Following our house-building analogy, this is what the inside of your new house will look and feel like. Where are the important things placed, and how do they relate to one another?  Think of the flow from room to room.  What colors will the walls be?  Will your home be sparse and minimalist, or filled with lots of important little details?  What would you like people to do here when they come to visit?

As I’m sure you can agree, Step One of building a house from scratch is not decorating the walls, and it’s no different with web design.  This is why I’m adamant that websites come after other foundational steps are firmly in place.

The end result - the colors, images, words and well-thought-out actions you want your site visitor to take - depend entirely on the clarity and precision of your brand vision, business strategy, and marketing plans you have to bring your products/services to market once the website is built.

Unfortunately, many, many people jump into the web design stage prematurely because it seems like the most obvious thing they need (or perhaps the funnest part?) or, because they feel ‘so far behind’ when their ideas have been knocking around in their heads for a very long time.  Sometimes years, decades even.

Believe me when I tell you that starting too soon on web design will reveal numerous problems later on.  With the guide below, you’ll get a good sense of where you can start right now, before you start worrying about web design!