Collaboration
At Zenuity, our web design process relies heavily on collaboration. To build the best possible site for your business, it takes a team that includes a project manager, designers, programmers, copywriters and marketing department. Our creative team also includes another crucial member: you.
The foundation of the site we build is the information you give us. For the most part, the most important information you can give us is about your company as a whole. While you may have a color scheme in mind or some content you want included, those aren’t necessarily the first things we should talk about. As the business owner or the designated contact person, your primary role in the creative process is to help us learn as much as we can about your company.
At a basic level, there are three things we need to know before starting work on your site:
1. What you do.
To build the website your company deserves, we need to understand what it is you do as fully as possible. This usually means having an in-depth discussion (or two) about your business with our creative team before we begin developing your site. It’s also extremely helpful if you can provide any files or written materials that can help us understand your work: a business plan you created as part of a loan application, brochures or other marketing materials you give to clients, training guides you give new employees — chances are you have a number of documents sitting around the office that we’d love to get our hands on. A strong grasp of how your business works and what it is that makes you unique is essential to great web design.
2. Why you need a new website.
Chances are you want a website to provide people with information and/or to help you make make more money. That’s great, but those goals are pretty much universal. To determine the best way to achieve what you want to, we need to get a little more specific. A great way to codify your goals is to write a mission statement for your website — a short paragraph or two about the site’s purpose. When you help us clarify the Why, we can start figuring out the How.
3. Who your audience is.
Regardless of what your goals are, positive user experience is imperative if you hope to achieve them. To create a positive experience for your audience, we need to know who they are. If your audience is broad, we need to know which groups are more important and why. We can only do our best work when we know as much as possible about your audience demographic, both on- and offline: age, income, profession, education, how, why and when they go online, online behavior patterns, spending habits … the more we know about your audience, the better. Researching your industry and using tools like Google Analytics can help us learn a lot about how to create a great experience for your users, but there is always going to be valuable information that only you can provide.
Getting to Work …
Your role in the project isn’t limited to coming in for a consultation and providing us with basic information about your company. At certain points in the process, your participation is crucial. Making yourself available to answer questions and provide feedback will make sure the project doesn’t get held up.
While our process does require a little bit of work on your end, it results in a superior final product. Sometimes you might not understand why we need your approval on something or why we’re asking a certain question, but we always strive to take up your time only when we need it to make your site better. You’ll see just how valuable that time was when the finished product is rolled out.
