SMART|WP Q & A for a web briefing meeting - be 'in the know

8/9/2019 SMART|WP Q & A for a web briefing meeting - be 'in the know'

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Web briefing Q&AQuestions to ask and guidelines tofollow when short-listing, selecting

and instructing your webdevelopment team

SMART Website Planning, ,23c Hemington Avenue London, N11 3LR, United Kingdom

Tel:020 8361 6690 Email: [email protected]



Preparing your web design brief

This checklist has been prepared tohelp small-to-medium sized businesses(SMEs) to develop a website designbrief, which they can send to webagencies to request an accurate and

well-informed proposal.

Preparing this brief will help you to clarify yourbusiness requirements. You should have alreadyconsidered elements such as why you want to create anew website, what your return on investment (ROI)will be, and whether it will be cost effective.

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develop the resources you need within your business andidentify any integration requirements;

confirm the need for any third-party service providers;

keep costs under control by reducing the risk of adding or

removing features or functionality at a late stage in the project.

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By defining your new site's requirements as early andin as much detail as possible, it will be simpler to:





Use this checklist to identify and define your detailed business needs. These are essential for any potential supplierwho may be asked to provide a quote for designing and building a website.

The type of information it suggests you provide about your business and your web project is also relevant whenoutsourcing other services.

The checklist will help you to compile a briefing document that includes:

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your company's background

what you already have in place and would like to keep or adapt

your overall expectations for the new website

the design and development services you require.

Once you've completed each of the following elements for preparing your brief, simply tick it off.

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Create your internal project team

Summarize your website project

Describe your business, services and products

Discuss your web design project in depth

Detail your requirements in full

Decide who to invite to tender

How to use the checklist

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You should bring together all the people who are going to be involved in your website project at the earliestopportunity, so that each person can contribute to the early planning and decisions that are needed to create a well-developed design brief.

Consider who'll be responsible for the overall delivery of the web design project, for its day-to-day management andfor content creation (copy, photography, multi-media, translations, etc). And in the long term, who will be responsiblefor maintaining and managing the site, its content and users.

Whilst in a smaller firm it's likely that one person will fill most of the roles set down below, larger companies mayrequire some or all of the following….

Depending on the size of your company and the project, you may need all of the following, or one person couldfulfil several roles.

The project sponsor (usually a senior role) is responsible for delivering the project. They make sure that the correctresources are available and make key decisions on any issues that arise.

The steering group is chaired by the project sponsor and consists of senior managers from across the business. Itensures that the project's managed correctly and provides ownership outside of the design team.

The project manager reports to the project sponsor and oversees the day-to-day progress of the web design project.

If the project's complex – involving a number of third parties and internal departments – a programmer manager might also be needed.

It's often a good idea to create a contact sheet containing details of the team members and other key people, for useboth internally and for suppliers.

Team structure

Your internal project team

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Preparing an effective web design brief is a time-consuming exercise.

It is all too easy to become sidetracked with 'the minutiae' of messaging, imagery and interactivity whilst losing sightof your overarching goals.

To help you maintain a clear vision of your desired site, you should begin by creating an executive summary – encapsulating, in a few short paragraphs, your objectives, audience, essential functionality and longer term onlinemarketing plans.

This executive summary will prove helpful for your potential designers too – enabling them to ascertain your needs'at a glance' and to determine if they're the right provider for you.

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Describe your business in a couple of sentences.

Why are you building the website?

Who is your website for (i.e. the audience) and how do/will they use it?

What are your business objectives? What do you want your website to

achieve?

How do you want the website to develop over time?

What will be your site's key functional components?

Website project summary

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Provide a short, honest overview of your business and how it fits into your industry. For example, identify what yourcompany does, its market(s) and how it differs from its competitors.

Include information about your industry sector, as well as organisation charts and other background materials whererelevant. Typical details include:

Business background and structure

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'who we are', history and company structure

mission, vision and values

'where we are now' (existing market, current position and competitors)

how you want your company to be perceived by others.

Services and/or products

Provide details of the services or products that you offer, which online and offline channels are most relevantand which ones take priority. You could include:

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product and business development

long- and short-term strategies or plans

current and new offline and online markets

what makes your business different (what you do better, why

your customers value you and so on).

About your company

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Use this section to go into more detail about your site's audience, your current online presence, the new website andwhat you expect from it. Describe the website's purpose and objectives, as well as your long-term ambitions for it.

This is the most important element of the brief: who is the website for? Who are your primary, secondary and eventertiary audiences?

Who are your existing customers and why would they come to your website? What information do they need andwhat would you like them to do as a result of visiting your site?

Do you want to consolidate your existing client base or do you want to appeal to new markets? How will newcustomers communicate with you?

Can you provide any demographics (age, sex, income, occupation, location and so on) or personas of typicalcustomers?

Outline your current online presence and how well it's performing. Do you have an existing website and what roledoes it play in your business?

How is it structured? Does it reflect your organisation or your customers' needs? Do you have any user feedback via acomments form or a specific survey?

What do you like or dislike about your current website (if you have one)? What are your current traffic volumes? Arethere any other websites that you particularly like or dislike and, if so, why?

If you've decided to redesign an existing website, why have you reached this decision? What are you hoping toachieve? What are the site's short- and long-term objectives? What are your overall online and business objectives?

Do you have a timescale for the project or a planned launch date? Will it tie in with other marketing activity? Whatpart will it play within your overall communications strategy?

