10 Things We Should Do Prior to Web Design, 2022

Whether you've planned to introduce your company's products or establish an online shop, or even a small personal website in 2022, it doesn't make a difference really! Web design could be a challenging and even frustrating process. One factor that may result in designing a failed and inappropriate website is not knowing about the steps you should take before designing a website. As a client who wants to design a website for whatever the purpose is, you should have adequate information regarding what they desire for their website before contacting a web design agency. In that case, the website you have in mind would come out as good and functional as possible!
But, don't worry! NOROCAN, as a professional team, is always looking for a way to provide answers to every possible question in its audiences' minds regarding web design. Now we will discuss ten essential things you should do before you start your website. Stay with us!

Initially, you should decide what kind of website you desire to be designed. Different types of websites have various facilities, affecting the final price of developing them and their absolute competence. Typically, websites are divided into some categories, but we would mention three of them in details below:
1.1. Company Websites:
Company website design is one of the utmost ordered kinds of web design. Company websites are actually a website in which the managers try to introduce the products and services offered by their companies. Besides, they would manage articles and news regarding the company. If you aim to have a website to introduce the products and share relative news and information with your audience, the best option for you is the company website. Now let name some of the websites of this kind:
Organizational Websites
Medical Websites
Industrial Websites
And so on.
1.2. E-commerce Websites:
AKA electronic commerce is that kind of website in which you sell or even buy products and services, which these transactions are done through money and data transference. E-commerce websites are different from Company websites because they are more complicated. In addition to the facilities of a Company website, e-commerce websites have carts, the possibility to compare products, filtering different products, and other facilities, which has made the designing processes more time-consuming and expensive.
Some of the sub branches of E-commerce are:
Business to Consumer (B2C)
Business to Business (B2B)
Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
Consumer to Business (C2B)
And some of the example of E-commerce
Retail
Wholesale
Dropshipping
Crowdfunding
Subscription
Physical products
Digital products
Services
1.3. Customized Web Design
This kind of web design is the area our team has something to say. Customized website design covers many websites. This kind of website is usually designed for a specific business or purpose. Customized websites are designed to cover all the objectives the business owner has in mind and answer all the needs regarding them. The Customized websites categorize in some sub-branches like:
Travel Agency web design,
Advertising web design,
Job search web design,
Real state web design,
Web design for online courses,
Web design for downloading files,
Designing forum,
And so on.

The next step you should take in the web design process is researching your target audience; the aim is to know to whom you are to introduce your company and activities and who would like your products and services. We can mention different classifications of people as the target audience of a particular company:
Teenagers and adolescences,
Parents,
Women,
Men,
The elderlies,
Students,
Managers and Business owners,
Ordinary people,
And so on.

After determining which of these categories are the target audiences of your website, the web designing team can decide on your website's graphic design and organization in a way that can satisfy the needs and desires of your target audience. Considering all of these factors can lead to an optimized functionality and the competence of your website.

Before designing your website, you should know what kind of facilities can serve your objectives and target audience's purposes. If you ever think you'd need a particular feature or facility to be an ideal website, feel free to ask the team you've ordered to design your website.
Sometimes asking for a feature or a facility may cost you an arm and a leg. On the other hand, ignoring some of these features and facilities may cause your website and your business in general to lose a considerable amount of audience or even potential customers.

Determining the cost of the web design project would boost the speed of it. If the budget you have in your mind is below two grands, it's not possible to receive a customized website. In the cases that you don't have the proper budget for a customized web design you can choose websites with pre-designed CMS and frameworks like WordPress which can be problematic. In order to have a proper customized website you'd better add a few grands to the above-mentioned price. Based on the facilities used in the website and the extent to which a project is big, E-commerce and customized web design can differ exclusively in cost. For example, in our article regarding e-commerce web development costswe elaborated on how much the web design may cost based on the type of e-commerce you've planned to operate in.

Like all the other professions, web design requires various tools and systems. Every system has its own pros and cons. Generally, there is three common ways of web design:
1. Pre-designed CMS website or so-called pre-designed frameworks like WordPress, Joomla, WIX, Drupal, etc.
2. Customized websites like PHP.
3. Customized websites like ASP.NET.
We recommend that if you own a medium or big company or develop your website soon, do not choose websites with pre-designed CMS. The best web design system is Microsoft's ASP.NET, which is designed with a very advanced algorithm called MVC. This system will definitely satisfy all the expectations you would have from a customized website. It has its own perks too:
a) It is possible to develop a website with the least time and cost (since the layers are separated in MVC.)
b) Very high website speed and a quicker ranking in Google compared with other sites.
c) Very high security due to the advanced encrypted systems by Microsoft.
We've also elaborated on the drawbacks of the pre-designed websites in our blog. For more information regarding this matter you can check it out!

