Mon 29 Jun 2009
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A (Nearly) Bulletproof Web Design & Development Project Checklist for clients and designers.
If you’re aiming to agree a fixed price for the development of the website, as we do, ensure the project goes smoothly before you start, by communicating with your client at the outset. They’ll appreciate you for it, there will be less surprises, and you may be able to start making a profit from fixed cost website design jobs again;
- Prices can change even for a fixed cost website
- Web Design Costs are dependent on how many hours is spent working on a design and how many times the client asks for changes to it
- Show the client your portfolio – that’s the type of sites you build, do they like it?
- Has the client supplied examples of the sort of site they are looking for?
- Estimate a cost for a job, based on early discussion.
- Ensure the client knows you can quote for a job only on the information you have available to you at the time
- Confirm a job cost on reviewed client requirements
- 50% of job before start, 50% on completion
- Ensure the client knows you are costing the job by hours and you do have other clients
- Make sure all your costs are approved before starting a job (remember VAT)
- Ask the client to send you an email notifying his acceptance of the project scope and cost
- It’s impossible to make a site that will look the same in all browsers;
- Specify which Resolution / Screen Size the Website Should Be Designed to
- Specify a fixed width or fluid layout
- Inform the client which browser versions you support
- Ensure the client is aware of website font restrictions or recommendations and web page download considerations
- Ensure the client is aware websites look different than on paper
- Content should be supplied by the client in a form easily used
- Who is supplying the text?
- Who is supplying the images?
- Get the client to supply all text, photographs and content in electronic format
- Make sure text supplied, if formatted, is in a web-ready format
- The client should supply an example site-plan, in a bulleted list
- The client needs to specify any specific functionality required at the outset
- ‘Milestone’ dates for the project should be agreed
- Communicate missing any milestone date for supplying content / adding new content will have an impact on launch commitments and costs – both of you have businesses to run
- Agree content delivery date
- Agree Site Architecture Freeze Date
- Agree Site Functionality Freeze Date
- Agree Design Freeze date
- Agree Launch Date
- Changes to the brief should be communicated and costs agreed / timings considered in electronic form
- No Favours – The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the bodies of well meaning web developers
- Everything should be charged out, agreed and accountable
- Websites can go down every now and then
- Who hosts the current site?
- Get Contact Details
- Hosting is a recurring annual charge
- Domain transfers sometimes go a bit Pete Tong
- You are at the mercy of third parties
- Who controls current domain(s)?
- Domains need registered every year
- Get Contact Details
- Emails might go down for a period of perhaps 24-48 hours
- Who controls current email(s)?
- Get Contact Details
- How many email accounts to you have/need
- Launching a website can be about pressing buttons and…. waiting
- Websites Get Hacked
- All CMS needs kept up to date
- In most cases hackers seek to deface the site
- A hacked site can mean disaster in Google
- A site that has been hacked can be rescued
- Who’s in charge of security / CMS updates
- Agree maintenance fees
- A Winning Website Is never ‘Finished’!
- The client should keep his site up-to-date with news if he has a CMS
- Training for the CMS should be costed if required
- A website is subject to Laws of The Land and the client should investigate these
- The UK Companies Act
- UK Distance Selling Regulations
- Website Accessibility Recommendations
- Agree ongoing responsibilities
- Who is responsible for the client’s email, hosting and domain management
- Do you ‘guarantee’ a website is fit for purpose for say 1 year?
- When will annual billing start and occur
I’m sure I’ve missed some things out, but I wanted a post on the site I could point my clients to, to educate them on some of the less talked about aspects of developing a website. I expect to modify this page every now and again.
Take responsibility, agree the scope of the project, recognise the requirements to meet the brief within allocated time-frame, and bill for your time.
I’ve learned this the hard way. Now I aim at all times to communicate with the client as much as possible to ensure any web development job doesn’t get out of control.
- 10 Reasons We Won’t Be Launching Your Website Today
- 13 Reasons Being A Web Designer F***ing Sucks in 2008
Good article. All points are key items to cover with the client. If its possible to meet face to face with your client, signing contracts is always a great addition. Ongoing maintenance is one area that many designers/developers tend to miss out on, its good that you pointed it out. Many clients won’t want the hassle of updating their own sites, but you can make some good money for the hour or two it’ll take for every update.
