When youve got your head buzzing with millions of fresh ideas and creative ambitions, its pretty tempting to focus solely on the fun part of web design. You cant wait to create a unique website for each client – and thats great! But what makes a new project challenging is that theres always a risk of finding yourself at a dead-end if you fail to meet your clients expectations. However, before you start, you need to prepare a set of questions to ask when building a website for a new client. A website design questionnaire is your most valuable asset to understand clients business needs, intent, viewpoints, and long-term goals. Today, we will discuss these questions and give you a short guide so you can meet your clients halfway and deliver them the best websites possible!
Designing a website can be an exciting yet daunting task. With so many details to consider it’s easy to miss something important or overlook aspects that are crucial to your website’s success.
That’s why having a comprehensive list of questions to ask yourself and your client throughout the website design process is invaluable. By getting answers to the right questions upfront, you gain crucial insights that allow you to create an effective, results-driven website tailored to your specific needs and goals.
In this article I’ll provide the ultimate website design questionnaire – a list of over 60 must-ask questions when designing a website. These questions cover important topics including
- Project scope and goals
- Audience and content
- Look and feel
- Technical and functional requirements
- Marketing and analytics
Asking these strategic questions sets your website design off on the right foot Read on to get the full list!
Questions to Identify Project Scope and Goals
Before starting any design work, you need crystal clarity on the scope and purpose of the website project.
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What are the main goals and objectives of the website? Understanding strategic goals like driving sales, acquiring leads, or promoting a brand helps shape the website experience.
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Who is the target audience? Defining user demographics and psychographics ensures your design resonates with the right people.
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What does the website need to achieve to be considered a success? Pinpointing success metrics provides a way to benchmark the website after launch.
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What is the budget for this project? Knowing budget parameters early prevents scope creep down the line.
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What is the timeline for completing the website? A realistic timeline accounts for design iterations, content creation, testing, etc.
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Will this be a redesign of an existing site or a brand new site? Redesigns often require migration planning. New sites involve more upfront planning.
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Who are the main competitors and what are their website strengths/weaknesses? Research helps you differentiate your site from competitors.
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How will website performance and success be measured once live? Defining KPIs sets clear expectations for measuring ROI.
Questions to Understand the Audience and Define Content Requirements
Now that you understand your client’s high-level goals, it’s time to delve into specifics around the target audience and content.
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Who is the primary/secondary target audience for the site? Details like demographics, location, gender, interests, pain points, etc. allow you to cater the site directly to their needs.
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What keywords/phrases are most important to optimize the site for? Identifying key search terms helps with on-page optimization.
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What products/services will be promoted on the site? Any special functional/design needs around showcasing offerings should be outlined.
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What types of content will be needed – e.g. written, images, video, etc? Content types dictate media formatting and management requirements.
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How frequently will content be updated? More dynamic sites require a content publishing plan and CMS.
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What is the site navigation and structure? IA directly impacts UX and should align to business goals.
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Will a blog or news section be needed? Special sections like blogs require separate planning.
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Who will create and manage site content? Roles for content creation should be established upfront.
Questions to Define the Look and Feel
Now that objectives and content are defined, it’s time for the fun part – deciding on the aesthetics and overall style.
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What is the desired look and feel? Adjectives like “modern”, “playful”, “sleek” help set visual direction.
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What branding elements need to be incorporated? Logos, fonts, colors and other brand assets influence design.
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Will stock or custom photography/graphics be used? Stock photography needs to be licensed. Custom assets take more time to create.
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What are some examples of websites with the desired look? Design inspiration helps communicate visual preferences.
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Will the site design be optimized for mobile? Mobile responsiveness impacts information architecture and layouts.
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Do you require style guides or brand standards documentation? Brand guidelines help maintain consistency in future design iterations.
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Who needs to review and approve the design comps? Stakeholders for feedback should be identified upfront to streamline approvals.
Technical and Functional Requirements
While aesthetics are important, you also need to gather nitty-gritty details on technical requirements and functionality.
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Does the site need to integrate with existing software platforms? APIs and integrations impact architecture and development work.
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Will there be dynamic functionality like calculators or apps? Advanced functions may require custom development.
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What are the hosting requirements? Factors like server resources, uptime guarantees, security needs, and domains impact hosting selection.
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Does the site need to be multilingual? Multilingual sites require localization considerations.
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Will there be a membership or gated content? Special access requires user registration and login functionality.
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Are there preferences or requirements around the technology used – e.g. WordPress, custom coded, etc? Tech stack decisions hold long term implications.
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Will a content management system (CMS) be needed? CMS platforms impact the editing workflow.
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What are the site security needs? Security, firewalls, SSL certificates, and authentication help protect sites.
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Will the site need to process payments? Payment integrations introduce compliance considerations.
