At Neubreed we are passionate and lively bunch and we always prefer to do business face to face, there’s something unique that comes from a face to face meeting as opposed to dealing strictly online. However meeting all our clients face to face is not always possible.
So how can you develop a solid long lasting relationship with your web design company without a meet and greet? The key is in making sure your chosen website developers understand your business. Sure any developer might be able to build you a website and hand it over and walk away but to have a successful website you need to have a team of web designers who understand you ambitions for the business who can guide you and give you helpful information and tips on ways to improve your systems online and make sure your website is user friendly and will keep users returning.
Forget the website, teach us your business. When you are looking to brief your web design company over the phone or via email before we can chat design and functionality, first we need to understand your business.
It’s crucial for your creative team to understand your background, why you started the business, the size of your business, how long you have been established, your goals and objectives. Perhaps you were looking for a product or service one day and you discovered a huge hole in the market, or you found others offering the product but you realised there was a much better way for you to present the same solution to people.
Once your developer understands your product or service, who that helps and how and what your unique selling proposition is, they then are able to understand the direction in which the design of the website needs to go and to start the thinking process behind the functionality you may need.
Be content ready. The next step is to really think about what the client will do on your website. This is of course a lot easier for a small 4 page business website but can be a much more complex process for a larger project. This is one of the most important steps to ensuring your vision for the project is realised correctly.
If for example you are creating a directory or membership website, each element needs to be mapped out. Will people register for free or will it be a paid service? If it’s a paid service, how long is the membership for? What is included in that? Are there various levels of memberships and what are the differences between packages? Can a user cancel at any time, upgrade or downgrade? When they login, what information can they enter and edit? Can members communicate with one another through the site? Creating a wireframe for the site is the best way to map out in your own mind what you need and want on the website and also helps you to explain what you need to the web development team. Some wireframing tools you can use are https://moqups.com and https://balsamiq.com.
Competitors and design. Once you have discussed your business, goals, objectives and requirements from a development perspective it’s time to think about design and to research your competitors. Of course as web designers we will use our creative genius to come up with a design that will appeal to your users but it’s important to know who your competitors are and to let your web designer understand how you are different to your competitors and why a user would choose your product or service over your competitor. It is also important to let you designer know your preferred style whether it be young and vibrant, clean and modern etc. this allows your designer to get it as close to perfect the first time saving you time during the design process.
If you have some ideas you want to bounce off someone call us today on 1300 858 495
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