All of these are excellent points! My favorite has to be the bulleted list for website content. I’ve always recommended that my clients create an outline – one page for each section, that way they’ve got plenty of room to add footnotes, proofreading edits, and little sketches for their ideas (if they are that type.)
Very nice and detailed check-list, thanks!
Ask the client to send you an email notifying his acceptance of the project scope and cost
What for? Why do you think extra agreement is good/needed?
Thanks again.
ktulhu – I always like an email from the client approving the project before I begin. First stage is a high level agreement, 2nd is a confirmation of the project cost and scope.
Keeps everybody right.
very impressive list of good practice guidelines, which other people can take on board, study and hopefully they don’t get stung from awkward clients.
My main concern is point 10, Security Websites Get Hacked.
Great idea to bring this up at the start. who cleans up the mess these guys make?
Whether its defacing the site or database integrity, depending on what is stored in there,
telling the client to update there system sounds like its going to cost £££…
It’s another good post. Point 5 though sounding simple, I’ve been there: ‘No Favours – The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the bodies of well meaning web developers’. The client perspective is always the “but it’s only a small change I want”…
Superb article! I’m going to use this list as a reference from now on.
Thanks!
Excellent article! Another problem is when the client side is managed by more than a single person, at this time its most important to have a presentation made for both of them else that really creates a mess for us with the works and reworks.
The guidelines published here are very practical. Specially point number 10 is very important in my opinion. Yes hacking is a real menace. I would like to know more about it. Can yau give me the link of some resources?
[...] 13 Things To Discuss To Keep A Web Design Client Happy | Hobo SEO UK [...]
Thanks for this. Good list.
I think a big issue is that clients differ greatly in terms of their technical understanding of what’s involved.
I guess the key is to draft a detailed proposal (though boring it may be) that covers all the points in the list above and spells out in ‘non-jargon’ language exactly what they can expect from you.
good list. It brings up a strong argument for a detailed contract so that the client’s expectations are reflected – as well as agreed upon – in advance..
[...] website design & development project checklist is a useful list of “what things a web designer should make clear to their client and get [...]
Like the checklist. Think i’ll start to put it into working practice. It should cut down on a lot of wasted man hours
[...] A Website Design & Development Project Checklist [...]
Hi This is SK Smith i found your post on “A Website Design & Development Project Checklist” that’ really very useful list for website Design thanks.
Web designers want to design web sites and sometimes working with people becomes problematic with the clients having an expectation of you doing everything (including writing the copy) getting everything out in the open in the early stages can only be good for both designer and client .
check deadlinks!
there is nothing more annoying when folders and files don’t link correctly
manually check dead-links including your wordpress, use the built-in check facility in dreamweaver
Yup
You can tell you have obviously been on the block for some time. Takes time to find out how much of a nightmare web dev. can be and how you need to run projects so they are no nightmares or the nightmarish aspects are minimised.
Our clients seem to never fail to come running back to us a year later asking why their website is no longer loading (domain expiration).
Things like this always turn into some kind of huge hassle, them not understanding why their site isn’t loading, you explaining how you already talked about this a year ago and they agreed to be in charge of their own domain, etc.
Having a contract at the beginning of the project certainly helps to make things more clear further down the road.
Overall great checklist of MUSTS for any designer/developer.
Thank you!
Thanks Ryan
– @David, I’ve had a few nightmares… :O
Nice list, its so easy to miss some of the points you made when you are communicating with clients (especially these days). We have our own checklist to go through and we have pre writen guides and proposal templates to make sure we include everything.
“No Favours – The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the bodies of well meaning web developers” – a web designer we know is currently trying to sort out a huge situation off the back of trying to help out a friend of the family, its not even that big a project but a mass family war has broken out because of it.
Thanks for the great checklist. I think the note on CMS training is key. Depending on how tech-savvy a client is, the time needed to familiarize the client with the CMS should not be underestimated when creating the project checklist. If someone is very uncomfortable with computer work and is, say, simply an artist who wants a site to sell their work, they may not be a tech person. As a result the follow-up calls and hours spent working with them to acquaint them with their CMS can be many and must be factored in.
Thank you for this list! It’s not like we don’t know any single one of these points, but keeping them all together is handy