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Does the site need to comply with any standards like ADA, HIPAA, etc? Special compliance needs affect development.
Marketing, SEO and Analytics Questions
The final set of questions covers important details around launching, marketing and measuring performance of the website.
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Who will host and maintain the site after launch? Post-launch roles for support and maintenance should be established.
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How will site traffic be driven? What marketing channels will be leveraged? Promotion plans influence design – e.g. email capture forms for campaigns.
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Will you need help building internal site search? Optimized search helps visitors easily find relevant content.
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What level of SEO is needed? SEO needs factor into site architecture, metadata, etc.
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Will you need help setting up Google Analytics? Analytics provide data on engagement and conversions.
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Will you run any paid ads? Paid search/social campaigns should be integrated into site analytics.
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Who needs access to analytics dashboards? Google Analytics user permissions enable data transparency.
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Will you create social media profiles to accompany the site? Sites should be linked to relevant social profiles.
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Will any promotions coincide with the launch? Promotional tie-ins impact launch timing and coordination.
Bringing It All Together
As you can see, the questions to ask when designing a website cover a wide range of topics critical to website success. While it may seem like a long list, taking the time for upfront planning prevents headaches, delays and do-overs later on.
I recommend creating a master website design questionnaire that captures all these key details in one place for easy reference throughout the project.
And remember to keep communication open with your client, as new questions will arise even after the initial kickoff. By proactively asking the right questions upfront – and being ready to ask more throughout the process – you set your website design up for maximum impact.
Why do you need a website?
Clients may come to you already possessing a clear picture of their future website in their minds. But lets be honest, many of them dont have the answer to the simple question – “what do you need a website for?” Are they planning on selling a product or service? Do they want to spread more brand awareness? Expand their online presence?
As a professional, your task is to dig deeper and identify the real business problems your client wants to solve by creating a website. However, if the technical aspects of website creation seem daunting or time-consuming, it might be a wise decision to hire a professional, ensuring a mobile-first design and an exceptional user experience. Here are some issues to touch on using your web design questionnaire:
- The primary and secondary business goals your client wants to achieve. It can be anything from boosting brand awareness to driving customer engagement, and accordingly, sales;
- The websites goals in the clients overall branding and marketing plan; is it a simple products catalog? Is it a place for the client to engage in business storytelling? Does it provide users with information, entertainment, or a bit of everything?
Asking a few more “why” and “what” questions will help you better understand your clients real motivations and suggest solutions that will work best for them.
What would you rather sidestep?
Many can argue that design is subjective. What looks impressive to you may seem dull or annoying to your client. Please dont play it by ear. Instead, take the time to ask your client about specific things they dislike and dont want to have on their website. Give your client a chance to let you know if there are any features to avoid.
On the other hand, make sure you discuss the mandatory web pages the site should have with your client. Beginners might not know this, but they must include web pages on their websites for transparency, user experience, legal reasons, and better Google rankings. At a minimum, your clients website should have:
- A homepage;
- An “About Us” page with information matching Whois data;
- Privacy policy page to let website visitors know exactly what happens to their info;
- Terms and conditions – a must-have page for all websites;
- A “Contact” page;
- The 404 error page (website under construction);
- FAQ page to answer customers questions.
Of course, depending on the type of business your client wants to build, you can include more questions to ask when designing a website related to other mandatory pages.
- A services page if the website is focused on service provision;
- A products page if the client runs an eCommerce website and sells physical/digital products. In this case, you might want to configure the shopping cart. As we all know, a great experience with product descriptions, shopping cart buttons, CTAs, shipment & payment page, and checkout page might convince consumers to return to that online store;
- A blog section. Almost all companies build a blog for increased traffic, better user experience, business storytelling, education, information, and all marketing purposes you can think of these days.
Web Design Questionnaire – What to Ask Clients Before Designing a Website
What questions should you ask before designing a website?
Perhaps you need to accept payment, or maybe you want a photo gallery. Whatever you need, plan ahead prior to designing the layout. Next up are questions to ask regarding writing code. If you design or develop websites, you’ll find yourself working with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
What questions should you ask during the design process?
During the design process, you can ask yourself questions about your website, its functions and your overall goals. Asking these questions can help you focus on your plan for the website and help you understand what particular actions you can take to achieve your goals.
Why do you need a list of web design questions?
Creating a list of web design questions for clients can help prevent confusion and miscommunications between you and them. Such well-phrased queries can help you discern your customers’ wants properly, and avoid misunderstandings that could ultimately lead to rounds of revision requests.
What questions should you ask if you’re redesigning a website?
Some questions you can ask if you’re redesigning a website include why you’re redesigning the page, what you like about the old website and what features need to change. Read more: How To Implement a Website Redesign Strategy in 7 Steps
