Three Things Your Web Designer Needs From You

Before any web design work can begin, there are certain things your designer will need to collect from you. These elements are necessary so that they can do their work properly the first time around and avoid unnecessary rounds of revisions because some crucial piece was withheld. Here are three things you should have ready before setting your web designer loose on your new site:

Logos

If you do not have an established color palette for your corporate communications, your logo will help your designer establish one for your site. It will also help them establish the look and feel of every design element on the site. Just because your designer favors mauve and teal doesn’t mean those colors should show up next to your orange and tan logo.

If you really want to help your web designer, you should be able to provide CMYK and/or RGB color values for the colors used in your logo. This will ensure that all the complementary colors they use will fit precisely with your logo.

Branding Guidelines

Branding guidelines can include how your logo and wordmark appear, how your company name may be used, and what kind of language is used to describe your company. Your web designer should not be left to figure these things out on their own. Ensure a consistent look, feel and tone across all your communications by providing your branding guidelines.

If you don’t have branding guideline documentation, you might ask your web design company for help. If they don’t have someone on staff with such a specialization, they can probably recommend a company who does just that to help you.

Content

Websites are nothing without content. If there is no information to read (or watch or listen to), your site serves no purpose whatsoever. In order for a web designer to build your site, they must have content to start with. This content will help them establish an information architecture and taxonomy, and will also help drive some design decisions.

Additionally, content combined with future content needs will also determine your web design project scope. You may think you have a simple job, but your web designer may be able to identify areas of need and areas where scaling is required to accomplish your business goals. You wouldn’t hand a construction crew copies of the blueprints for a house and expect it to get built without wood, nails and such. Give your designer a good foundation of content from which to start building.