Discovering our clients

When we start a website we work with our clients to find out as much as we can to get the most information available so we can create a website that our clients love and that targets their audience. Doing this is often a process of helping the client discover themselves.

This isn’t always easy because a great design is about problem solving, not our personal preference or opinion. Designing is about helping our clients get what they want and what is best for their clientele. It is our responsibility to help our clients get a great website so, with that in mind, we have responsibilities to not let our clients do anything that is going to interfere with the function of what they are trying to accomplish or do anything ridiculous like making the logo the size of a bowling ball.

When our clients sign up for a design, we ask a lot of questions. Here is a little about what our clients can expect us to ask when hiring Sumy Designs:

Audience

We ask detailed questions so we can hone in on a particular audience and focus the design appropriately.

• Who is your target demographic?
• Are there specific sectors, industries, or geographic locations we need to focus one?
• Do your clients have special needs or problems we need to address?

Competition

Discovering the competition lets us know who our client is up against and gives us the information we need to create a website that competes with their competition. We will ask our clients questions like

• Who are your top competitors?
• How do you stand apart from your competitors?
• And we will ask for links to the competitor sites and ask why the client likes or dislikes them.

Goal

We’ll need to know how you will qualify a successful website visit. Will the user by a product, sign up for a newsletter, download the latest novel? The client will have to think about this and provide feedback on how they will know if their goal is met.

After we find out the as much as we can about the audience, we need to find out the visual preferences of our clients. These questions are little more direct.

Color

Surprisingly, color is often one of the most difficult decisions for the client to make. There are so many to choose from and each palette can change the mood of a website drastically. We ask a few questions to guide them:

• Do you have company color or any Pantone or hex codes we need to match?
• What colors do you like?
• What colors do you hate?
• Describe the mood or tone you want your color palette to generate.

Graphics

• Do you have photos, logos or images that must be used?
• Will you need stock photography?
• If so, what mood are you trying to set with the images?

Content

• What pages do you want in your navigation?
• Do you have content ready or should we use placeholder text?
• What social media links will you need?
• Do you have videos or other important items that need to be on the homepage?

Inspiration

This is one of the most important questions because it gives us a great visual for pinpointing our client’s personal taste. Using the competition sites with the inspiration sites really focus on where the design needs to end up.

• What websites do you love and tell us why?