As with any project you start, gathering essential information upfront is not only beneficial to a

successful deliverable but will also save you and your client plenty of headaches throughout the
process and pave the way to a lasting and trusting relationship. The more information you have
equals the smoother the project goes — which in turn sets the tone for a good designer/client
relationship.

Some of the questions below can be applied to more then just website design so I broke them
down into sections for better functionality for your clients.

Company-related questions

1. Do you currently have a website? What is the URL?

2. Describe the products/services you sell.
3. Who are your main competitors? How do you differ?
4. What are your top 3 frustrations with your current website?
5. What do you like most about your current website?
6. What do your current competitors website have that you aspire to?
7. Age range of your target client base

Project-related questions

1. Technical skill level of your client base. Have a scale ranging from zero to ten with zero
being the least technologically skilled and ten being the best.
2. Will your visitors require any special needs? Mobile version of site, multiple language
support, larger type for easier reading, etc.)
3. Imagine your website in 5 years from now. Complete the sentence: I know my website
works because…
4. Name 3 things that are most important about the design of your new website.
5. Name 3 things that is least important in the design of your new website.
6. Do you have any color preferences, existing brand colors, and/or colors you do/not wish
to include?
7. What are some existing websites that appeal to you? Provide links if possible.
8. Deadline, timing or exact date of completion for your website
9. Do you have a budget you are trying to meet?

Additional questions

1. Do you need to be able to update the website on your own? (ie: CMS)
2. Will this be an e-commerce website? Will you be selling any products or taking payments
on your website?
3. Do you need a copywriter? If you are using existing copy on your current website, will it
need to be modified in any way?
4. Is your logo and other imagery web ready?
5. Do you have all images that you would like to be included in your website or would you
like the designer to use imagery where appropriate?
6. How will you be updating the site in the future (if they are not using a CMS)?
 7. Will you be needing an additional SEO help (registering with search engines, adding
businesses to Google Business Center, Analytic setup, etc.)
8. Do you already have a domain and host setup for your new website? If so, do you have
the FTP and host log in information accessible?
9. Any specific features you would like included? Log in ability, calendars, forums, blog,
subscription services (RSS, email or newsletters)?

As with my logo questionnaire, I also like to leave my clients with a field or extra room at the
end where they can provide additional details and comments.

Also next to each question that may not be so obvious what you are asking them I like to
provided additional explanation, examples or notes. For example, when asking them if the need
their site to be built on a CMS, I ask if they will be frequently updating (daily or weekly) or only
updating once every 6 months or so. Speaking in terms that clients understand will also help to
build trust — nothing is worse then spending your money on something you have no idea what
you are getting. In short, save the nerd talk.

It’s always important to remember that being a graphic designer means you are a problem solver.
You cannot solve a problem without knowing what the problem is – ask questions

1) Corporate Identity: Corporate Information (for site development):

Company Name (Legal)
Company Name (Branding)
Company Tag Line:
Company Phone Number
Company Fax Number
Address:
Other contact information
Business hours of operation (store hours / when phones will be answered, if relevant)

2) Domain Names and Hosting:

Main Domain Name:
What other domain names do you own?
Do you have web hosting? If so, what type (IIS, Apache?)

3) Briefly describe what your company does:

4) Adjectives: Please list 5 (or more) adjectives that you think describe your company or should
describe your company in order of relevance / importance

This information is used to get a sense for design, and to help in SEO

5) Competitors: Are there any websites that you would consider your “competition”? Feel
free to provide more information on how they are your “competition”, but, at minimum,
provide for each competitor, include the company name, web address, and a list of
“keyterms” that describe what they do and/or sell.
In addition to getting a good look at what key terms they may be targeting, I take a look at these
sites to get an idea of the features they may need, target audiences we should be considering,
and what the competition will be like in terms of SEO

6) Favorite Sites: Please list 5 websites you like. Include the URL, what you like about each
site, and what you would improve upon.

These sites don’t have to be in the same business realm. By getting sites they like, i get a good
feeling for their design sense. By finding out what they would improve upon, you learn alot more
about what they are looking for in their site.

7) Least favorite sites: Please list 5 websites you don’t like, Include the URL. What
don’t you like about these sites? What redeeming qualities to they have?

The pitfalls they list tells you what you need to avoid. Though redeeming qualities are rarely
included when clients fill out this list, I get a good sense of what they like when they do answer
that question. I usually find that the redeeming qualities from this answer helps me understand
better their answer to question 6 above.