How do you want users to engage with your new website? Is it to provide a ‘static’ repository of useful information – or to deliver dynamically-generated content, customised ‘on the fly’ to individual users’ requirements? What specific information would you like it to contain?

Target audience(s)

Existing online presence

The new website

Your web design project in depth

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What internal resources will you have available for the design and build of the new website? Who will beresponsible for maintaining and managing the site, its content and users in the long term? Do you need a contentmanagement system (CMS) – to enable you to make regular updates, to your text and images, in house?

Have you considered the legal, ethical and business arguments for making your website accessible? In the UK,

service providers are required to make sure their websites comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

If not, a great place to start is www.website-law.co.uk/

Do you have any specific legal and contractual requirements? If you're thinking of using an agency based in adifferent country, do you need to provide details of any laws, intellectual property (IP) restrictions or warrantiesapplicable to your business?

Does the agency need professional indemnity coverage? Do you require a confidentiality agreement?

Legal and contractual requirements

Your web design project in depth

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Identify what you'd like potential suppliers to quote for. Consider the following elements, whether they should beincluded in any proposal and, if not, how they will be provided. Perhaps you plan to supply some of the resources inhouse, such as photography or content, or use other third-party suppliers.

Who will provide the site's copy? Do you need a content audit or inventory of your existing website? Will youprovide a new sitemap (navigational structure)?

Do you require copywriting or editing services? Does your company have an editorial style guide? Do your staff need any further training – to help them develop the skills they’ll need to write effectively for the online audience?

Do you need photography and imagery or will you supply that internally? What about downloads, multi-media suchas videos, podcasts and other interactive content?

Will you require search engine optimisation (SEO) services for your copy? Do you want the website in multiplelanguages and, if so, who will provide the translations?

Are there any websites (within and outside your industry) whose design you think is particularly effective orrelevant? Why? Are there any you dislike? Again, why?

Do you have a preferred look and style? Pick out some key words, such as uncluttered, colourful or modern. Whatvalues would you like users to attribute to your company as a result of visiting your site? For example: trustworthy,young, reliable or even country-specific.

Do you have any corporate identity or branding guidelines that dictate colours, design or typography? What aboutlogos? Provide any other marketing materials (from brochures to business cards) that might help to develop theonline brand.

Content

Web design

Scope of service

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Web development services

Website marketing

Other services

Beyond the design aspects, do you need the agency to actually build the website (i.e. writing mark-up and coding)?

Do you need the agency to purchase new domains or provide web hosting or an e-commerce database?

What tools and features would you like to keep from your current website or add to your new site? Do you need toprovide diagrams of any key interfaces or existing applications?

What is your site's function? Do you need an online booking system, a secure shopping basket, investor relationstools or password-protected log-in? Do you need a mobile version? Do you want to integrate any social networkingservices?

How will you launch and market the new website? Do you need the agency to provide an online, SEO and socialmedia marketing strategy? Will you need help with the site's promotion and advertising?

Do you also need help supporting the website offline through, for example, brochures or corporate merchandise? In

the long-term, what about email newsletters and other initiatives?

Beyond the above services, do you need help to identify your customer personas (profiles) and carry out userresearch to develop your website? What about usability testing and specific accessibility features?

Do you require ongoing reporting and web analytics to measure performance and return on investment (ROI), orsimply the tools to do this in-house? What about training for specific personnel to use new site features?

Scope of service

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Once you've compiled your request for proposal (RFP) document, you need to decide who to send it to. With literallyhundreds of thousands of web agencies across the world to choose from, this is no easy task.

Decide whether you'd like a local agency that you can meet face to face on a regular basis or an agency workingremotely (200 miles away or even in another country). Considerations might include company working culture,currency exchange, time zones and legal differences.

Search out companies in your desired location. You could try:

Gather together a list of contenders

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using an online search engine such as Google, filtering by region or country

asking around for a word-of-mouth recommendation; ask people that you know,

from other small businesses to your suppliers

contacting your trade association (if you're a member) for recommendations or a

list of preferred suppliers

harnessing social media: ask on industry forums or blogs, or try a tool like

LinkedIn, which has a 'questions and answers' feature for small businesses

Picking out a few websites that you like and look for the agency who was involved

(there's often a link in, for example, the footer). Contact the site's owner to find outwhat their experience was of working with the agency. Remember, the live

website is just the tip of the iceberg!


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Making a shortlist

You'll now have a considerable list of companies that you need to reduce to between five and ten agencies(depending on the size of your project and how much time you have available). This should still allow you to carryout a fair comparison of the proposals sent to you.

Visit their websites to identify a few key pieces of information, then pick up the phone to speak to them directly.

You should now have a comprehensive design brief and a listof potential suppliers to send it to.

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Do they have a suitable team and the right skills to deliver your project?

Have they worked on similar projects (in terms of either requirements or sector)

previously?

What do their other designs look like? Is there a range of styles (meaning they can

adapt to your requirements) or is there a definite 'house style' (and does it match whatyou want)?

Can they provide the technologies that you want and have they done so in previousprojects? Do they provide standards compliant and accessible websites?

Do they provide the levels of long term support and back-up that you're likely to

need?

And of course if you have any queries – or require further advice – you’re welcome to contact us.

--------------------------------23c Hemington Avenue

London N11 3LRUnited Kingdom

--------------------------------Tel:020 8361 6690

Email: [email protected]

SMART | WPWebsite Planning


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SMART|WP Q & A for a web briefing meeting - be 'in the know