Client Requirements for Website Design

So you’ve just signed your terms and engaged in website design services with Primal Space, but what next? We’re often asked by clients before a website design project commences; ‘What is required?’ Therefore we’ve decided to write everything down in this handy guide making life much easier for you, our new web design client, going forward. Below we have detailed exactly what you will need. Helping you prepare to get started with the project, before work at our end can commence.

No matter what stage you are at with your website design idea. You can use this blog article as a great reference point. It’s worth noting that this is a general guide we have written, not every concept in this article may apply to your website design. But the majority certainly will, as most of the list are core aspects of any website. However it’s important to note that if you are having your website designed by our good selves, the information that we detail here will be required before we start building and designing your website.

If you aren’t yet at that stage, you might want to go back a step and check out the post about gathering specifications and the goals of your new website. We’ve also created a new more in depth post titled how to create requirements documents which includes example templates that you can follow.

Website Design Requirements

Your idea and vision for the project is arguably the most important part of the whole preparation process. Tell us about your idea! What purpose do you want the website to serve? Will your WordPress website require WooCommerce functionality to allow customers to shop online? Please tell us as much as possible!

It’s important to have everything in a clear structure that is easy for us to follow. Your ideas and visions can be collated into documents or mood boards if you like and provided as such to us by scanning and uploading to our Google Drive. Or we can meet over video call or face to face for coffee and you can tell us all about your new website concept.

Colour Scheme

If you have a particular colour (or colour spectrum) that needs to be featured throughout the website. You’ll need to specify this to us. We’ll require the 6-digit hexadecimal colour code for the colour you want to use. We recommend using the Hex colour picker website here – Hex Colour Picker. For a website design, we generally like to stick to a base of 3 or 4 colours at most. With 2 of those colours generally being black or white. If you’ve read other articles on our website you’ll already know that we are lovers of white space within a website design. Allowing your content to take centre stage so to speak! The colour you provide to us from the hex colour chart will generally be your brand colours. Or the main colour that you want to be used through the theme of your website design and other marketing material including your logo.

Fonts

Have you decided on specific fonts that you’d like to be used within the design to depict your brands image? Just like colour, these fonts should be consistent throughout all marketing materials as well as company logos to create a concise brand identity.

Website Content Requirements

Forming the nuts and bolts of your website so to speak is your websites content! We’ve broken this concept up into a list of images, mock-ups, text wording content and your logo. Depending on your website requirements what you will need may differ, or you may need to provide us with more content. For example these could include, videos, PDF or any other graphics that you require within the design. Your mock-up provided should reference the file names of any particular content you require within the website design.

Images

We’ll let you into a little secret, eye-catching images that give an instant wow factor are an integral part of any website design. If you have really strong and powerful images, the design of your website will instantly look more impressive. We would thoroughly recommend hiring a professional photographer where possible. Providing us with the most high-resolution photos you can get your hands on. It will really make a difference to the final design and help your website stand out alongside your competitors.

If your budget can’t stretch to paying for a professional photographer, then perhaps looking at how you can obtain copyright free imagery for your website online would be beneficial. There are lots of great websites out there where you can access high quality photos free or for a donation.

Mock-ups

A mock-up in terms of website design is a document showing how you want that page of the website to be laid out. We receive mock-ups from clients in many forms. Some are more sophisticated than others. However it’s an integral part of the preparation process for your website design. Without a mock-up being provided to us, it’s very difficult to get a clear idea of how you want your content displayed on each page. There are a whole variety of formats in which a website design mock-up can be provided to us. You can provide hand-drawn mock-ups to us. Or you can go to the other end of the spectrum, providing professional wire-frames showing each page of your website. Mock-ups can be provided as a Word Document, or PDF. Or like we say if you are hand drawing your mock-up, you can scan these and upload them to Google Drive.

You may also wish to provide us with website screenshots representing particular elements or functions of existing websites that you would like to be featured within your own website.

Text Content

The wording for text content should be detailed in a separate document for each page. The text content can be provided to us as a Word document (.doc) or as a Text document (.txt), either is fine.

Before your project commences we’ll have established how you’ll provide your content to us via a shared access Google Drive folder. This is all part of your website design project management plan which we will have put in place and provided you with ahead of development. This is a requirement of all Primal Space digital servicees.

Logo

If your logo is not being purchased through us, you’ll need to provide us with this. The logo asset files should be provided as a .ai or .eps file type. Allowing us to edit the logo’s design and size where required to fit within your websites pages. The logo is often edited purely for the purpose of the website design.

If you don’t yet have a logo for your website, reach out to us for a quote for our graphic design service. Allowing us to design a professional logo for your business as part of the build.

Access to your Domain and Hosting

If your domain was not purchased through us here at Primal Space. And/or you have your hosting with another company. For us to be able to implement your website live, we’ll require login access to our domain and/or hosting control panel to apply the settings. Even if you have your domain purchased elsewhere. But you are having your website hosting supplied through ourselves Primal Space. We’ll still need access to the domain settings to apply changes there to point to the new website.

Google Drive Access

We use Google Drive for all content to be issued to us. Providing you with access to folders for each piece of content to be uploaded to before the website build commences. The folders are secure and only accessed by ourselves and you the client. It’s recommended for you to install Google Drive on your computer for ease of file upload. You’ll also be able to see the folders being updated by us.

Shortlist

A concise bullet point of the core concepts of what you will need to provide us with, in advance for your shiny new website:

• Concept/Idea/Vision
• Website Content (Including images, text content etc)
• Colour Scheme (If you have a preference/specific requirement)
• Mockup(s)
• Domain/Hosting Access

We hope you’ve found this post helpful and have now deciphered what you will need to get going with your websites build. If you’re ready to get started, or if you have an idea in mind and looking to get some more information before taking the leap. Then please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’d love to help you bring your ideas to life.

Check out our more recent blog post in this series titled how to create requirements documents. Providing more in depth requirements advice and a free digital template that you can utilise, helping you get started.

If you’re interested in working with us then please submit your website requirements to us. You can also include any project templates within this document.