Products / Services: List the top ten products / services you provide

This should be redundant to the answer of question 5. If it’s not, I usually have to do some
business development with the client to get them to focus the purpose of their site. I ask this
question this way as well because I don’t want to start developing a site for a client if they
haven’t finished developing their business strategy.

9) Selling points: Tell us why you, your products or your services are better than your
competition (both online competitors from question 3, and offline competition)

10) User goals: Why do you think people will visit your site? When people don’t know you
exist, why would they find you or happen upon your site? Why would they come back? If they
do know you, why would they take the time to visit your site?

Most clients think users will just come to their site. This question helps them focus on why an
average Jane or John Doe may end up on their site. Many brochure sites get most of their visits
from people looking for an address or phone number. You can create a one page website for
that. This helps the client focus on what the site’s real goals should be.

11) Target Audience: What types of visitors do you want to get? Who is your target audience?
(age, education, and other demographics? Job status? Economic status? Role in the community?)
Describe your “average” visitor as best you can.
The layout targeting a Japanese middle school students will be very different from a site
targeting rural agricultural workers or British graduate school applicants. Knowing your target
audience, their culture, their technical savvy, and their internet expectations can help you design
your page in terms of look and feel and help you determine site functionality and user experience
design

12) Secondary Audience: What other visitors is your site going to get? Job seekers? Board
members?

This helps me determine what additional pages to include in a site. Your client may be a sole
proprietor, but they may want to hire, incorporate and/or get venture capital funding. Making
sure your site can grow to accommodate future features is important. Thinking about those
potential features before beginning the design process give you an added edge.

13) Technical: How technically savvy is your average visitor?

14) Accessibility & Usability: Will web visitors have any special needs? (eyesight, language,
mobility, reading level?)

15) Site Purpose: What do you want the visitor in question 11 (and 12) to do when they get to
your site? What are your goals for the web site in terms of visitor actions? What do you think
your site visitor should accomplish on your site?

16) Site Goals: What are your goals for the web site in terms of you company goals? How is
your site supposed to help your business? What is the purpose of your site?

17) Site Analytics: What are your goals for the web site in terms of popularity and virality?
What type of exposure do you anticipate your website, when “successful” should achieve?

This question has dual purposes: The first is to help set numeric goals for the site that can be
tested with common analytics. The second is to guage the sense of reality of the client: if they
expect to reach 1,000,000 page views their first month, they’ll let you know their expectations via
this question. This is the time to take some sense into them so they aren’t disappointed and don’t
set their expectations too high

18) Site Features: What features do you think your website should include? (calendar, forum,
login, price comparison chart, contact form, anything?)
For each feature, please state the goal of said feature.

Some clients want the moon. By stating the goal of each feature, they may realize they don’t need
the moon. Other clients have no clue what is available to them. They never ask for a contact form
at the initial contact, but i have yet to have a sole proprietor client who doesn’t want a contact
form after reading this questionnaire they just never thought of it. This question helps define
which features are necessary even if they weren’t originally thought of, and which ones sounded
good originally, but really won’t help.
19) Site No Nos: Do you have any definite remarks on what you DON’T want to have on
your website? (Flash, splash page, the color pink?) Sharing why you don’t want a feature
will help me get an understanding of your user experience tastes, so feel free to elaborate.

This question is really helpful as is. Adding the examples has helped me explain against the
dreaded splash page.

20) Other: Anything else I should know?

21) Product Manager: Company Contact(s) Information for web decisions:

Primary Contact Name:
Contact Email Address:
Contact Phone:

Secondary Contact Name:

Contact Email Address:
Contact Phone:

Other contact information

22) Billing Contact: Company contact information for Contracts & Billing:
Name:
Department:
Address:
Phone:
Fax:
Email:
Other contact information

Always know who is going to pay you before you start working

Company Background Questions

1. What kind of business is your company in?

2. How long has your company been in business?
3. What is the size of your company?
4. What is the company’s reputation?
5. What is your typical customer like?
6. Who are your competitors?
7. What is your address?
8. What is your phone number?
9. What is your e-mail address?
10. What is the best way to contact you?

Questions About Work Philosophy

 1. What is most important to you, quality or speed?
2. How often do you want updates on my progress?
3. Do you hire freelancers very often?
4. Is your preferred work process structured, or unstructured?
5. If necessary, would it be okay if I used subcontractors or outsourced parts of the project?

