/website-development-questionnaire

Questions to ask your client before you start developing the website.

Website Development Questionnaire

The web development questionnaire is a list of questions that can send your client to get a clear idea of what their needs are. It should be used as a guideline/checklist and tailored to your client/project. The answers can then be used as a foundation on which you can base your proposal.

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🔖 Questionnaire

General

  • Name of Client
  • Project description
  • Project plan (if available)
  • Timeframe, e.g.:
    • Start design phase
    • Start development phase
    • Receive first draft of static content
    • Receive final static content
    • Client receives access to CMS
    • Start Quality Assurance
    • Launch
  • Budget range for development
    • Setting up a proposal is a time consuming process. Therefore it's good to ensure that you are the right partner before setting one up.
  • Sitemap
    • Don’t forget pages like Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, 404…

Research

  • Description of target audience
  • Reasons for new website? E.g. what was wrong with the existing one?
  • List of competitor websites
    • Allowing us to inspect the performance of your competitors websites, so we can take this data into account when setting goals in terms of performance.
  • What are the client their goals? When will it be a success and how can this be measured?

Content

  • Is there a draft of the content?
  • Which languages need to be supported? Will this change in the near future?
  • What type of content will be displayed per page? E.g.:
    • Text
    • Images
    • Videos
    • Audio
    • Other

Design

  • Who is responsible for the design?
  • Wireframes
  • Designs
    • Which format? Sketch/Figma/...
    • Ensure it includes hover, active and focus states
    • What's the current state?
  • Typography
    • Which fonts will be used?
    • Has the license to use the fonts been acquired? Which font extensions does the license allow?
    • What font files are available? (woff & woff2)
    • For each font, what is the name(s) of the system font to be used as a fallback?
    • Can they be hosted on the same server as the website or do we need to resort to cloud based services like TypeKit or Google Fonts?

Technologies

  • Preference for a technology stack?
  • Is a Content Management System (CMS) needed to maintain dynamic content? If yes,
    • Preference for a CMS?
    • Self-hosted or headless?
    • How often will the site be updated?
    • How many people will be using the CMS?

Functionalities

  • Front-end functionalities, e.g.:
    • Looping carousel of images with controls and plays automatically
    • Form to subscribe to a newsletter or request a demo
    • Confirmation email when submitting the contact form
    • Video, integrated as:
      • Embed (Vimeo/Youtube)
      • Default HTML5 player
      • Custom HTML5 player
  • Back-end functionalities, e.g.:
    • Ability to manually sort projects in the CMS
  • Any ideas/preferences regarding:
    • Behaviour, e.g.:
      • Fixed header in the top when scrolling down
    • Animations, e.g.:
      • Animate-in elements when scrolled into view
    • Other

Browser and device support

  • List browser and device support. If your current website its visitors are already being tracked by e.g. Google Analytics, it’s recommended to take these statistics into account.
    • Name of device / Operating-system / Browser-name / Browser-version
      • E.g. iPhone 8 / iOS 11 / Google Chrome / 65
  • What’s the largest screen size targeted? E.g. 27” could potentially take additional time if additional breakpoint(s) need to be implemented.

Tracking

  • Does the existing website have tracking integrated?
  • Tracking plan if available
  • Name of tracking service
  • Pages to be tracked
  • Events to be tracked? E.g. user actions like:
    • Scrolling to a certain block
    • Clicking on a social link

SEO

  • Is the site publically available?

Domain

  • What is the domain to be used for the website?
  • Is the domain currently in use?
  • Where is the domain currently registered? E.g. GoDaddy
  • Are there any email accounts connected to the domain?
  • Will this domain solely be used for the website, or also for other purposes? E.g. a client FTP?

Hosting

  • Preference for a hosting provider and server setup?
  • Any data that needs to be migrated?
  • Who will be responsible for the deployment?

Quality assurance

  • Who should execute the Quality Assurance? Ideally external partner, not client or developers.

Launch

  • Extra support when website goes live?

Post-launch

  • What are the post-launch plans for the website? E.g.:
    • Expand it with feature X and Y
    • Move the development in-house