How Do We Get Started?

We talk. We define what you want your website to do and then give you a proposal.

If you already know what you want - fantastic! We enjoy handling all aspects of website development, but we also enjoy not handling all aspects sometimes. We're happy to follow your lead. We enjoy implementing your ideas.

If you are not sure how to prepare your raw materials for website content, the following are some suggestions. All are helpful but only one (almost any one) is really required.

• collect a folder of public relations materials for us - this includes any or all (or none) of the following: [business card, brochure, flyer, resume, bylaws, posters, press releases, fee schedules, photos] - we'll 'farm' them for text and graphics for the pages, and if they have a consistent style, we'll make sure your site is compatible.
  
  
• think about the type of person you want to reach - you can't reach everyone - who do you want your site to appeal to the most? and what do you know about them?

  color tool

  
  
  
• if your public relations 'content' (e.g., logo, brochure etc) doesn't define colors or a visual theme, please think about what you would like your site to look like;
  
  
• make a list of sites that you like or hate... we need to know your tastes - some of which we should be able to infer from any public relations materials, but since we're doing website work, your opinion of other websites can be very informative. A great way to prepare for doing or redoing your site is to do some surfing and make a list of sites that you like or hate, and why. This doesn't need to be complicated to be effective - it can be that you like the page layout or think it is too cluttered, or that you think the color scheme would be just right for your site, or you found it easy (or hard) to find information on that site. For your list please keep track of both the name of the site and the website address (i.e., the sitename.com or sitename.org etc.);
  
  
• think about the possibilities for visual interest on your website -- items such as photos, illustrations - both what you might already have and what you would like to have optimally - or where we can get it
  
  
• do you have art in digital form or will we want to scan your brochure or other pr materials?
  
  
• define what you want the website to do -- what purpose will it serve? This is the only required item and really comes first but we thought it looked too scary at the top of the list ;)
  
  
• what do you want on the pages? do you know or will you want help figuring this out? are you going to do the writing or do you need assistance?
  
  
• do you have any of the text in digital form or are we going to need to OCR it (scan with optical character recognition)?

Most of the above can be addressed very quickly at this stage. In most cases, we're primarily concerned with an overview so we can create a plan for your website.