Starting a web project can be overwhelming, and it can be difficult to know where to begin.

Although each project is unique, we’ve found that the best way to ensure that a website meets your needs is to ask questions such as these right from the start:

  • What is the intent of this website?
  • Do we know what our primary and secondary goals are?
  • What information are we trying to communicate to our audience?
  • Who will be visiting the site and for what purpose?
  • How can we create a timeline, budget, and project team that best suits our office resources and staffer skills?
  • What is the functionality of this new site?

Answering these questions early helps guide a website project and make the end result on-brand, functional, comprehensive, and user-friendly.

We synthesized the above brainstorming questions, and others that guide our website discovery process, into an interactive booklet — the Get Started Guide for Successful Web Projects — to help simplify the daunting steps of creating a new web project.

We use this guide when we begin new web projects because it helps us and our clients define our goals, create a shared understanding of the functionality of the site, determine the best way to communicate with the website’s audience, and overcome any roadblocks we may encounter along the way. It helps our team get started and assures that we stay on track with our project goals.

Since we know how overwhelming new web projects can be, we wanted to share this guide to help others start with a solid foundation. You can download a copy of the Get Started Guide for Successful Web Projects here. We hope you find it helpful in your future web projects!