Overview:

Web site design involves both the client and the web site design team working together to satisfy the needs of the web site project. Both parties have very important rolls that need to be understood to help the web design process to go as smooth and quickly as possible. Please take a few minutes and read over the following topics.

Expensive Assumptions to Avoid

Assumption: Associating cost with willingness to do as much of their projects as they can.

Fact: Client technical ability is proportionate to cost, not their willingness to do it themselves. Little do they suspect, web design companies typically have processes for quickly importing data into a site - if the client is creating a format which readily serves this purpose. Considering these issues at the beginning of a web site design can save clients additional fees and greatly reduce their amount of effort and time. Over the years we have helped many clients, who ended up finding themselves in a very expensive trap with some of our competitors. Many of these clients remark on how our rates are aggressively competitive, and they would have been better off letting us handle it from the beginning.

Assumption: Many people have a misguided concept of building web sites as a simple act of shoving text and images into a page.

Fact: Building a successful web site is actually considered an art form and combines multiple technologies to create each design.

Assumption: Many clients want to get on the web so they can become rich or get noticed.

Fact: There is vast difference between what a client wants and want their visitors need. If the focus of the project is adjusted to discover, define, and deliver content the visitor needs, then the site visitor will typically feel as if the exchange was a success and will spread the word.

Assumption: Well designed web sites are immediately successful.

Fact: The are trillions of web pages on the web, and even the best web site design can take months to find a solid footing in search engines and with people. These two groups are inseparable, as search engines tend to like what people value and if people have not found the site, then search engines will typically think a site is unimportant - regardless of how well it was built.

Assumption: A graphic designer can best build a web site, because they can force the web page to look the same everywhere.

Fact: Graphics are only a single component of a web site design and are intended to enhance the presentation and should never be used to replace the content. A human can read the text in an image, but a search engine can not, which means people can not search for the text contained in an image and find it in the client's site unless it appears somewhere else.

Assumption: Anyone can build and operate a web site.

Fact: A single web page in a given web site design can combine as many as half a dozen technologies and programming languages - sometimes even more. Often web design companies have an entire team of people, each specializing in only a small area of the over all site design. Sanity LLC partners with clients to facilitate the client's involvement in their project. In some instances clients will not directly interact with their web site design, while other clients take on the role which best match their needs.

Assumption: This web stuff is too technical for me.

Fact: A good web design company can take your descriptions and concepts and turn them into reality. Regardless of background, clients hold the key to their web projects. The issue comes with how the clients communicate and visualize their web site design project. For many clients, a web project becomes a series of revelations, which can enhance or completely change the purpose of the web site design. Clients with greater experience are better equipped to limit this phenomenon, known as scope creep, and keep their costs down. Clients new to the world of web site design may experience additional costs as designs and concepts are updated to match the new goals and expectations.

Client's roll in web site design

The Client describes what is to be accomplished by the web site to the web design team and provides information and materials needed to develop the web site.

Typically, clients are not sure of all the benefits of having a web site designed for them or how best to incorporate it into their daily operations. This is why we usually ask the clients to start with a 8 page package to get an overall understanding of the structure of their web site, and give them the opportunity to "see" how it can be grown into a very integral and prosperous aspect of their company or organization.

Sanity LLC Web site design roll

The web design team considers the best possible web site solution for the client, with regard to their budget, schedule, and skill-set. Techniques are implemented to keep clients in the loop, via mock-ups, ticket system, and e-mail. Essentially, keeping the client up involved in the web site design process.