Site design. Project management.

In an exciting site development business, the most informal and difficult to control process is design development. Therefore, in order to summarize the experience gained, below I decided to point out a few points that, in my opinion, are often crucial in the development and delivery of the site design to the client. Perhaps, happen to read it to experienced colleagues, they will consider the text as a statement of common truths, in that case I will be glad to accept additions and corrections.

So, two correct documents and one correct event:

1. Correct brief
   Formation of customer expectations at the stage of collecting requirements is the foundation of success. At the meeting to collect site design requirements, the presence of the person making the final decision is highly desirable. Then the design presented at the presentation will not be a surprise for him and you will significantly reduce the risks.
   
   It is no secret that often the client finds it difficult to clearly articulate his vision of the final product and the task of the developer during the conversation, to find out the tasks that are planned to be solved using the site. It is very important to try to find a certain "highlight" of the client's business, its competitive advantages, in order to correctly place the emphasis. The more information about the client’s business you receive at a meeting, the more likely that your vision for the future site and the client’s vision will be one. If so, consider the design already done. In the meantime, it is worth writing down everything what you came up with in the form of a brief for the development, this will help you not to leave the course.
2. The correct technical task (TZ)
   Design, although partly related to the visual arts, is still a technological process and we will need to draw up a Terms of Reference. I would like to note the following points:
   
   • Scope of work
     The scope of work for a project determines what is required to be created and what is not required to be created. The second part, with seemingly obvious, most often gives rise to disagreements and unjustified changes in the project.
     ')
     In the first part, it is important to list all the blocks, functional and informational elements on the main page, since it is she who is the “face” of the site and the subject of discussion at the presentation. It is also necessary to fix priorities and accents in the presentation of information, so that the presentation as much as possible wishes to swap this and that.
     
     It is worth mentioning that the number of internal pages being developed should be sufficient to reflect all the unique graphic and functional elements of the site and set the style for displaying standard elements (text styles, images, tables).
     
     The second part is much more interesting. For example, if a client has only a logo, but there are no brand colors and there were no wishes for colors, it is useful to indicate that the client has not set color requirements and the site’s color solution is developed at the discretion of the Contractor and is not subject to approval.
     
     Particular attention should be paid to the development of illustrations. It is important to inform the client that the use of photographs from photobanks and the creation of unique illustrations are far from the same. If the selection of photographs may be included in the cost of developing a design concept, the creation of illustrations should be assessed separately. In the case when the client pays you not a fixed cost, but the hours spent on the project, this rule, of course, can be neglected. The illustrations also include the development of photo collages, in a word, everything that requires many iterative changes and generates additional requirements.
     
   • Acceptance Procedure
     The specificity of site design is such that an idea of ​​the future site can be obtained by developing a home page and several key internal pages. Moreover, the image part can already be assessed on the main page. Therefore, it is necessary to define such a concept as “Design Concept” (DC), which includes the main and one internal page. The presentation should present only the main page, so that after the final approval of the main page, the creation of an internal page is already a matter of technology. It is very important to sign an interim Deed of Acceptance of the DK of two pages in case you have a much larger total number of developed pages or the site is being further developed. The signed Act is a guarantee that there will be no “minor” changes, because of which you will have to redo all the layouts or even change the layout.
   
   Proper presentation of the design concept
   The presentation of the design is quite an amusing event, which sometimes a large number of people gather and come up with various fresh ideas. Here the true friend of the developer and, ultimately, the client is the brief and TK. And as well as at the stage of collecting the requirements, the presence of the person who makes the final decision is very desirable, otherwise the entire presentation and the recorded changes may be wasted.