How To A Comprehensive Project Request.                   

One of the most commonly asked questions is: "How can we get our project completed for the best possible price?" The simplest answer is: To save yourself money, you need to save the provider time.

The cost of all projects eventually boils down to how much time it takes to complete the project. The more information you submit, the less questions a provider has to ask, allowing them to focus on building your project instead of asking questions or making guesses that you might not like. Providers estimate a 10-15% savings for buyers who submit comprehensive project requests.

Below is a list of objectives and requirements broken down into several categories. Review the list and select those which apply, then write a brief description before submitting your project request. Invest 10-15 minutes writing a description and possibly save 10-15% off your total project cost.

Company Background And Objectives

1- Company description: give a brief description of your company.
2- Web presence: give the address to your current website.
3- Existing work: describe content you already have (in addition to existing website).
4- Project objective: give a brief description of what you are trying to accomplish.
5- Approximate budget: how much you have to spend for the project.
6- Schedule requirements: how soon do you need the project completed.
7- Maintenance requirements: do you need to fully manage and host your site.

Target Audience and Content Management

1- Target audience: who are you trying to attract?
2- Audience objective: what are your goals for each visitor?
3- Content origin: do you already have a website? Does the provider need to create it?
4- Content management: how often will you update? Who will update it?

Project Scope And Functionality

1- Project size: how large is the website, number of pages, etc.
2- Color scheme: what colors do you want or not want?
3- Design style: what style do you want? (modern, corporate, Flash, etc.)
4- Content functionality: what type functions do you require? (e-commerce, databases, forms, etc.)

Comparison and Examples

1- Competitors: give examples of competitors sites or products.
2- Style examples: give examples of sites or products similar to what you want.

   Example 1 - Simple Website Design Request                   

The following example is for a small company looking for a startup website. It took less than 15 minutes to compile, but explains exactly what they are looking for.

We own a small candy store and want to expand to mail order service, as well as providing store information for our local customers. We do not currently have a website, but would like whoever designed it to host it and provider occasional updates. Our budget is roughly $1200, depending on what you can give us and would like the project completed within three weeks.

We want the website to be 5-10 basic company information pages, and approximately 20 additional pages for our online store. Our products are mainly chocolates and candies we buy wholesale. 

We do not really have a specific color in mind, but a site in blue, red or brown would be best. We like the color scheme and layout of www.wilburbuds.com. 

   Example 2 - Comprehensive Website Design Request                   

The following example is for an e-commerce website where the buyer takes an extra bit of effort to explain exactly what they are looking for, and focusing on certain points which concern them most.

We have a medium sized online store for new and used golf equipment. Our current website is www.example.com. We have a basic store front with about 50 products, but we want to expand to about 500 products. We are looking to spend somewhere between $1000-$2000 for the initial site, and another $1000 or so in enhancements and additional products once the new site design has been implemented. We would like the initial site completed within 60 days.

Our main target audience are online consumers looking for great deals on new and used golf equipment. We advertise some on ebay and need a good site for returning customers to go to for additional purchases. We have optimized our site a bit, but we want to increase our search engine presence. If someone does a search for "used golf balls wholesale", we want them to find our product and be able to purchase it quickly and easily. We already have hosting and an in-house webmaster for updating and adding new products.

We want a website primarily in different shades of green. We want the style to be "refreshing, yet professional". In other words, not stale, but still a quality design, nothing "hokey", no flashing signs, etc. Just a clean design with easy navigation so our visitors can purchase products as quickly as possible. Our competitors are www.golfgods.com, www.gigagolf.com, www.golfsmith.com, and www.tgw.com. We really like the style of gigagolf.com because it is not as busy as the other sites, has a good design, but still gets the customer to the product quickly. 

Because our main priority is getting the customer to the product they are looking for as quickly as possible, in addition to the e-commerce store we want an easy to use navigation system and search function. Most of the search functions I have used, even good sites, don't work properly. We do not want to spend a great deal of time on the search function if it can't produce. We want a search function that not only brings up the exact wording, but also related criteria, posting the most relevant results from first to last.. We want to hire someone who is very familiar with search functions and can provide working examples on previous sites they have built. We also want someone experience in search engine optimization who can provide real life keyword examples of how well your search engine optimization works.