Website design questionnaire, part 2 A website design questionnaire makes it easier to structure the development process, ensures client requirements are captured before project sign-off (avoiding scope issues), establishes clear expectations, and starts the communication process between the client and the design team. Adapting needs to available money and resources must be considered.
The aim behind the questions is to reduce the back-and-forth from the start. It should eliminate the need for clarifying questions mid-project, and get the basics on paper before any work begins. What is the purpose of your website? (e.g. personal, business: lead generation, e-commerce sales, investor prospectus, blog, informational, educational, event, club membership, social media, other). Different websites have different goals, impacting design, user experience (UX), and functionality decisions. For example, an e-commerce site focuses on search functionality and generating conversions.
What is the purpose of your website? Aims and objectives impact the size of a website. A simple service-based B2B (business to business) website might need a few pages, whereas an e-commerce store will need hundreds, or thousands, of product pages. A clear and concise statement of your primary objectives will be very useful. What outcome are you aiming for (e.g. brand visibility, lead generation, increased sales, reduced basket abandonment)?
What business goals do you want your website to achieve? Which goals are not being met currently? Example answer: "Our goal is to improve our current e-commerce site, re-platform it, and overhaul the interface and search functionality to increase sales and reduce basket abandonment."
We don't want to just show you, the client, web design mock-ups, only for you to say, "No, this is all wrong, instead we need…" followed by a long list of changes. It saves time, money, and headaches to ensure everyone is on the same page before designing mock-ups. Questionnaires give you, the client, a chance to place all of your ideas into one document: framing these around questions, structuring your ideas, and explaining your website goals, so we can turn them into design mock-ups and, finally, provide a fully functioning website with the main goals included from the beginning.
Why do you need to build or redesign your website? Do you want to create a new website from scratch, or overhaul/revamp an existing website to give it a new, fresher look?
Are there any new features that must be included from the beginning? And others that can be added over time?
Technical requirements: will the website be powered by a CMS platform like WordPress, Shopify, Webflow or HubSpot? Have you considered the monthly costs? Will you need a custom template designed? Or do we need to customise an existing one for your web pages, email design, landing page design and CMS platform?
Do you have a proposed sitemap prepared?
Do you have extensive customer research information available to share with our design team?
Have you made any previous studies of your customer base? Have you created an "ideal customer profile"? Have you studied all your orders to date, looking for "common ordering patterns" which could help product presentation or marketing campaigns? Why do clients visit you, or your website?
Identifying the target audience: to create a successful web design project, it is essential to identify the target audience. Here is a list of questions that you need to ask yourself while building a website; this will help to understand its potential visitors better and make the creation process easier. What are the general needs, desires, and challenges of your target audience? How can your website help your audience with their pain points? What features are meant for that? What is the age group and gender of your target audience? Where is your target audience mostly located? What is the marital status of your target audience?
Who are your target audience (age, gender, location, income, occupation, hobbies)? Who will your ideal customers be? What are their interests and online behaviours? And what "pain points" are you offering to solve? For example: "We want to attract young professionals, 25-35 years old, with disposable income, interested in fitness and wellness products." Just saying "everyone" is not an ideal start to understanding your own business.
What functionalities and specific features do you need (e.g. menu system, contact forms, calculators, checkout, email capture, photo gallery, internal search engine, Google Maps, Shopify, etc.)?
Will your website need a responsive menu system that adapts to PC browsers, tablets and mobile telephone screens?
What specific pages do you need on your website? There are dozens of web page types; however, here we list the most important ones found on most websites: home page, product page, product demo page, shipping page, pricing page, booking/scheduling page, login/sign-up page (for membership websites), account page, blog, about page, contact page, search page, custom 404 page, other.
Do you want users to be able to leave comments on your posts? Do you want users to be able to post reviews of your products and services, and maybe share these comments on social media sites? This is not always a good thing to have; it can waste a lot of time and space. What would you define as a "bad" or potentially "difficult" client?
What is your budget for the design and development process of the website? 2,000€-4,000€, 5,000€-7,000€, 8,000€-10,000€? Do you have a marketing plan and marketing campaign budget? Are you asking for a reasonable number of pages for the budget available?
What is the desired timeline / timeframe, and do you have any additional requirements for the completion of the website? Do you have a realistic launch date? As quick as possible; no rush; future project (8+ weeks).
Anything else that is a "deal breaker" for you? Specific things that do not work for you in a client relationship?
Do you need help with writing new content, and updating and maintaining your website? Do you have any duplicate content right now that needs cleaning up?
Do you need help with blogging, sales, marketing, and content promotion? Advertising is essential to building a well-organised and efficiently working website. Are you planning to run any internet or local ads? If so, what kind? What is your advertising budget?
Do you need help with defining your unique selling proposition (USP)? Do you have web content in documents "ready to go"?
Do you have any problems attracting qualified leads for your business? How invested are you in social media? Do you currently use any email marketing or similar tools? Are you familiar with CRM software to store sales and customer information? How do you feel about email marketing communications?
What specific functionality do you need on your website? Understanding the unique selling points of your website can help to inform our design team about the required content for your website.
Does your company have branding guidelines or visual preferences in terms of colours, shapes, styles and fonts? Do you have an existing colour scheme or style guide we can use? If not, can you name 3 competitor websites that you very much like, and 3 that you dislike? Who are your main competitors? What makes them special? Why do they stand out from others? Can you name the top ten of them? For a website to stand out from its competitors, it's vital to know as much as possible about them and analyse the information gathered. The questions here will be a great help in this regard, and help us get a general idea of what you will be going for.
Which competitors' websites are you most aware of, and either want to improve on, or avoid looking like? What branding guidelines (colour and font preferences) call your attention? If you close your eyes and think of a brand, what/who do you think of? Try to be exacting; do not use words like "pizzazz" or "pop".
What features would you like to have on your website? This will give us a detailed list of what we need to design: titles, headers, image slider, image gallery, forms, online ordering and payment, search, etc.
Have you designed any online forms which must be included in your website? These allow visitors to email you requests for information, or to send you additional information about themselves. It is always a good idea to create these on paper first.
How do you envision your website's image? List the characteristics that will help you visualise your logo. Including a neutral option will guide us to select the characteristics that matter the most. Here are some examples: greyscale/neutral/colourful; authoritative/neutral/friendly; minimalistic/neutral/complex; conservative/neutral/nonconventional; masculine/neutral/feminine; professional/neutral/casual; luxurious/neutral/natural; serious/neutral/fun; classic/neutral/modern; non-interactive/neutral/interactive; retro/neutral/futuristic; elegant/neutral/sporty; safe/neutral/extreme; other.
Optional but helpful information, such as screenshots and text content files, can provide additional help with the design process.
