How to plan a website project before you hire a designer

## Start with the job the website must do A website project becomes easier to scope when you can describe the task it performs. Is it meant to help prospects understand a complex service, generate qualified enquiries, sell products, recruit staff, or reduce support questions? Choose one primary outcome and a small number of supporting outcomes. “Look modern” may be a useful design preference, but it is not a business objective. A goal such as “help a first-time visitor understand our three service options and request a consultation” gives both you and your designer a way to judge the result.

## Identify the audience and their questions Write down who visits, what they already know, and what they need to decide. Gather the questions your sales or support team hears repeatedly. Note any audience differences that genuinely change the content or journey. Avoid treating every possible visitor as equally important; prioritization prevents a small site from becoming an unstructured catalogue. If you have analytics, search queries, or customer feedback, use them as evidence rather than guessing.

## Make a page and content inventory List the pages you expect to need and the purpose of each. A modest service business might need a home page, service pages, about information, contact details, and a privacy page. An online store has different requirements, including product data, policies, payment, delivery, and inventory. For each page, identify its call to action and whether text, photography, diagrams, or proof points already exist. Content gaps influence both schedule and cost, so make them visible early.

## Define scope, boundaries, and dependencies A good brief says what is included and what is not. Record required languages, accessibility expectations, integrations, user roles, migration needs, and who supplies copy and images. Distinguish must-haves from future enhancements. Decide who can approve work and how quickly feedback can be returned. Confirm domain, hosting, analytics, and account ownership. These details reduce late surprises without requiring you to prescribe every design decision.

## Agree how success and approval will work Choose a few meaningful measures: qualified enquiries, completed purchases, task success, or another observable outcome. Baselines may be unavailable for a new site; say so rather than inventing targets. Ask for milestones such as discovery, content structure, visual direction, implementation, and launch review. Establish how many feedback rounds are included and what counts as acceptance. Before signing, compare proposals by deliverables, assumptions, exclusions, support, and ownership—not only by headline price. A short, honest brief is more useful than a long document full of unsupported claims.

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Every business and audience is different; treat these ideas as a starting point and validate decisions against your own users and goals.