The first 3 steps:
 | Register your Domain Name (eg. www.mynameisbob.com) |
| Get your Web Hosting Account |
| Decide what you want your visitors to do when they land on your page! |
What you need to decide and provide:
| Decide what do you want to achieve with your website? Is it going to be purely a marketing website or will customers be able to buy online, etc. |
| Decide the general look and feel, or corporate branding. Provide existing company pamphlets or brochures / sample websites to review. |
| Provide all content (text) for the website – or I can arrange a copywriter for you. |
| Provide all visuals (photos and images) for the website – or I can source some for you. |
| Provide your logo (in digital format) – or I can design one for you. |
| Decide how much you want to spend on the actual website and on marketing your website and provide a realistic budget. Does the site require more intense web design such as Flash Animation? (Remember some browsers cannot view Flash, and not everyone is prepared to download Flash Player.) |
| Provide a brief outline of the structure of the website. Do you require a Portfolio page, for example? |
Basic navigation elements for a website
One of the main objectives of design, aside from getting the user's attention, is usability. The site must be easy to navigate and understand. Visitors to your site must get to the key information as quickly as possible. They should also find it really easy to contact you or your company, so having a contact detail (phone number and/or email address) on every page is preferable.
| Home Page (Brief synopsis of you or your company. MAX 200 words.)
Optional (typo) subpages:
| About Us |
| Products / Portfolio / Gallery – used to display products in finer detail and a structured layout. |
| Services |
| Prices |
| Contact Us – Email, physical and postal details. Possibly an online form for capturing user details (requires database.) |
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Finally...
Knowing what you want means you'll get the site that you want. A good designer can formulate ANY design layout for the client, however, without a little direction it is impossible to come up with a design that is visually pleasing AND functional for the visitor. |
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