So, you’ve decided that you need a website.
Or maybe your current site is need of an overhaul.
But where do you begin? How do you know what to include in your site?

Preparing a clear brief is the first step towards helping us to develop the best solution for you.
Here you will find some suggestions on the sorts of things should you be thinking about and including in your brief.

It’s important for us to understand what has led you to your current situation.
Why do you need a new site or to update an existing one?
Is it because your competitors have launched a successful website?
Or are you launching a new product/service?
It is useful to include any information that will help us gain an understanding of your business, its brand, the current company situation and the industry you operate in.

Understanding who your audience is enables our designs to be more user focused. Understanding a users needs helps us make sure that their interaction engages them and directs them to your defined business goals for the site.

Defining goals for the projects enables us to develop a solution that is optimized towards your aim. It helps us make better decisions, in terms of design and recommendations to you our client.
Websites design techniques have developed at a rapid rate over the past few years and it’s important that the design of your site takes advantage of the latest user trends and interface techniques.

The clearer you can be about what you want, the easier it is for us to create a design that meets your needs. You may have a very specific idea of what you want the site to look like, from layout to colour, or you may be looking for some inspiration.
If you know of any sites that you like, or dislike, it will help to include links to them so we can have a look as see the reasons why you like/dislike them. This helps us to gain a better understanding of the type of design you like.

Other things you may want to consider are:

• Are there any company branding requirements or corporate guidelines we need to meet (with regards to colour, logos, fonts etc). Your company’s communications department should be able to supply you with this information.
• Your target audience – maybe you want it to be animated, colourful, fun. Or perhaps your company needs a very corporate design that is clean and simple

One of the most important things we need to know is what you are planning to put in the site as this can have a significant effect on how we build the site.

• If you have a site map you should include this with the brief
• If you don’t have a site map, you need to think about what sections you want to include in the site and what information will be in these sections
• Will you be supplying the copy?
• Media requirements – do you have pictures, video, sound, animation?
• Will there be any interactive elements?
• Do you require any specific functions – e.g. printable pages or real-time reporting?
• Will your site contain a product catalogue or have e-commerce functionality?
• Who will update the site?
• Will you require a Content Management System?

Many companies already have technology standards and processes. It’s important early on to establish what these are so that we can ensure that we develop the most appropriate solution for your business.

Do you have hosting arranged already or do you need us to supply it using our dedicated servers?
If it is already organised, we will need the details from your IT department including all current running software and compatibility.

We also need to know the specific goals you want your website to achieve so we can help you plan the best way forward.

• Do you want increase sales by selling your products online?
• Do you want to streamline company efficiency by automating processes that are currently done manually?
• Do you want to establish a customer database?
• Are you hoping to improve customer relationships through personalisation?
• Do you want to learn more about your customers?
• Do you want to re-position your brand?
• Do you want to increase brand awareness or reinforce your current brand strategy?
• Do you want to attract new customers?
• Do you want to gain a competitive advantage?
• Who do you want the site to target?

Equally important, is outlining who you want the website to appeal to. It may be that only a certain segment of your customers will use the site. Or perhaps you are trying to attract new customers?

• Are you targeting predominantly males or females? Old or young?
• What are their demographic characteristics?

This is vital to developing the site design. For example a site designed for young males would be very different to something targeting retired females. Maybe your site needs to appeal to an overseas market?
This could also have implications for accessibility and language etc.