After checking out all the required facilities, determining the type of website you are to operate in, and learning about different coding methods, selecting the company you want to order your web design is time. We can assure you that this part is an essential part of the web design process. Usually, all the confusions pop up when it comes to choosing the web design company, and you why? It is because there are no criteria that can tell us which company is good or bad. However, we can suggest you some elements that can give you a handful of information about the competence and proficiency of a web design company:
These are the things you have to do:
1. Analyzing the projects that the company has already done.
2. Contact some of the company's previous clients and ask them if they are satisfied with their websites.
3. Meeting the team face to face.
4. analyzing the designing approaches and checking the website of the designing company.
5. Reading and skimming the articles in the blog of designing the company's website.

Web design is like a product. You want that product; you pay for it. Determining the costs of designing a website depends on several factors:
1. Type of website (Company, E-commerce, and Customized )
2. Web design system
3. The extent to which the designing team is professional.
4. Required facilities
In general, pre-designed CMS websites are cheaper due to the free platforms such as WordPress and Joomla. Also, utilizing these pre-designed frameworks doesn't require a high level of proficiency in coding and programming. Programmers' wage has a significant proportion of the cost for a customized web design. Using experienced programmers is not affordable at all. Therefore, no cheap website can be a customized website at the same time. However, we do not claim that the higher the price, the more the quality of the website.

Whenever you chose the right company for your web design and finalized the cost for the project, ask the company to send you a draft of the contract. Check out every main facility you asked for are in the contract. If you hesitate about any article of the contract immediately contact the company and tell them about your hesitations. If you noticed that some parts of the contract need modifications inform the team.
If you make sure that every step is taken correctly and you are certain that you've chosen the right company for your web design, don't waste your time on signing process and checking minor specifications.

Graphic design is a factor you can think of both from the beginning and at the end after the contract. However, we recommend that you don't haste a decision regarding this matter. The best way you can choose the ideal and proper design for your website is by consulting with the team you are working with, and its graphic team provided that they have one. Web design companies have too many ideas about graphic design due to the experience they have. Therefore, ask the experts to help you through the best designing method.

The final step of the process can be done whether at the beginning or the end. When you opt to design a web for your business, whether before you begin the project or end it, you have to prepare some materials:
-Purchasing the Domain:
You should know that purchasing the domain should be done with your personal or company information. ATTENTION! Purchasing the domain by the designing company is an absolute mistake. For, whoever buys the domain is technically the owner of the website. So you see the point right!? Let's make it crystal clear by giving you an example. Suppose one of the members of the designing team purchases your domain; he can claim that he owns your website WHENEVER he desires, or even upload another website on the very same domain as your website. Who knows!!
-Collecting the Primary Data:
Based on a website's objective, it is full of information and data. You'd better collect some of this data before you start the web design project. One of the factors that can postpone benefiting the website is the lack of relevant content and information. It has happened a lot to us. For example, we designed the website perfectly; but due to inadequate information to put in the website, launching it took months and put us behind schedule.
 

But the question is what kind of information de we have to collect before initiating the project?

Logo is one important component of a website, which should be designed before the projects starts. If you've already designed the logo, save a high-quality and preferably PSD file of it in a separate folder. In some cases, the main colors of the design are chosen regarding the colors of the logo.

Contact us and About us are two of the common pages every website has. Not to mention that they are pretty critical for those subtle visitors who come to your website and want to make sure this the website! Visitors can find out about your activities, history, whether there is any phone number or clear address, and so on. Note that the content regarding these two pages (i.e. Contact us & About us) should be brief but beneficial. Information such as phone number and address should be included.

Depending on the type of website you choose (i.e. Company or E-commerce), you should have the main classification of your services or products or both before the project starts. Although we design dynamic websites in which you can upload every product or service and the information regarding them yourself, some of them and their classifications are required to test the website. Therefore, before starting the project, prepare a list and hand it over to the web design team.
For instance, the classification for an online home appliances shop is:
Television, Air conditioner, Refrigerator
They can add washing machines too, but determining the main categories of products is a priority, and it can modify the final outcome of the website.
As another example, the categories for a software website that offers online services are:
Web design, website SEO
This website can add online marketing later on as well, but presenting the main classification can benefit the web design company throughout the project.

If you plan to start a content-based website, try to prepare enough articles, and agree on the place you want those articles to be uploaded. It can optimize the speed of your project if the designer has the content and knows about the style you have in mind.

For over a century, big corporations or small businesses have used slogans to show their audience that their products and services are special in a way that no other ones are. Slogans are usually a triggering piece of text –often consisting of four or five words- which convince you a particular website is the best place to search for a particular service or product. So, it is clear as the daylight that slogans play an essential role in absorbing visitors; therefore, try to think wisely trying to write one!

Collect the photos regarding your company, personnel, services, and products. Of course, the web designers would inform you about the sizes they've considered for every image; nonetheless, collect them in the best quality possible and hand them over to the team. Also, if you have a specific place for the pictures to be uploaded, inform the designers beforehand.


Well..!
We've already mentioned that we only design dynamic websites, which means you have complete access to upload, delete, and edit anything on your website. Therefore, there's no need for sensitivity about the primary contents for the site; you'll have ample time to edit or even change it whenever it is required. The objective of this article was mainly to elaborate on the things you should do prior to the web design project. You do them you help the designer, design your website better and more professional.
Good Luck!