Nicole Martorana
Sep 14, 2009
In my last post, I talked about how to prepare for the first meeting with your Project Manager in regards to company identity and branding. Now it’s time to consider your design preferences in terms of colors, graphics and the layout of your site elements.
Think about how you want your site to look and what feelings you want it to evoke in site visitors. If you’re a branch of a larger company, you’ll probably want/need to integrate your corporate branding to some extent. If you’re a startup or independent company, you may have more flexibility. Regardless, it is important to think about the following prior to your meeting:
Element Design
Layout
If you are integrating special features like a blog or shopping cart, think about how you may want these to look. For example, do you want abbreviated blog posts to show on your homepage or a button linking to your blog? Do you want a shopping cart graphic or a link to your products page? Are there any particular colors or styling you want associated with these features?
If your site will tie in with a content management system (CMS) and requires a log-in capability for members, it will also be helpful to think about how you would like these member log-in pages to look and what features would be needed for members to access.
The designer’s job, of course, is to create a visually pleasing, well-functioning design for your site, so don’t feel intimidated if you don’t have answers to all of the above. However, if you do have specific ideas about what you want or need, the first meeting is always the best time to express them as the designer will then be able to consider your preferences during the mockup process.
Once you have thought about all of these details, it will also be constructive to have ideas about any theming you may want for your site as a whole. In my next post, I’ll discuss this further and provide you with examples of potential themes to consider.