Planning a Successful Website

For any designer, including website developers, having successful and goal oriented projects will lead to happy clients, more referrals, and a proven track record. Valuable experience and knowledge that can be used in future projects is a result of proper management skills within each project. But with any project, there is a lot that goes into making a project a success and simply completing the design and pushing the deliverables on time is not enough. Within my 14 year experience, including website design, being able to identify project goals and maintaining productive lines of communication with my clients has led to many successful website projects.

1. Have you gotten to know the client and their visitors?
In order to create a website that ultimately maximizes its potential; you'll first have to get a clear understanding of the client: How they do business, how have they branded themselves, and who is their target market. Depending on your familiarity with the client and their industry, this may require considerable research, which equates to time. The better understanding you have, the more likely you will be able to create a site that meets the needs of the client and most importantly their users.

A common mistake is to jump right into the design process without dedicating time to getting familiar with the client. Many times this is the only option, but the client should be warned that this may often lead to a site that may look good on the surface, but doesn't effectively fit the needs and personality of the client.

Different designers have their own methods for getting to know their clients. Do whatever works best for you. I use standard intake questions or forms that a client fills out to get information about their business and their customers. Others meet with clients, discuss and directly observe. Whatever the process, be sure that you prioritize this phase, and should be accounted in any timeline and estimate.

2. Have a clear set of goals for the project been defined?
Some clients will want a website just because it is the thing to do, but they don't really know what they specifically hope to get out of having a website. Others will want to re-design their existing site because it is outdated or because they don't like the look anymore, but they may not know exactly what they want to improve about the website. Having goals (Website Key Performance Indicators (KPI)) for the project will help to get a clear determination of what will make the project a success, and it will help to keep the project focused on what is most important.

Take the time to talk to clients about what is most important to them, and together you can establish a few specific goals for the project. It's best to focus on a small number of things rather than having too many goals and getting distracted by things that are not as important. This process will assist you by getting your clients to think and communicate with you about the most important reasons for going through with the project. Plus, this will give you some methods for measuring the project to gauge its success.

3. Should the scope of the project be clearly defined in the beginning?
Yes. My idea of what is involved in a website design or re-design may not be exactly to my client's idea of what should be involved. Disagreements over the scope (functional elements, areas of interaction and the list of needed assets) of the project can lead to clients feeling like they are not getting what they paid for, or your doing more work than you expected when you quoted the project. The solution to this problem is to have a clearly defined scope from the start, in writing, from the initial meeting. Use the scope of the project as your road map to a successful project.

4. When is the deadline?
Creating an attractive, functional, and effective website takes time. One of the biggest obstacles to the success of a project is usually a lack of time. When scheduling your projects be sure that you are allowing enough time to give each project enough attention. Plan some extra time for unexpected challenges or situations that arise. Website designers and developers want to move quickly to provide a client with a wonderful product, but when moving on a timeline that dictates how well elements are tested, developed and thought-out there will always be fixing or modifying and can lead to poor results.

5. Who is the focus of the site? Designer? Client? User?
It is the users who will ultimately determine the success of a design or re-design project. While I, a designer, like to create something that meets my own expectations, the site is not for me, it's for the users. This is also true for the client. Being able to explain to your client that personal satisfaction on site design is important, but to be able to convert within a website is the true measure of how successful a site is. The balancing act between design, client and user can become complicated if there isn't a focus on the initial goals.

6. Do you know what actions you want your users to take?
Successful website projects will result in visitors/users taking some kind of action on the site. Depending on your target user and the type of website, that action could be a wide variety of elements (purchasing a product, filling out a contact form, opting in to a newsletter, downloading an informational product, etc.).

It's important that you (the designer) and the client have a clear understanding of what actions from visitors are critical to the success of the website. After you have established which specific actions you want visitors to take, leading visitors to those actions should be a priority throughout the design process.

7. How has your communication with the client been through the process?
Communication between agency and client is a critical aspect of the project for several different reasons.
A) For any project to become successful the client must be happy with it and that is very difficult to accomplish if you're not doing a good job of communicating with the client from the initial meeting. Never go into a meeting without a set of defined goals. A client will lead a discussion, but without the agency creating a focus on the discussion, then your goals or answers you're trying to achieve will never be met.
B) Consistent two-way communication as the project advances helps to improve efficiency and eliminate unnecessary revisions and changes. Clients, as well as designers, want the project done right the first time.
C) Keep the client in the loop with what is being done on the project and they'll feel more comfortable knowing that the project is moving forward. If the work is being done at a slow pace, in the eyes of the client, then the client doesn't really understand the process. Changing your tactics and how you speak to your client (tone, speed and general language) can avoid this.

Website development can be rather overwhelming and intimidating for many clients, and good communication helps to put them at ease.

8. Feedback throughout the process?
Communication is important to keep the clients happy and focused and a big part of this is how to incorporate their feedback into the design. Even though I make a strong effort to get to know the client and their customers/visitors, the client will still know their target market better than I, so their feedback can be extremely valuable. In order to make the project a success you will need to take that feedback, use your professional judgment and design abilities to incorporate what you are hearing from the client. You'll need to be able to create something that the client is pleased with and that works for the users.

9. Has the client considered the future?
When designing a site, take the future into consideration and try to get a feel for where the client may go with the site. The most successful projects will be well structured so that growth and additions don't require a re-design too quickly. As new content or functional devices are added to the site, general issues sometimes arise, so anticipation of these challenges is paramount to the growth of the site.

Considering the future is also important in terms of general design style. Avoid trends that are likely to phase out in the near future that will leave the site looking dated and out of touch (What are the 2011 Web Design Trends ...so far?). A timeless style of design is more valuable to the client in the long run than a trendy design that must be changed a year later.

10. Test
Successful projects must be tested, and then re-tested. Don't rush the testing stage in order to get the site launched quickly, or the visitors are likely to experience unnecessary issues with the site. An effective testing phase can help to ensure smoother launches and a more positive experience for users.

What are your experiences?