Changing direction during a website build can quickly add time and cost.
A little planning before development starts can prevent expensive rework later.
Building a new website can be exciting
You start with a blank canvas, a few ideas, perhaps an old website you are thoroughly sick of, and the belief that somewhere in the process a shiny new website will appear.
In reality, one of the biggest challenges is often not the technology at all.
It is working out what the website should actually look like and how it should work before too much development has already been completed.
When Ideas Evolve During the Build
During a recent website project, the site evolved considerably as development progressed.
Layouts changed. The way information was organised changed. Sections that initially seemed like the right approach were reconsidered once they could be seen working on an actual website.
Some ideas were simplified. Others were expanded. Entire parts of the site were presented differently from the original concept. None of those decisions were necessarily bad decisions.
In fact, many of the changes produced a better website.
The important lesson was when those decisions were made. Changing direction during the early planning stage usually costs very little.
The further a project has progressed when changes are made, the more completed work may need to be altered or rebuilt, especially once multiple pages, menus, layouts and supporting components have already been created.
Why Changes Cost More Later
People are generally very good at saying: “I don't like that.”
The harder question is: “What would you like instead?”
Terms such as modern, clean, professional and the ever-popular make it pop can mean completely different things depending on who is using them. One person's clean and modern website is another person's empty white page with enormous writing on it.
That uncertainty matters because websites are made up of interconnected parts. Changing a heading or button is usually simple. Changing how an entire product range is organised after the menus, pages, links and mobile layouts have already been built is considerably more work. That extra work can cause the original budget to grow.
Some change is completely normal, but the more completed work that has to be revisited, altered or rebuilt, the more time and cost can be added to the project.
Plan Before the Build
Before anyone starts building your website, spend some time on these four basic things.
1. Know What the Website Is For
What do you actually want visitors to do?
- Request a quote?
- Call you?
- Buy something?
- Book an appointment?
- Read technical information?
- View completed projects?
- Learn about your organisation?
A website becomes much easier to plan once its main purpose is clear.
2. Work Out the Basic Page Structure
You do not need every word written before development starts. However, having a reasonable idea of the main pages you need is important.
For example:
- Home
- About Us
- Services
- Products
- Projects
- Contact Us
Another business may need something completely different. The exact pages are not important; what matters is having a clear idea of the overall structure before development begins.
It is much easier to settle your page structure and menu early than to change them later, when page names, web addresses, internal links, navigation and other connected content may all need to be updated as well.
3. Have Some Visual Direction
You do not need to arrive with a complete design. That is what the designer is there for.
But it helps enormously if you already know things such as:
- your preferred colour palette;
- whether you want modern, traditional, corporate, technical or friendly styling;
- the general type of fonts you prefer;
- websites you like;
- and, importantly, why you like them.
“I like this website” is useful.
“I like the simple navigation, large photographs and dark blue headings” is far more useful.
The same applies to websites you dislike.
Being able to explain what you do not like helps a designer understand what you actually want.
4. Get Your Images Organised
Where possible, provide the best-quality original images and logos you have available.
Logos should be supplied in a suitable high-resolution format, and photographs should be large enough to be cropped and resized without losing quality.
It is also worth remembering that supplying an image does not always mean it is ready to go straight onto a website. Photographs may need cropping, resizing, background removal, colour correction, cleanup or conversion so they display properly and remain consistent with the rest of the site.
That preparation takes time. Fixing one or two images may only add a small amount of work, but preparing thirty or forty images can quickly become a significant part of the project and should be allowed for in the budget.
Good-quality, well-prepared imagery helps a website look polished and professional. Poor or inconsistent images can have the opposite effect, no matter how good the underlying design is.
Your Vision, Our Advice
You do not need to know how to build a website before asking someone to build one.
A web designer can advise you about layout, navigation, technology, usability and what is likely to work well.
It is your business. It is your vision.
The more clearly you can explain that vision at the beginning, the less time has to be spent experimenting with finished work later.
Artificial intelligence can be surprisingly useful here too. Tools such as ChatGPT can help you work through questions like:
- What pages should my type of business have?
- How could my homepage be organised?
- What information will visitors probably be looking for?
- What colour combinations might suit my existing branding?
- What do these three websites I like have in common?
AI does not need to replace your web designer. It can simply help you arrive at the conversation with a much clearer idea of what you want.
That alone can save a considerable amount of development time.
The Bottom Line
A successful website project does not require you to arrive with every detail already decided. Your web designer should provide advice, explain the options and help turn your ideas into something practical. What matters is having enough direction at the beginning that everyone is heading toward roughly the same destination.
- Know what the website is supposed to achieve.
- Have a basic idea of the pages, colours, fonts and overall style you want.
- Show your designer examples of websites you like and explain what you like about them.
- Prepare your images and content as much as possible before the build starts.
- Use AI tools to help organise and clarify your ideas before development begins.
- Make the big structural decisions early, before completed work has to be altered or rebuilt.
A website will almost always evolve while it is being built, and some changes are completely normal. The cost starts to climb when major decisions are repeatedly revisited after significant work has already been completed.
Changing your mind is allowed. It is simply considerably cheaper to do it before we've built it.
Need Help?
Planning a new website but not sure where to start? Techmedics can help you work through your website structure, design and requirements before development begins.
Ask us about your website
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