Where to begin?

 
If you’re starting a web project and looking to get involved with your friendly neighborhood web designer/developer (that’s us!), it can understandably seem a little daunting. If you haven’t been through this before, you may have a lot of questions about the process. “Where do I begin?” or, “Is there anything I should prepare?” Millennial Web Development gets these questions all the time, and we’re here to answer them for you.

Here’s a rundown of some of the things to have on hand when you begin the design/development process so it’s as smooth and effortless as possible. First, we’re going to talk about everything you’ll need for development-only projects, and then we’ll address design and development projects.
 

Development-Only Projects

 
Let’s say you already hired a designer and now you need to turn those design files into a working website. Look no further. Here at Millennial Web Development we can turn those designs into a smoothly functioning, easy-to-use and secure website. Here’s what we’ll need:

• Design Files

  If you already have your site designed, all we’ll need from you are your design files (Sketch, XD, PSD, AI, etc) and then we’re off to the races!

Design & Development Projects

 
If you need design AND development work for a website, then here’s a quick list of the things we’ll need to get started. Don’t worry – if you don’t have something, just let us know and we’ll make sure to take care of it!

• Your logo

  This is an easy one – send us your logo. In vector format (EPS, AI, etc.), if you can. If you don’t have a logo yet, no worries, we’ll get you sorted.

• Brand Style Guide

  A brand style guide makes it easy for us to keep the vision unified throughout the many stages of the design/development process. It can include things like your mission statement, your ideal buyer persona, color palette, typography, all the things that make your business unique and identifiable. If you don’t have one, again, no big deal – we’ll make it work!

• Reference Websites

  Are there any websites that inspire you? Websites that have features or aspects that you would like reflected in your website? If so, send them on. And tell us what you like about them. Reference websites can be a great way to get everyone on the same page in terms of aesthetics, tone and overall vision. If you don’t have a brand style guide, then these reference websites become even more important as they give us a place to start in the design process.

• Site Map

  A site map is basically a list of pages on a website, and can look a little something like this:

  

  Or, it could be more involved, with summaries of pages, functionality details, wireframes, etc. No matter what form your site map is in, send it along.

  Providing us with a site map is a huge help in terms of getting an idea of the scope of your project – what you want the website to do, how many unique page designs it requires, and how you envision everything working together.

  If you are wondering where to begin with making a site map, get in touch and we can tell you about our SEO services, where we’ll be able to help you develop a site map that serves all your business’s needs.

• Content

  The content on your site includes all the text, graphics, photos, etc. that you’d like to appear on your site. If you already have a functional website and you’d like to preserve the content you already have, great! That’s a no-brainer. If we’re starting from scratch, send us what you have, even if you don’t have everything. You can send the content page by page, so we can work on one set of page designs while you work on the content for the next.

  But, in order to get started on your site, we’ll first need the content that you’d like to see on your homepage, as this is the first page we design.

  Don’t know where to start with content creation? Wish you could have someone else write the site based on your business materials? Get in touch to learn about our SEO and copywriting services.

• Budget / Timeline

  This one is different for everyone. If you don’t know what your budget is, or when you’d like to have the site finished, we totally get it – no pressure. If you do know, even better. In our experience, talking about the budget and timeline early-on makes for clear communication and smooth sailing. But whether you know your budget or you don’t, whether your budget is large or small, rest assured that it will make no difference to the quality or quantity of attention paid to your site – you’re going to love the results either way.

Now that you know where to begin, let’s get started.

 
There you have it – a pretty ideal list. If you can get all these assets together right off the bat, that’s fantastic. But you should also know that if for whatever reason you can’t get it all prepared, we’re versatile and can make you a stunning, cutting-edge website no matter what you provide us. So let’s make it happen!

Get in touch now to start the process.