10 Pro Tips for a Smooth Web Design Process

Creating a great business or nonprofit website takes collaboration. Our web design experts offer up their tips for making the project process move faster.

In many ways, building a website today is a lot easier than it was when we started out 25 years ago. Our designers, developers and content specialists have so many more tools and even AI at their disposal now, and the process can move much faster than it used to.

But make no mistake: building a great business or nonprofit website is still hard.

It takes focus, strategy and vision to successfully translate a client’s dream into a polished final product. It also requires continual collaboration between our teams and yours. We may be the experts in web design, but you’re the expert on your brand, industry and customers—working together is where the magic really happens.

With that in mind, we asked our design and development experts to offer up ways that our clients can ensure a smooth web design process. Here are a few of their suggestions, so you’re ready for your next web design or redesign.

Before You Get Started

Many people are so eager and excited to get a new website that they jump straight to design and copy—but a truly unified design requires a lot of prep work to bring the right pieces together. The more you have planned, the more focused and effective your outcome will be. What does that look like?

Chart out your goals and vision

Before the kickoff meeting with our web design team, take some time to define your marketing goals for the new website. Do you want to generate le ads, boost brand awareness, or increase online sales? It may be more than one.

Also think about the entire menu of products and services offered by your company. Are there specific items you want to highlight prominently (or that should be minimized)? This helps us prioritize how information is presented, both through visuals and in your web copy.

Entering our initial meeting with a clear vision and expectations helps us tailor the design and functionality to resonate with your target audience and drive the desired actions.

Know thy audience

Highlighting your products and services is important, but even more important is knowing your audience. This will help your design team build a site that speaks directly to the wants and needs of your most profitable customers. Useful customer info we will likely ask for includes:

  • Demographics
  • Customer behaviors & sales data
  • Psychographics
  • Customer feedback

Think about needs vs. wants

We understand websites can hold a vast amount of information and cool features, but that needs to be balanced with the project scope and desired user experience. More is not always better when it comes to your website’s content or functionality.

To streamline the process, categorize your requests into “must-haves” (important content and features) and “nice-to-haves” (content or features that would be a bonus, but not critical). This prioritization helps us create a focused and effective website within the agreed-upon scope.

Represent Your Brand

Your brand is your unique fingerprint in the digital world, and your website should follow suit. Dig out your brand style guide, logos, and color palettes for sharing with the web design team. If you don’t have a formal guide, simply jot down notes on the colors, fonts, and imagery that represent your brand personality.

The more we understand the visual assets that make your brand special, the more seamlessly we can weave it into the website’s final design.

Identify other websites you like

Are there specific websites that really resonate with you? Maybe you like how they look, they’re exceptionally user friendly, or they achieve a specific goal really effectively.

Gather a few examples and share them with us during the initial meeting. Ideally, these examples come from both within your industry and outside your industry. And don’t worry, we’ll be doing competitor research too—this just gives us insights into your preferences and the type of user experience you envision.

Read the contract carefully

While you shouldn’t need a magnifying glass to read your project contract, you do need to make sure you understand its contractual conditions before moving ahead. This document will be a guide star for both you and the agency as you work toward completing your amazing new website.

Your project contract or organizing document should spell out:

  • Key objectives & scope
  • Specific deliverables—both the what and the when
  • Milestones
  • Budget
  • Terms of payment
  • Assignment of content rights
  • Cancellation terms and conditions

Getting to the Actual Web Design Work

Once the groundwork has been laid for your new web design project, it’s time to dive into the collaborative journey. Here are some tips to make sure the design, content creation and testing portions of your project go smoothly.

Be timely with reviews and feedback

Like most agencies, we present design mockups and content drafts throughout the process. Your timely feedback is essential for keeping the project scheduled and on track. Set aside dedicated time to review materials and provide constructive feedback. The quicker your turnaround, the faster we can refine and finalize your design.

Pick the right point person

Many companies involve multiple departments—marketing, sales, product teams and more—in the web design process. This is necessary, of course, to make sure the final site achieve everyone’s goals, but if every stakeholder is providing feedback to the agency, there’s a greater risk of wires being crossed and revisions getting revised, over and over again.

Here at Informatics, we will assign your web design project a dedicated project manager (PM), who will funnel and document all agency communications. Clients also need a dedicated point person to keep communication clear.

It should also be noted that there can be a lot of communications once a web project really gets going, so it’s important that your point person have the bandwidth to handle it.

Many companies want to designate a member of senior leadership in this role to speed decision making, but these people are often already extremely busy; it’s often more effective to designate a person with fewer leadership and delegation roles, and making sure they have a direct line to senior leadership for big decisions when they arise.

