Design Meeting Preparation

• Are you able to provide relevant logos and images for the design?
• Are you able to provide corporate colours, or colour/s that you wish to be used for the website?

In order to get the best understanding of how to design yourwebsite we need to know who will be using your website.

• Gender
• Age range
• Lifestyle
  

• Culture
• Geographic (regional, National, International etc)
• Status (Public, Professional etc)
• Any particular profile of user you would like to gear the site towards?

In order for us to create the best experience for your users we need to understand their goals. This should ideally have already been covered at the UX stage.

• What are some tasks/goals users would typically wish to accomplish on the website?
• Which are the most common goals?

Will it need side navigation on every page as well as top nav? Are there likely to be more than three levels of pages, ie, sections with nested sub-sections? As you explore these lower levels should the side nav show the full path to the current location, or just the immediately adjacent pages: current, parent, sibling, child?

Examples: 

www.ics.ac.uk keeps full navigation path in side nav, ie: http://www.ics.ac.uk/ics-homepage/events/lecture-based-seminars/neuro-intensive-care-update/ 

http://www.dimensions-uk.org/ only shows contextual side nav, ie: http://www.dimensions-uk.org/about-us/management/partners/

Bear in mind that the side nav could grow very tall if there are a large number of pages at any one level.

• Professional/Corporate
• Formal
• Informal
• Fun
• Clean (uncluttered)
• Minimalist/Refined
• Relaxing
• Modern/Contemporary
• Retro
• >Cutting-Edge

There are a few standard accessibility features you may want on your site. More advanced accessibility options should have been identified at the tender or requirements stage.

In most cases, we find that advanced accessibility options are no longer required. Modern browsers offer much of the functionality built in, and people who require it often have their own custom software solutions. It is generally not necessarily to make it part of the site.

Features you may want to include:

• Skip to content
• Site Map
• Accessibility Link (to a section such as seen on the BBC site, where accessibility options are discussed).

The home page is typically the first page of your website users see. Its main purposes are:

• To give the user an overview of the sites content, so that they know whether it is likely to contain the information they are looking for.
• A navigation hub leading the user as clearly as possible to the content they desire.

Is there any information or features you wish to go on the homepage which you believe will be of particular interest to the user, examples include:

• Logos for associated companies or brands.
• Testimonials or case studies from customers.
• Gallery of work.
• Feature link to important sections of website.

Do you require any other site furniture not already discussed?

• Date stamp
• Login link
• Professional accreditations
• Social networking links
• Powered by Easysite endorsement

Do you have any sponsor or partner obligations that may affect the design? 

Do you have imagery we can use for the site, or would you like us to source some stock imagery?

• Usability
  
• Likes
  
• Dislikes
  
• Visitor feedback

• What is it specifically that you like/dislike about them?
  
• What elements do you think would work well on your site?
• If struggling to find any useful examples then we would normally suggest some sites in the relevant sector.