Project Specific Questions

1. What is the purpose of this project?

2. What sort of background do you expect a freelancer working on this project to have?
3. How technical is this project?
4. Describe how you envision the finished project?
5. How many (words/pages/screens) are needed? (Modify this question for your own
specific field.)
6. What are the specific project instructions?
7. Do your customers have any special requirements or needs to be met by this project?
8. Can you show me an example something like what you have in mind?
9. Who will be my contact for this project?
10. How available are you (or the contact) to answer questions during the course of the
project?
11. If necessary, will I have access to (your website/company-specific information/etc.)?
(Choose one.)
12. Is it necessary to have any special (equipment/software) to complete this project?
(Choose one.)
13. Do you envision any potential problems with this project?

Work Agreement Questions

1. What is the budget for this project?

2. Who will own the intellectual rights to the finished project?
3. What is the deadline for this project?
4. How will you be making your payment?
5. When will you pay?

Follow Up Questions (After a Project)

1. How do you think the project went?

2. Do you have any suggestions?
3. Do you anticipate having any other projects based on this one?
4. Will this project need to be updated or revised at some point?
5. If the project needs updating, do you consider the updating or revisions to be a separate
project?
6. Are there any other projects that I can do for you?
7. How often do you need the services of a (writer/web designer/programmer/consultant)?
(Choose one.)
8. Can I use this project as an example on my portfolio? (If the project has gone well.)
 9. Would you be willing to give a testimonial on my work for my web page? (If the client is
pleased.)

Do you interview perspective clients? If so, what questions do you ask?

Project Worksheet: Questions to Ask Before Doing a Web Design for Your Clients

General Questions

1. What is your website’s name?

2. What is your website’s address?
3. What is your business name?
4. What is your business contact information?
5. What are the hours of your business operation?
6. If you don’t own a website yet, what domain name you have in mind and which web
hosting service would you prefer?
7. What is your budget for this project?
8. Do you have a target launch date in mind?

Branding

1. What image do you want your website to portray?

2. Do you have a particular color and font preference?
3. Do you already have a logo or graphics to be used to represent your business? If not,
would you want this created too?
4. Do you already have a tagline for your website? ( For example, Nike’s tagline ‘Just Do
It’ )
5. How is your brand currently perceived by your target market?
6. Who are your top competitors?
7. Which websites are similar to what you have in mind?
8. What are your brand values?
9. What is your business mission statement?
10. Do you want a new look or new identity for your brand?

Marketing

1. What are your products and services?

2. Who is your target audience or market?
3. What is the main goal of your website? To create sales? To get more leads? Please
specify.
4. What unique features do your business have that will draw visitors to your website?
5. How do you plan to market your site?
6. What keywords would you like to use on your site so the search engines will find it
quickly?
7. Will you require a space for advertising? ( header, sidebar or content )
8. Will your site include a Call-to-Action or a sales page?
 9. What are your goals for your website in terms of popularity on the World Wide Web?
10. How would you like to engage with your visitors? ( email, live chat, forum, blog, mailing
list, online brochure )

Content

1. What are the main categories you want on your website?

2. Will you require a CMS or content management system?
3. What features do you want your website to have? ( calendar, forum, blog, polls, etc. )
4. Do you have any source material for the content? ( photos / electronic file )
5. Do you require advance functions like database or scripting? ( shopping carts, contact
forms, newsletters, etc. )
6. Do you plan to put a blog on your website?
7. Do you have any text, graphics, logos, music, or videos you want used for your website?
8. How many people will update your website’s content?
9. Will you require various levels of publishing rights?

Layout

1. Are we designing from scratch? Or, are we going to do a makeover of your existing
website?
2. Which websites do you like? Please list five.
3. Which websites don’t you like? Please list five.
4. Do you have a preference on the website screen size? ( for example: 800 x 600 )
5. Do you prefer a static site or a flash site?
6. Do you want to include multimedia and collateral marketing materials in your website?
7. Do you allow a credit link on your website to link to his/her home page or email address?
8. If the site doesn’t fit the width of the screen, will you prefer a left or center alignment?
9. Do you have business materials that can be matched to the website’s design? ( business
card, etc. )
10. Do you prefer using royalty free materials on the web for the graphics? Or, would you
want it custom-made?

Sensitive Data

This information will be kept in strictest confidence.

