Alright, so now you know the website goals you would like to achieve with your website – time to move on. But what should be the next step? Do you tell the web designer to get started on the drawing board or do you tell the web developer to quickly start so you can have the website up by tomorrow?
Well, you don’t do either of the above. I believe the next step should be to prepare the website copy if you haven’t gotten it ready. Without knowing what content will be used on the website, it is actually difficult for the web designer to start conjuring a website layout which is right for you. Not to mention you will risk the website flow later.
Always mention to the client you will start your web design after he has prepared the web copywriting for you. From my experience, clients who wanted to pass the content as I design find themselves facing a lot more things to think about especially in terms of usability.
For example; one client handed me a writeup for the homepage after I already designed it. The client wanted to replicate every information contained in the website on the homepage itself. After the clients listened on how it would affect the viewing of the website, they ended up having to rewrite the content based around my design.
In order to not face the same experience, always remember to ask the web copywriting for the client earlier. If they don’t have it or haven’t prepared it yet, ask them if they’d like to use your web copywriting services.
Don’t design merely based on the idea but to the website goals and content too. This is another reason why content is still king. So respect the content.