4 Things Your Website Design Team Wants You to Know

So you’re ready to establish your online presence, and you have a specific look and feel in mind for your ideal business website. While it’s possible to build practically any website you can imagine, it doesn’t mean that the average “DIY” website template is going to give you what you’re after. To build a robust or even slightly customized website, you’re going to need to enlist the help of a website design team that has the design and development skills necessary to build the site to your specifications. There are, however, some things to keep in mind when working with your website team in order to avoid frustration and misunderstandings during the process. Below are four things that your website team really wants you to know. 

1. The terms “quick” and “easy” are highly subjective.

It’s better for you to avoid the assumption that your website will be “quick” or “easy” to build unless your design team tells you so, and even then, be flexible with your expected turnaround times. Keep in mind that even the most simple-looking web pages can be quite complex or time-consuming to build, depending upon what type of framework may be running in the background, and what scripts may be present in the source code.

Generally speaking, the more detail and functionality you want to add to a web page (e.g., image sliders, opt-in forms, lightboxes, interstitials, etc.), the longer it will take to build. To be on the safe side, assume that even a minor alteration or edit to your web page will require at least two business days to complete. For slightly more complex jobs, expect a one-week turnaround time, and for the big jobs, even longer.

2. Think very carefully about site features, but be open to the experts.

Building a website is somewhat like building a house; there are standard features you have to decide on like navigation menus, sidebar widgets and footers. And then there are the extra features like sliders and animations and backgrounds that look cool, but also might not be the best fit for your site. Keep in mind that the team you’re working with wants to give you the site you want, but perhaps more importantly, they want to give your visitors the site they want. Be open to their expertise when it comes to making a final decision on what to include where.

3. Be aware that your website will look slightly different in each browser.

While an astute web design team will strive for maximum browser compatibility, the bottom line is that web browsers typically render pages differently. In other words, your page will look slightly different in Internet Explorer than it does in Firefox or Chrome or Safari. What this means is that the ideal look and feel that you have for your site may not always translate into reality across the board. Even if you’re able to somehow achieve a uniform look across all browsers, keep in mind that users have the ability to control fonts, screen sizes, colors, resolution, etc., from their end, so your site may still end up looking different than you intended by the time it reaches the end user. 

4. Your mock-up is not set in stone.

Probably the most important thing is to remember to be flexible during the design and testing process. Just because your web design team is working with a particular mock-up for your site doesn’t mean that you’re tied to that design forever. Many times a design team will create a bare-bones version of your site at first to test the functionality of different non-aesthetic elements, and then they’ll add all of the bells and whistles later. Be patient and remember that their main objective is to deliver to you a site that will not only look how you want it to, but actually perform well from a for your site visitors.

Just as you would an architect building your house, keep in mind that your web design team is comprised of trained professionals who can deliver quality results, but you must allow them to operate in their lane. Be flexible, treat them with respect and be willing to listen to their feedback and suggestions. By doing this, you can help create a productive working relationship, which means you’re more likely to get the website of your dreams in a shorter turnaround time.