1. What is the username and password for FTP access?

2. Who is your hosting company? What is their tech support hotline number?
3. Who is the key person managing the project? What is his or her contact information?

These questions are created to help you during an interview with a prospect. You may alter it or
add on it for you to get a crystal clear picture of what must be done. It may be a tedious task, but
any smart client will appreciate your efforts. If you feel you have missed something, just try
asking if there’s anything else you need to know.
Seven Marketing Questions You Should Ask Before You Get a Teenager to
Build Your Website

by Dr. Greg Chapman

Google tells us there are 4 billion websites- almost one for everyone on the planet. And today
you have decided to make it 4 billion and 1. So, do you think- "If I build it, they will come?"
Seriously? It ain't going to happen, unless you stand out. So do you think your 10 year old
nephew who can code html (which I believe they now learn in pre-school, just after they have
done the alphabet) is going to make your site the next eBay? Let me give you a few questions to
ask yourself before you double his pocket money.

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1. What is the purpose of your website?

In business, there are three main types of websites:

 the brochure site

 the lead generator site
 the online shop

The brochure site is an online support to your offline marketing. You will refer to it in your ads,
because you pay for ads by the square inch, and acres are cheap on the internet. You will refer to
it in your Yellow Pages ads, your business cards and your brochures. An online presence will
give you a credibility that your competitors without a website (getting fewer every day) don't
have. But in the end it is just an online version of a tri-fold a printer might do for you. There is
nothing wrong with a brochure site, if this is all you want in your marketing plan.

The next step up is a lead generator site. Unlike a brochure site, you want it to generate business
on its own. You want people to find your site while browsing on the internet, and having seen
your site, feel compelled to call or email you. After that contact is made, hopefully a sale will
follow.
The last option is that your website is a storefront where visitors to your site can actually
purchase products and services. In other words, after finding your site, and viewing your content,
they are compelled to "click here" to make a purchase.

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There is a fourth type of website- the vanity site. But financial rewards are rarely connected to
this type of site.

Of course a website may be a mixture of these three (or four) types, but unless you have defined
your business model, the purpose of your site, it will be a waste of electrons.

2. How will people find your site?

You already know there are 4 billion sites, so the likelihood that a buyer will find it by chance
are somewhat remote. And if you calculated the cost per lead on that basis, you would never
build such a site. Your business website exists only for one purpose, to make you money-
irrespective of the business model. It must pay its way. So if no-one visited your site, why would
you pay for it to exist?

Therefore, you must have a strategy to ensure people know your site exists and that there is a
reason they should visit it. How can you do that? There are two basic strategies, offline and
online.

An offline strategy is based on all your offline marketing- ie advertising, public relations,
networking and cold calling. In every case you would refer leads to your website where they can
find out more about what you can do for them, and why they should choose you. Your website
would build on your offline promotions giving further details of your service, educating your
customer and creating credibility for your business.

An online strategy will be built around visibility. The key elements of this are:

 Search Engine Optimization

  A strategy to get links to your website
 Online advertising

3. What are you going to do to make visitors linger at your site?

The average website visit is 68 seconds. How many widgets do you expect to sell in that time?
You must have a strategy to make people linger at your site, get to know you and see the value
you can give them.

The three secrets for making people linger are CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT.

To get visitors to stay, you need to give them information that they want. This will not be
information about you (at least not on the home page). Your goal should be to educate your
visitor. Give them information they will not get elsewhere on how to solve the problem that
caused them to search for you in the first place. If you website is just sales hype, your visitors
will be gone in a lot less than 68 seconds.

4. What do you want visitors to do once they are at your site?

Many would say- "Buy lots of stuff from me." Well, in your dreams! Most people will not buy
from you, or call you on the first visit to your site. They don't know you (unless an offline
relationship has been established). And unless you are selling a commodity, that is the same on
every site- eg CD's, and you are competing on price, you need to be able to establish a
relationship. To do this, you need to give visitors a reason to give you a way to stay in contact.
This could be by way of a newsletter, or through a free download of information requiring their
email details. When you do this, it is essential you provide an unsubscribe option, because
otherwise you will be spamming. And there are no rich spammers (although I believe there are
rich people selling spam technology).