Make time to create great content

Many clients choose to write their website content as a way to save money. We totally get that—but remember that your website’s messaging is often your customer’s first impression of the brand. The only thing worse than no content is bad content, so make sure you’re putting in the time to research, revise and polish your work. Don’t underestimate this time commitment!

The same goes for the images on your website. If you’ll be taking your own photos to feature, make sure they’re well-lit, properly composed, and capture your brand. Users make their decision about a brand and website in less than 2 seconds, so your graphics need to be on point.

Write with the web in mind

Web-friendly writing means being optimized for online readers. Your content needs to be concise, clear, and engaging. The use of short paragraphs, bulleted lists, and strong headlines will keep visitors from clicking away before they take your desired actions.

If you’re writing your own content, you also need to be cognizant of SEO implications. As part of our research process, we will provide keyword recommendations to help your website rank higher in search engine results—but it’s up to you to put them into practice as you’re creating your content. Consider referencing the many SEO resources available online, including our own whitepaper on the latest SEO tips and secrets to know.

Final Takeways for Your Next Web Design

The web design relationship does not end with the website’s launch. Every business evolves over time, and so does technology. When it’s time to make adjustments to your site, you will save time and expense if you have invested in a long-term relationship with the experts who know your site from the ground up.

Effective communication is essential at every step. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, share your ideas, and keep the conversation flowing. We understand you’re the expert in your industry. However, we’re the experts in web design. Trust our recommendations and design choices. They’re based on years of experience and best practices for creating effective websites. We’ll always explain our reasoning and collaborate with you to achieve your vision.

Informatics is here to guide you every step of the way and create a website you’ll be proud to showcase to the world. Contact us and let’s build something you’ll be proud to share.

10 Ways to Keep Your Website Design Project Moving Smoothly

Creating an effective website is a collaborative process. These practical recommendations can help your next website design or redesign stay focused, efficient, and aligned with your goals.

Building a website is faster and more flexible than it once was. Designers, developers, and content teams now have access to advanced platforms, streamlined workflows, and AI-powered tools that can accelerate nearly every stage of a project.

But creating a genuinely effective website still requires careful thought.

A successful website brings together strategy, design, development, content, and user experience. It also depends on close collaboration between the client and the design team. Your designers understand how to create an effective digital experience, while you understand your organization, industry, audience, and priorities.

The strongest results come from combining that expertise from the beginning.

Before the Project Begins

It can be tempting to jump immediately into layouts, colors, and copy. However, the decisions made before design begins often have the greatest influence on the final result.

Clear preparation gives the project direction, reduces unnecessary revisions, and helps everyone make better decisions throughout the process.

1. Define what the website needs to accomplish

Start by identifying the primary purpose of the website. Are you trying to generate qualified leads, strengthen your brand, explain complex services, attract applicants, increase sales, or improve access to important information?

Most websites serve more than one purpose, but those objectives should still be prioritized. A site designed primarily to generate inquiries will require a different structure than one focused on education, recruitment, or online transactions.

It is also helpful to identify the services, products, programs, or capabilities that deserve the greatest visibility. These priorities will influence the website’s navigation, page hierarchy, messaging, calls to action, and visual presentation.

Clear objectives give the design team a reliable standard for evaluating every major decision.

2. Understand the people using the website

A website should not be organized around internal departments or company terminology alone. It should be structured around the questions, expectations, and priorities of the people using it.

Before the project begins, develop a clear picture of your primary audiences. Useful information may include:

  • Demographic characteristics
  • Customer needs and motivations
  • Common questions or concerns
  • Purchasing or decision-making behavior
  • Sales and conversion data
  • Customer feedback
  • Frequently requested information
  • Technical ability and accessibility needs

The better your design team understands your audience, the more effectively it can create a website that feels relevant, intuitive, and useful.

3. Separate essential requirements from added features

It is easy for a website project to grow as new ideas emerge. Additional pages, integrations, animations, tools, and interactive features may all sound valuable, but they can also increase costs, extend timelines, and distract from the site’s main objectives.

Divide your requirements into two categories:

  • Essential features the website must include at launch
  • Secondary features that could be introduced later

This distinction keeps the initial project focused while creating a clear roadmap for future improvements. It also helps the design team direct time and budget toward the functionality that will have the greatest impact.

4. Gather your brand materials early

Your website should feel like a natural extension of your organization—not a separate digital identity.

Before design begins, assemble the brand materials that will guide the project. These may include:

  • Primary and secondary logos
  • Brand colors
  • Typography guidelines
  • Photography
  • Icons and illustrations
  • Messaging standards
  • Editorial or voice guidelines
  • Existing brochures, presentations, or marketing materials

If your organization does not have formal brand guidelines, document the colors, visual styles, language, and examples that best represent it.

Providing these materials early helps establish visual consistency and prevents the design process from being delayed by missing or conflicting assets.

