What to tell your web designer (before work starts)

The first designer meeting usually goes fine. You show up with a reference site you love, a rough deadline, an idea of what you want. They ask good questions. You leave feeling like it clicked.

Three weeks later it hasn't. The direction isn't wrong but it isn't yours either. Revision rounds start. Each round drifts further from what you pictured.

It almost always comes back to the same thing: information the designer needed that nobody thought to share. Not because you withheld it. Just because the conversation didn't get there.

Here's what needs to get there.

1. What your business does, and who it's for

Not the tagline. The actual thing. Who are your clients, what do they pay you for, and what happens after they hire you? A designer uses this to make calls you never explicitly ask for: whether the site should feel technical or human, sparse or rich, urgent or considered.

The more specific you are about your audience, the better. "I work with early-stage SaaS founders who need design leadership before they can afford to hire in-house" is something to work with. "Small businesses" is not.

2. What the site needs to do — not what it needs to look like

There's a difference between a goal and an aesthetic preference. "Get visitors to book a discovery call" is a goal. "Look premium" is a preference. Both matter, but goals come first — they determine the structure before anyone thinks about colour.

Write down the one or two things your site absolutely must do. Rank them. A portfolio page and a lead-capture page have very different information hierarchies, and when there's a conflict the designer needs to know which job wins.

If you can't rank them, that's worth knowing too. It means you haven't decided, and the designer will decide for you.

3. Specific sites you like — and what specifically you like about them

Reference sites are useful. Reference sites with notes are far more useful. "The typography on Linear's homepage" or "the whitespace on Stripe's docs" gives a precise target.

A folder of unlabelled screenshots doesn't. Designers will try to find a common thread and might read it wrong.

Three sites with one sentence of notes each will do more than twenty screenshots. If you're not sure what you like about a site, say what feeling it gives you and let the designer work backwards from that.

4. What you don't want to see

Most people find it easier to say what they hate than what they want. Use that. "Not corporate. Not stock-photo heavy. Not template-looking" tells a designer plenty.

If you've seen sites that made you wince, point to them. Knowing what to avoid is half the direction.

5. What content you actually have

This is what stalls more projects than anything else. Tell your designer exactly where things stand:

• Copy — written, draft, or still in your head?
• Photos — professional, phone, or none yet?
• Logo — final, needs updating, or starting from scratch?
• Any existing brand guidelines?

A designer builds around content. If the content isn't ready, the design will be built around placeholders and then renegotiated when real copy arrives. That's where budgets go over.

"Home and about: final copy. Services: still a draft. Professional photos: I don't have any yet."

That's enough. It lets them phase the work and quote accurately.

6. Your actual budget

Put a number in. "Depends on the quote" isn't useful — it means the designer has to guess your range and either undersell or price themselves out.

If you're worried about anchoring high: a designer who knows you have £4,000 will show you what £4,000 gets. One who doesn't know might propose £3,000 or might propose £7,000, and you'll waste a round of back-and-forth finding out which.

7. Your deadline — and whether it's real

If there's a real reason behind the date — a launch event, a conference, a product release — say what it is. It changes how work gets prioritised and whether they can take it on at all.

"I'd like it done soon" isn't a deadline. If you don't have one, say that instead. It makes scoping easier for both of you.

8. Who else has sign-off

If anyone else is going to review the work — a partner, an investor, a spouse — tell the designer now. Feedback from someone who wasn't in the original brief is where revisions turn messy. The designer was solving for your stated goals, not the unstated ones someone else brings in after round one.

If there's a committee, say so upfront. It changes the timeline estimate significantly.

9. What you've already tried or rejected

If you had a previous site or a previous designer, say what didn't work and why. Not to criticise — just to avoid repeating it.

"We had a Squarespace site that looked okay but felt generic and didn't convert" tells a designer the platform history, the aesthetic problem, and the business outcome that mattered. That's a lot to get from one sentence.

10. How you review and give feedback

Some clients send line-by-line comments in a shared doc. Others want a call. Some sit with a design for a week before they feel sure; others turn things around the same day.

All of these work. But if the designer is expecting a response by Friday and you need until the following week, the timeline falls apart. Say it upfront.

What most people don't say but should

The thing most solopreneurs leave out is whatever they're actually worried about. Usually it's something like:

• "I'm not sure my offer is clear enough to brief anyone yet."
• "I've had bad experiences with designers before and I don't want to waste money again."
• "I know what I hate but I can't say what I want."

Any decent designer has heard all three. Say it anyway — it changes how they approach the work.