What materials to give your designers before a website redesign

When a website redesign runs late, the cause is often not design or development but materials: the logo exists only as a screenshot, product photos have no rights information, section content waits for someone to write it, and nobody can find the server account. Without complete materials, the designers have to work with placeholder content first, then revise again when the real content arrives.

Handing over materials in five categories before work starts is one concrete thing the client can do for the project schedule.

1. Brand assets

• Vector source files for the logo (AI, SVG or PDF), and how it should be used on different background colors.
• Brand colors and brand typefaces, and whether web-use licenses have been bought for the fonts.
• Usable images, videos and product photos, each marked with whether you hold the rights and whether it can be used on the website.
• Any existing brand guidelines or visual standards. If there are none, provide recent marketing materials you approved as a reference.

2. Content and who owns it

Redesigns often stall on content. For each section, name two people up front: who supplies the content and who reviews and signs it off. How sections are divided and what goes on the home page are things the designers help work out; see How to plan a website's information architecture. But the text, figures and case studies on each page have to be supplied or confirmed by the client.

3. Accounts and access

• Where the domain is registered, who manages it, and whether its DNS can be changed.
• Existing servers or cloud accounts, and where the new site will be deployed.
• Accounts for analytics, search engine webmaster tools, form notification email and similar services.

These accounts are often spread across departments, sometimes held by former employees. Collecting them early avoids finding out the day before launch that nobody can change the DNS.

4. Data from the old site

Don't just tear down the old website. Before the redesign, export the last year of analytics and mark the pages that bring in the most visits and the pages that receive search traffic. The content of these pages needs a place on the new site. How old URLs are handled at launch is a separate task; handing the data to the designers before the redesign makes it easier to plan.

5. Decision-making

Also make clear who has the final say, how many review rounds there are, and how long each round takes. Designs sent to several departments, each giving its own feedback that contradicts the others, are a common source of rework. Naming one contact person to consolidate feedback saves a good deal of time.

Summary

Materials for the designers before a redesign fall into five categories: brand assets, content and owners, accounts and access, data from the old site, and decision-making. Start work once they are complete. For what to keep doing after launch, read What to keep doing after your website launches.

FIM has designed and built websites for brands and for the automotive and finance industries, among others. See past projects on the Digital experience page.