Any questions you may have will be addressed and resolved at the project scoping meeting. Please note that if you can be detailed about the specifications of your web site design, it will become a reality more quickly, easily, and more cost effectively. Domain Name - Come up with a domain name. Go with a name that is shorter, rather than longer, and stay within the .com level of domain names. Examples: QSLinc.com, Microsoft.com and ibm.com. Remember, domain names are not case sensitive. Once your domain name has been established, be sure to include it on all letterheads, business cards, and other promotional materials you have. Sites you like - Spend several hours surfing the internet for web sites. Take notes about the web sites that you like and what you like about them. You will be addressing the look and feel of your site later in this checklist. Competition or Similar Sites - Research similar organizations or businesses, sites dealing with similar services, products or even your supplier’s web sites. Make a list of content, features, and design elements that you may want on your site. Purpose and Objective - Think about what you want to accomplish with your web site and explain it in detail. Examples: Give your firm an “Internet Presence”, allow you to sell on the web, provide client information, or display your work. Audience and Visitors - Come up with scenarios in which different types of visitors come to your site and try to think about how you would address each of their needs. Design your web site from the perspective of your audience; not your organization. Site Features and Logical Sections - What will your clients be looking for when they come to your site? The features and logical sections you provide on your site are related to your visitors' scenarios. What do you put in your printed information? What is the purpose and objective of your site? Look at your competition or similar sites for their content and features. Content and Company Information - What are the top 5 questions people ask you about your products or services? These answers should be on your site and easily accessible. Inventory the content you already have in printed brochures, flyers or newsletters. Interaction with Clients - Think about how to incorporate interactive features that will allow visitors to provide information, request services, or even order products. These could include special forms, a shopping cart, search, chat, and knowledge base. Design - After you have created a list of web sites that you like, please select a site similar to how you envision your site. We can take certain elements for each of the sites and combine them to design the look and feel you want. Links and Navigation - Consider your web site from the perspective of your clients. How will your clients want to explore your site? Why are they visiting your site? How are they going to contact you? From the list of web sites you like, come up with a navigation scheme that you think will look good and give your clients the exploring options they are needing. Images and Media - Keep in mind that more graphics and photos increase load time. Put together a file that contains your digital format of your company logo, images of your products and services, photographs of your company buildings, photographs of employees and staff, and video clips. Colors and Theme - Pick the main four colors for your site. You may locate other web sites that are using the colors that you would like on your site. The main four colors will be used for background, body text, headline text, and links. Marketing Strategy - Write down three goals for your web site. These goals should be your marketing goals. You will need to coordinate your online and print media design plans. Using a search engine placement service is a very good idea. Will you be using print advertising to advertise your site? Can you collect your clients' email addresses to send them emails and newsletters? Maintain Site - Consider who will manage your content or will you give the data to us to update your site. Examples of changing content: announcing upcoming events, reporting new industry directions, introducing new personnel, etc. Your business is not static and neither is you web site. We have Web Maintenance plans to help you manage your site content. Schedule and Budget - Any web site designer is going to charge you for his time. The more time the designer spends on your site, the more your site is going to cost. Completing this checklist will help keep down the cost. The target date and your budget will help decide the design of the site. A lot of our clients start out small to keep the development cost low. After they see that their web site is a great informational resource for their clients, they update and redesign their sites. The best way to look at where to begin is to design for the next two years. Your company changes and so will your site. There is much more to a website than what has been mentioned here in this checklist. This checklist will get you started in the right direction and get you asking the right questions. Any questions you may have will be addressed and resolved at the project scoping meeting.