The Development Process
What do I need to get started?
HTML or CMS?

What do I need to get started?

Building a website can be an involved process, as it requires you to think strategically about your business or organization. Who is your target audience? What do you want the look of your website to convey? Do you have text that will work well on a website? Here are a few things to have ready when launching the website development process:

1) Text
Writing website text can be difficult. Things that seem obvious to you may need to be clearly explained for your visitors. Here are a few general tips that may help:

• Keep your target audience in mind when crafting your language.
  The language you use should reflect your audience. For example, the text on a hospice site will read differently than the text for a children's museum. Think what you want to convey - professionalism, compassion, easy-going fun, scientific know-how, etc.
  
  
• Keep your text succinct.
  Draft a brief mission or business statement which appears on the home page to let visitors know exactly who you are and what you do. Write text that is easy for readers to scan, using headers, subheadings and bold type (do not use underlining unless the text is a hyperlink). Bullet lists are a great way to break up content and convey specific points. Studies show that people are not fond of reading large amounts of text on screen, so aim for short, concise statements that get your point across. Remember - Introduction, Body, Conclusion...
  
  
• Seek peer review.
  It can be helpful to have friends and family break out their red pens. They will let you know if something is unclear or confusing. Some clients use focus groups to determine whether they are communicating with their target audience.
  

2) Photos & Logo Files
You may have certain photos you want to use on the website. It is helpful to copy all your photos to a cd or flash drive so that we have them in one place. The files can be in any format, though .jpg is preferred. Don't worry about resizing the image for the web. If you would like to incorporate photo captions, include a Word document listing the captions and correlating photos.

If you do not have many photos, we often use stock images. We are happy to select the photos for you, but you can also go to istock.com to view what is available. If there are photos you like, just provide us with the number. Please note that the purchase of photos may be added to the estimate.

We will also need copies of your logo artwork. The best format is the original Adobe Illustrator file (.ai). The Illustrator file allows us to copy the artwork on a transparent background, rather than plain white. Typically, a logo designer provides a cd with numerous file types, including .jpg, .gif, and .png. These may also work fine if you do not have access to the Illustrator file.

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