Web Development Questionnaire

The web development questionnaire is a list of questions that can send your client to get a clear idea of what they need. 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. Creating rock-solid systems and processes in your business help you get more done in the same time.

Why it is so important to get right

A good design/development questionnaire helps ensure that the project isn’t a giant failure. That sounds extreme, but it’s the truth. Without uncovering the real reason your client wants a new website, you could end up building something that doesn’t even come close to their expectations.

⚡️ Contribute

Do you have suggestions on how to further improve the questionnaire? Please create an issue and submit your feedback.

🔖 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