How To Write A Web Design Proposal

[uaintgotthisid]

I should like to know:(a) What questions should you ask someone when you first meet them to discuss a website proposal. I alway have trouble with this and I know there's no set routine but there should be some guidelines.( Resources for building a proposal having taken this action.I found these useful links for (:Taming the Beast Tutorial (if you like blue)Neat Little site which follows a logical orderGood logical order, lots of examplesHope this helps someone

[justsomeguy]

The single most important thing with a proposal is to make sure you've got everything covered, which you never do. When I was starting the proposals I was writing looked fine, but they were overly broad. Something like "a page where you can upload photos, and people can comment on them". That is so vague that the client can add all kinds of new features and they're technically still covered under the proposal. What you need the proposal to be is a document that spells out exactly what you're going to do (what buttons are on the page, what form fields there are, what happens when any of the buttons are clicked on, etc). That's good for two reasons. First, at the start of the project both you and the client know exactly what the result is going to be, there aren't any surprises. Second, if the client adds a new feature you can reference the document and point out that this was not part of the original plan, and so you need to charge extra for it. When you have a proposal that's very broad or vague it becomes pretty difficult to convince the client that they need to pay extra for new things they come up with.The sad thing is that you can never get around this. I've been working on a project for the last year, a system to support over half a million users, so far I've personally logged over 1,200 hours designing and developing it since about last February, and it's launching next Monday. Even though the launch date is Monday, and we've had a year to design this thing, even as late as last week I'm still getting requests from the client for new features that have never been talked about (and I still have at least 3 more months of work to finish the features that were promised but not required for launch). This is fine though, because we can show them the design document and point out that these things were never requested by them and never quoted by us, so we can charge a little extra for the new things they're coming up with now.The key is just to make your proposal as detailed as you possibly can, don't leave anything out and don't leave anything up to assumption, spell it all out in explicit detail.Think of it like a custom car. If you take your car in to a custom shop and ask them to put a body kit on it, if they give you a proposal that says "We will install a body kit and charge you $1000", can't you come back later and say you also want a spoiler on it, and since a spoiler is part of a body kit then they shouldn't charge you any extra, because they said they were going to put a body kit on it and that's still what you're asking for. But instead if their proposal said they will install a front-end kit, and a back-end kit, and some sidewall stuff, and exhaust or lights or whatever and doesn't say anything about a spoiler, then you can't really argue that they owe you a spoiler.

[Webgirl]

I think for the first meeting its better to listen and listen and listen. Usually people wanting a website dont really know whats behind those walls. After listening you gather all the information your partner asked you and summarize what he wants. Then you can go back to him and confront him with his information - there is a lot to be done. If you really want to know more pm me I will try to tell you more details.