Providing Design Guidance

Dear customer:

It is now the design phase of your project, and we are providing you with samples to look at! Here are some guidelines with regards to looking at these samples.

First of all, keep in mind that the first sketches you see are intentionally rough, and may even be block outline “wireframes” (which have no style applied, and are for determining layout of content on the page).

When providing your feedback, it is optimal to try to separate it into these categories:

LAYOUT

Does anything need to be moved around, or added to/subtracted from the page? Think about:

• How well the ‘shell’ of the template (the outer part that stays the same on all pages) is organized
• How well the content in the body of the page (if shown) is organized
• How well the navigation will work for your scope of content

COLOUR

• Is there a primary colour that ties in with your organization?
• Is there a secondary colour, and perhaps others, that complement the primary colour?

STYLE

Do you like the style, which includes:

• Typography: fonts and headings (assess readability)
• Template images: icons, buttons and backgrounds
• Effects: treatments like gradients, shading, patterns and texture

Do you think your site’s visitors will like the overall feel and will get a good impression from it?

CONTENT

Usually, in layout sketches, we are not looking for feedback about content. In otherwords, you can generally ignore

• copy: what the text in the body of the page is saying
• content images: the photos of people or objects in the body of the page are usually just sample placeholders.

Content can be edited and “poured into” the layout once the template is set. Often, you can help with that process, through the use of a Content Management System, and by helping choose stock photography where needed.