5. Collect examples of websites that resonate with you

Examples are one of the clearest ways to communicate design preferences.

Identify several websites you find visually compelling, easy to navigate, or effective at presenting information. They do not all need to come from your industry. In many cases, references from architecture, technology, hospitality, finance, publishing, or another unrelated field can inspire a more distinctive direction.

When sharing references, explain what you like about each one. It could be the typography, image treatment, navigation, animation, page structure, simplicity, or overall tone.

These examples are not meant to be copied. They help the design team understand your preferences and translate them into something original and appropriate for your brand.

6. Review the project scope carefully

The project agreement should establish a shared understanding of what is being created, who is responsible for each component, and how the work will progress.

Before moving forward, review the details carefully and ask questions about anything that is unclear. The agreement should address:

  • Project goals
  • Scope of work
  • Deliverables
  • Responsibilities
  • Design and development milestones
  • Revision allowances
  • Content requirements
  • Budget and payment schedule
  • Ownership and licensing
  • Cancellation or postponement terms
  • Launch and post-launch support

A clearly defined scope protects both the client and the design team while giving the project a stable framework.

During Design and Development

Once the strategy and requirements have been established, the project moves into design, content development, programming, and testing. Consistent participation during these stages helps prevent delays and keeps the final website aligned with the original vision.

7. Provide clear and timely feedback

Website projects typically include several opportunities to review strategy, layouts, content, and functionality. Responding promptly helps the project maintain momentum.

When reviewing work, consolidate feedback and make it as specific as possible. Instead of saying that something “doesn’t feel right,” explain what feels misaligned and why. Is the design too formal? Is an important service difficult to find? Does the messaging fail to speak to the intended audience?

Focused feedback gives the design team something actionable and reduces unnecessary rounds of revision.

It is equally important to evaluate each stage according to its purpose. Early wireframes should be reviewed for structure and content hierarchy, while later visual concepts should be assessed for branding, typography, imagery, and presentation.

8. Designate one primary point of contact

Website projects often involve input from leadership, marketing, sales, operations, and other departments. That involvement can be valuable, but conflicting instructions from multiple stakeholders can quickly slow progress.

Assign one person to collect internal feedback, resolve competing opinions, and communicate approved decisions to the design team.

The ideal project contact should:

  • Understand the organization’s objectives
  • Have sufficient time to manage communication
  • Be able to gather input from stakeholders
  • Have access to decision-makers
  • Be authorized to approve routine project decisions

A clear communication structure helps prevent duplicated feedback, contradictory revisions, and avoidable delays.

9. Give content the attention it deserves

Strong design cannot compensate for incomplete, unclear, or generic content.

Your website’s copy should explain what your organization does, why it matters, who it serves, and what visitors should do next. Writing that content often takes longer than expected, especially when multiple people need to review and approve it.

Begin content development early and establish realistic deadlines for each page. Allow time for research, drafting, editing, legal review, and final approval.

Photography and visual assets require the same level of planning. If original photography is being produced, it should be well composed, professionally lit, and consistent with the brand. If existing or licensed imagery will be used, selections should feel specific and credible rather than generic.

Visitors form impressions quickly. Every word and image contributes to how they perceive your organization.

10. Write for how people read online

Website visitors rarely read every sentence from beginning to end. They scan pages for recognizable headings, relevant details, and clear next steps.

Effective website copy should be:

  • Clear and direct
  • Organized into short sections
  • Supported by descriptive headings
  • Easy to scan
  • Focused on the visitor
  • Written in plain, natural language
  • Connected to a clear call to action

Search visibility should also be considered while content is being developed. Relevant keywords and topics should be incorporated naturally into page titles, headings, body copy, metadata, and internal links.

SEO should never make the writing feel mechanical. The goal is to create useful, authoritative content that serves readers while helping search engines understand the page.

Preparing for Launch and What Comes Next

Before launch, the website should be reviewed across multiple devices, browsers, screen sizes, and user scenarios. Forms, links, navigation, integrations, accessibility features, analytics, and search settings should all be tested carefully.

Clients should also receive the access, documentation, and training required to manage the website after launch.

A website is not a finished product that remains unchanged forever. Services evolve, teams grow, technology advances, and audience expectations shift. The site should be reviewed, maintained, and improved as the organization changes.

Working with a design partner who understands the website’s structure, strategy, and history can make future updates faster and more consistent.

Above all, successful website projects depend on clear communication. Ask questions, share ideas, raise concerns early, and remain open to professional recommendations. The process works best when industry knowledge and design expertise are treated as complementary parts of the same project.

Sixty Five Design creates strategic, thoughtfully developed websites that are distinctive, intuitive, and manageable long after launch. If you are preparing for a new website or redesign, contact us to begin the conversation.