Web Design: Top 5 Questions to Answer First

When designing a website there are countless questions to be answered, so where do you start? Often with the most basic of questions, those will serve to inspire your design, from wireframes to completion.

1. What is Your Goal?

Whether you are creating a site for someone else or one for yourself, having a clear and detailed understanding of what you hope to gain from a website is the very first question that needs to be answered. It often goes hand in hand with the message that you want visitors to receive, and it is the first spark of inspiration for your site design.

2. Who Is Your Target Audience?

The second most important question to answer is who your intended audience is. The best web design strategies are developed around the user. We want each and every visitor to the site, to find their way to the answers and products they are looking for with ease. Although, some may believe that they are browsing sites without any direction, all great websites take their visitors on a well-planned tour. Web designers make note of what will best grab the user’s attention, as well as a user’s logical thought process as they encounter the site for the first time.

3. What is Their Goal?

This question obviously goes hand in hand with question 2. Are your visitors looking for information, a contact form, or specific products? Depending on their goals, the website design will change drastically in order to better facilitate those needs.

4. Who Are Your Biggest Competitors?

In taking a close look at your competitors, you are able to take bits and pieces of their best qualities and combine them into a site that will be stronger than all of them. By ignoring your competition you may miss certain features and tools that visitors will want to see on your site. Customers appreciate a site that they can understand, and in some cases that means improving upon design features that already exist.

5. What’s Your Time Frame?

Time frame is everything. You want to have all the best features, but you also want them to be done right. The answer to this question helps you to prioritize, so that you can get the most important things accounted for first. However, this answer also allows you to make sure that you don’t sign on for too much work, or set unrealistic expectations.

Feel free to let us know some of the web design questions you like answered in the comments section below. Creating a checklist, even if it’s just a mental checklist, can help you stay on track and get your projects started off on the right foot.