The Seven Deadly Words a Web Designer Doesn't Want to Hear

Okay, 'deadly' is a little strong, but nevertheless: "I'll Know It When I see It" are words that make most web designers recoil in horror when talking with clients in the R&D phase regarding the client's web site design ideas.

There are some designers out there that love to hear those words because then that gives them free license, and if they are heavy on sales, they could probably palm off a quick design and as long as the client pays, get a quick buck. But a professional web designer worth their salt will need a lot more to go on than obscure references to several elements, of several web sites, that the client visited several months back.

If you are planning to build a web site, whether yourself or with a web designer, you need to plan, plan, plan. When you need to get a small business web presence on a budget, planning will save a lot of money in the long run.

From a designer's point of view it can be a real money loser trying to guess what a client is really after. Often the designer ends up losing out because the project drags on for way too long.

As the person who wants a web site, think about these few items to get some ideas flowing; then you will be able to have some more concrete ideas for your web site design:

• If you have corporate colors do you want them to be the focus, complemented, or accented in your design?
  

• Do you wish to make a visual statement with a large graphic as the home page's focus?

• What is your web site about - are you needing a portal, ecommerce, portfolio, niche market affiliate style web site, or a blog - or both?

• Do you like clean and contemporary designs, or busy, detailed web sites? Reading back to the last point - if you have an artist's portfolio to promote, a portal type design won't really be appropriate.

• Menus - like 'em at the top, both sides, left only, right only?

• Cute or classy?
  

• Text oriented or eye candy?
  

The above are just a few things to consider when thinking about your design. Now you need to go out on the web and find a web site that you like the look of. You will not copy the design, but rather use that as inspiration to create your own unique web site.

A place I love to get my design inspiration from is Cool Homepages, they have a lot of categories, and you can get lost in all the design ideas as there are so many of them. Then, when the discussion of site design comes up between you and your web designer, you can tell them exactly what it is that you want.