrative of your business – what emotional reactions do you want to evoke in your customers? Your target audience can help to inform your brand story, so it’s important to know exactly who you are selling your product or service to. After all, the way you engage with teenagers will be completely different to how you might speak to people in the medical profession, or expectant mothers, etc.
5. Will this be an e-commerce website?
   Your web designer will need to know some basic facts before they can start building, to help inform software decisions. Are you creating an online store? Is it a photography website, or will the main focus be an informative blog?
6. What is your customer journey?
   If you have people visiting your website with the aim of buying a product or service, or even to login to a membership-based website, you need to have a clear customer journey in place that is logical and easy to follow. Nothing will put off prospective customers more than confusing navigation and cluttered pages filled with irrelevant information and images. Your customer journey should be achieved in as few clicks as possible, no matter how your customer enters your site.