When you approach a designer/developer or studio one of the things they will more than likely stipulate in the contract and proposal is delivery of content. Specifically, the timely delivery of content. At least I can speak for myself here.

Why are we such sticklers about content delivery, often time stating that delays in content delivery can cause delays in the overall project timeline? After all you are asking us to design, the design of the website shouldn’t rely on the content, right?

Actually quite the opposite. The design should in all cases build around the content. The design is there after all to organize, making the content presentable and usable no matter how little of it there may be. The design is of course comprised of a slew of other elements such as branding but for the most part the architecture of the site is designed based on what will be presented and what the purpose of the site is.

Yes in the early stages of the project we can use “dummy” text as a placeholder as long as we have spent the time doing the research/planning and have put together a general diagram consisting of site flow, pages, content areas etc. But… until we are all (including you) able to have a look at the final content, picking apart the pieces, we will not see exactly what needs to be done.

There are in almost all cases, in my experience, going to be certain details that just will not be accounted for until we see final content. How you envision it’s presentation and how we design to deliver the content.

So we go about setting a timeline for content delivery based on the overall estimate of the project. We do so allowing ourselves ample time to style and build a site around your content, taking into consideration the unforeseen. If the content does not reach us on time we have to reconsider and decide if there will be adjustments necessary in the total project timeline.

Imagine if content is delivered only days before the project is to be completed?

Now I realize that content will undergo changes, especially given that you have extra time here and there to proofread. That is ok we can adjust for spelling, grammar etc, but it is important that we have a working draft of actual copy. “Dummy” text will only take us so far.

The bottom line is that you have hired us expecting that we will produce an exceptional product the will deliver the results you are seeking. As your designer/developer this is exactly what I would like to do, nothing less, but we have to be willing to work together in order to create that exceptional product. On time and within your budget.

I think, in fact I know that handing this off to a client has, on more than one occasion caused me to lose the job. I don’t want to speculate on why that might be the case but I would like to explain why it is necessary to my process and will not be going away anytime soon. I do not do this to screen clients or discourage them from working with me, quite the opposite. I do it so that our time working together is better managed, more enjoyable and the end result, a more complete product.

After all, this tool we are about to embark on building is an extension of your business, whether it be a marketing tool or the business itself. I would hope that like your business you would prefer it to be well researched and constructed accordingly.

Why is this necessary?

It is not the questionnaire on it’s own but the information gathered through the questionnaire that is essential to the start of a successful project.

It’s important to note:This is not looked at as the final word in how your site will function or what it will look like as each project has needs and requirements of it’s own nor is every question going to fit perfectly for your business or project. This a building block or base for beginning our research and gaining a good understanding of everything about the project from your goals to your competition.

Sure we could sit down and agree to build a site that looks like Joe Neighbor’s business website because everyone always comments on the stunning colors that have been used in his, but more than likely you will regret your decision to do so six months down the road when freshness of the color scheme has grown old and your site is still failing to produce at the level of your competitor.

No we need to plan, get into it and find out why you need the site and what you want to accomplish, it starts here.

We need to dig past the aesthetics and uncover aspects of your project like, how you plan to market the site after launch, whether or not you hope to be able to easily and effectively manage the content of the site, whom your target market is.

Positive Effects on the Project

Going beyond the final outcome of the project, proper planning will also have a positive effect on the building stages of the project. It is in my experience that taking the extra time on the front end of the project to properly plan allows the project to run smoother overall and produce fewer instances for drastic changes and additions. Fewer instances of change or project addition not only assures that the project will be completed on time but also within budget.

Beyond that it also allows us, the developing company to provide you with an accurate quote on time and required budget for the project.

Thus Far Only Positives, But…

The only two possible negatives of course are one, it requires a bit of your time and two, you will not always have the answer to every question. In the case of number one, we can’t really do anything to combat this, however I am not sure that proper planning can be viewed as a negative. In most cases you would probably welcome the idea that someone put this kind of thought into helping your project and business succeed.

In the case of number two, this is easy. Answer what you can. In the questionnaire I provide, which is attached below, you will notice that around 50% of the questions focus on your business not necessarily pertaining to the web. Questions that you can more than likely fire off answers to as quickly as your own name, it is your business after all. The rest of the questions are fairly straightforward although dipping into the web or technical side of things. These questions are there to provide a starting point. You can answer them and we will work from there or we can work together to complete them. That is one of the keys here, we have to work together to plan on the front end to ensure success on the back end.

