The Design Process

The visual design aspect of a web site development project tends to be the most fun for both you and your client, but it also has the potential to throw the project off track. Let's face it: design is subjective. We have seen perfectly professional and usable designs destroyed by a committee of non-design professionals who all wanted to add their own signature touches during the design review process.

Here are several subtle tactics for keeping the visual design aspect of your project on track.

• Try to remove some of the subjectivity in design by creating two sample home page wireframes before you create the design, so clients can focus on the placement of elements first.
• Include a “design brief” in your requirements gathering process. Recall that a design brief captures the key design requirements about the project, and determines the known design constraints such as the use of logos, whether the page width is fluid or fixed, and other design requirements.