5. How are you going to get people to come back to your site?
On average, four out of five website visitors will never come to a website. And if they only stay
68 seconds, it's going to take you several lifetimes to become an internet millionaire. To get
people to come back you need to do several things:

 Have sufficient quantity and quality of content, that the visitor will bookmark your site to come
back for more
 Continually add to and change the content to make visitors want to come back
 Provide special offers to your subscribers that will encourage them to revisit your website

If your website never changes, why would anyone want to come back?

6. How are you monitoring going to monitor the results of your website?
No-one can guarantee what is going to work for you. Therefore you have to measure your
statistics. A good web host will provide you with a statistics package that will tell you how many
visitors you have had, when they visited, how they found you and what they did at your site.
When you make an offer, make a change to your site, or undertake some marketing campaign,
whether online or offline, check the response on your statistics, and the conversions that you
have achieved on your site. Do controlled experiments. Don't change too many things at one
time, because you will never know what caused the change. Find out what works, and what
doesn't. And when you find a good thing, stick to it!

7. Are you really going to trust your 10 year old nephew to do all this?
You may not be using your 10 year old nephew; you may be using a graphics design company
instead. But don't confuse determining your website business model and marketing strategy with
the color and movement of your website graphics. As a general rule of thumb, the flashier the
website, the worse it is commercially. (Check out eBay and Amazon- how flashy are their sites?
But is there a clear business strategy?) You will need someone to do the html programming, but
almost certainly, someone who is good at that will not be good at everything else. A website is
just another marketing tool. Like a brochure. Would you get your printer to write your
advertising copy?

I don't suggest that you should not use a great website design company (or even your precocious
nephew) to build your website, but don't let them be in charge of your marketing!

Copyright 2005 Empower Business Solutions

The list of 72 Top Questions to Ask New Web Design Clients

1. How does your company handle email?

2. Do you need any password protected areas?
3. Do you have the Pantone numbers for your current company colors?
4. Did you take a look at our portfolio?
5. What is your time frame?
6. Is this a brochure site, or a blog?
7. Who is your audience?
8. Do you have any specifications?
9. What are the website addresses of your competitors?
10. How many other companies have you talked to?
11. Do you need a business card and letterhead?
12. What is your main message?
13. Did you or someone else register the domain?
14. How familiar are you with search engine optimization and best practices?
15. What are several websites you like?
16. Do you currently have a website?
17. Do you or anyone on your staff have Photoshop or other image editing software?
18. Do you need search engine help?
19. Does the site launch need to coincide with a product launch or any other important
milestone?
20. Do you need a content management system?
21. How long have you had a website?
22. Do you have photos you need to use?
23. Will several people be editing the site?
24. How many pages do you need?
25. Do you have a catalog or brochure?
26. How do people find your current website?
27. Do you have a newsletter?
28. Are you in touch with the orginal designer?
29. Do you have access to the web server?
30. What are several websites that you like the look of?
31. Do you have control over the domain?
32. Do you need any other promotional material?
33. How familiar are you with usability studies?
34. How important is search engine ranking to you?
35. Is there any specific functionality you need?
36. Will you be providing creative direction?
37. Do you have your content done?
38. Will your IT person be involved?
39. Do you have a logo? What format is it in?
40. How familiar are you with graphic design best practices for web designs?
41. What is your current hosting company?
42. Have you been through the complete web design and development process before?
43. Who are your competitors?
44. How often do you need to update the site?
45. Describe the style of website you are looking for?
46. Is the original developer still available?
47. What is your budget?
48. What is compelling about working with us?
49. Do you need an image gallery?
50. Are you or anyone on your staff familiar with HTML and CSS?
51. Is your logo in Illustrator format?
52. Do you need this to integrate with your existing identity pieces?
53. How are you going to maintain the site?
54. What software do you have?
55. How did you find us?
56. Did you read any of our blog?
57. What bugs you the most about websites?
58. Do you need any other graphic design help?
59. Do you need social media tools built in, like Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, etc.
60. How familiar are you with web standards and web design best practices?
61. Do you need the website to tie into any particular 3rd party applications?
62. Do you need a contact form?
63. Do you have a domain?
64. Do you have any proposals from other design firms?
65. How important is customization to you?
66. Will you want or need help in making changes? If so, would you need help routinely?
67. What do you need your website to do?
68. Do you need ecommerce?
69. Have you considered redesigning your logo?
70. Do you have hosting?
71. Have you considered taking a fresh look at your corporate identity? This a good time to
consider refresh or an entirely new identity.
72. When is the last time you updated the site?