It’s not a terribly difficult process to get started with. It should not discourage you from working with someone, in fact quite the opposite. Rather than go on through the entire list of questions that may pop up I have decided to make my company questionnaire available for download here, please feel free to grab a copy and have a look when you have the time. Please note that this is the questionnaire used at Papertree Design, it is not the same questionnaire you might find elsewhere but I think it will touch on some of the essentials. Please feel free to leave your comments, questions or suggestions below.

Download the Questionnaire

A question I receive often. Does it have to look like or be a blog? A lot of potential clients come to me because someone has advised them that using WordPress is the way to go, they have also heard that it does not necessarily mean that it has to look like a blog. But… they are unsure, only because 90% of the sites they see that they know have been done in WordPress do in fact look like a blog. Nothing wrong with that, nothing at all, but there is a lot more to it.

I will start by saying this, the majority of the design/development projects that come my way could be done in WordPress, from storefront to online version of a local newspaper. That does not mean that they all need to be developed in WordPress. In the case of requiring a CMS, it also does not mean that WordPress is the only available solution. Always go with the best solution even if that means an entirely custom solution or no CMS at all.

The bottom line is this. Your site being done in WordPress does not warrant that it look anything like a traditional blog. Fact is you can extend the power of WordPress well beyond that in both design and functionality. Sites that you come across daily and look nothing like a traditional blog may in fact have WordPress running under the hood, you’d be surprised.

So with the answer to that question out of the way, then perhaps, why choose WordPress? By choosing to go with WordPress you are opened up to a powerful management system for you web precedence that will allow you to take a lot of control over things like publishing content, editing content and maintaining the day to day business of your website.

In addition, WordPress comes prepackaged with a rapidly growing community of users, developers and contributors. What this means for you is support. The answer to your question or the solution to your problem is a click away.

Why do I choose WordPress? It interests me, I am very familiar with it front to back and it has never let me down. I return to it time and time again and it is also something that I work with frequently outside of normal business hours.

So knowing that WordPress can, in the right hands be shaped and modeled to accomplish many of the tasks that you hope for the next step is deciding whether or not it is the best solution for your project.

As I mentioned earlier it is not always the right or the only solution available. I do on occasion work outside of this platform when the project requires which goes to further illustrate my point. The right choice is something that you and your designer or developer should discuss and work out well before the project begins.

Hope that you enjoyed this article. As mentioned in the previous Client Education post, this category will be run through it’s own feed, which you can subscribe to separately. While we work to integrate it with the flow of things around here, you are welcome to subscribe here or here by email. If you find it all very interesting you can also choose to subscribe to our main feed below.

This idea sprang from various conversations I have had with clients in the past and was put into action through the suggestions of one recent client in particular. He pointed out something that I have often told myself but never really though much of and that is the fact that I tend to talk (or walk) through various aspects of the process from planning through development in a very clear manner. A manner as he put it helps the less knowledgeable feel more at ease that we are making the right decisions and approaching the project from the right angles. One that puts a client at ease.

This seems to be part of my regular routine, yet I keep it limited to my one on one contact with my client. On the other hand I use this space, Papertree Design, to focus on a variety of topics but more often then not they are geared towards someone on the provider side of the equation.

Sure I give potential clients something. I give them my portfolio so they can see what I’ve done and sure I write halfway decent content that at the very least gives them some impression that I know what I am doing, but more than likely they are not really going to know what to do with a WordPress function nor do they care to know how to write one.

What I came to realize is that I should spend more time focusing on providing clients content concerning topics they do care about. Topics that will both benefit them and benefit those that work with them. Subjects such as: how they should go about choosing a designer, developer or consultant. How they can be better prepared when approaching a project and contacting the service provider. The value of working with someone and more importantly the value of what we do.

If clients are willing to listen then we should be giving them ample reason to continue doing so. The benefits are many on both sides of the equation. For one it makes your job quite a bit easier as time goes on, it can also make the job of others who may have future contact with this client. It helps to establish a good working relationship with the client by allowing them to feel comfortable and increases the possibility that they will become clients for an extended period of time. Last but not least, educating your client will help them to realize a more successful outcome.

So that’s it, Client Education will be focused on answering the questions and hopefully discouraging some of the myths.

This category will be filtered through a separate RSS feed as well and available through email. (This will be available shortly.) I encourage anyone both client and provider to chime in, add their thoughts and even suggest a topic.