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THE WEBSITE NOTEBOOK

Better questions.
Better websites.

Practical guides for planning, building and improving your business website. Written for teams working across borders.

100 practical guides · 10 topic collections

What are you working on?

Plan your website

10 guides
Plan your website

How to write a website design brief

A website design brief turns a broad request into a project a designer can estimate.

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Plan your website

How to define a website project scope

Website project scope describes what will be delivered and where the project ends.

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Plan your website

A website redesign checklist before you start

A redesign should preserve what already helps customers while fixing what gets in their way.

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Plan your website

Plan a website budget beyond the initial build

A website budget should cover the work needed to launch and the work needed to keep the site useful.

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Plan your website

Build a realistic website project timeline

A website timeline depends on decisions as much as development.

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Plan your website

Create a website content inventory that guides decisions

A content inventory is a list of the material your website already contains.

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Plan your website

Plan a website sitemap around customer tasks

A planning sitemap shows how pages relate to one another.

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Plan your website

Write a website request for proposal agencies can answer

A website request for proposal helps several agencies respond to the same business needs.

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Plan your website

How to choose a web design agency for your project

Choose a web design agency by how well its process fits your project, not only by the visual style of its portfolio.

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Plan your website

What a complete website project handover includes

Website handover is the point where your team can operate the site without depending on informal messages from its builders.

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Work across borders

10 guides
Work across borders

Working with an offshore web design agency

Working with an offshore agency can broaden your options, but the collaboration needs clear ownership.

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Work across borders

A communication plan for a remote website project

Remote website work needs a reliable place for decisions.

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Work across borders

Coordinate website work across time zones

Time-zone differences affect when questions can be answered and when decisions can move forward.

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Work across borders

Write a website brief for international audiences

An international website brief should identify actual customer markets rather than simply saying worldwide.

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Work across borders

Plan a multilingual website before translating

A multilingual website needs an ongoing publishing process, not just a translated launch.

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Work across borders

A practical website localisation checklist

Localisation adapts a website to the way a particular audience reads and makes decisions.

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Work across borders

Design a contact page for international enquiries

International visitors need enough context to know when and how they can reach your team.

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Work across borders

Present a portfolio to international website clients

A portfolio should explain the work as well as show it.

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Work across borders

Clarify website ownership and access before launch

Website ownership involves several separate assets: the domain account, hosting, content, design files, code and third-party licences.

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Work across borders

Give website design feedback that leads to decisions

Useful design feedback connects an observation to a visitor’s task.

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Write useful pages

10 guides
Write useful pages

What to put on a business website homepage

A homepage should orient a new visitor quickly.

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Write useful pages

Write a service page that answers buying questions

A service page helps a prospective customer decide whether an offer fits their situation.

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Write useful pages

Write an About page that builds understanding

An About page should help readers understand the people and organisation behind the service.

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Write useful pages

Choose useful questions for a website FAQ

A useful FAQ addresses uncertainty that stops customers moving forward.

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Write useful pages

Write calls to action that explain the next step

A call to action should make the result of clicking predictable.

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Write useful pages

Structure a website case study without inflated claims

A case study explains a real project through its context, decisions and outcome.

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Write useful pages

Use testimonials where they answer real concerns

Testimonials can help readers understand another customer’s experience, but their value depends on authenticity and context.

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Write useful pages

Make business website content easier to read

Readable content lets visitors find meaning without unnecessary effort.

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Write useful pages

Set up a website content approval workflow

Content approval needs an owner and a definition of ready.

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Write useful pages

Create a practical website content refresh plan

A content refresh plan keeps useful pages accurate after launch.

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Design the experience

10 guides
Design the experience

Design navigation people can understand

Website navigation is a set of promises about where information lives.

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Design the experience

Use wireframes to resolve layout decisions early

A wireframe shows the order and relationship of content before visual styling is final.

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Design the experience

Plan mobile navigation without losing important links

Mobile navigation has less space, but visitors still need access to the same essential information.

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Design the experience

Choose website typography for actual content

Typography affects how easily visitors can scan headings and read explanations.

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Design the experience

Build a website colour palette with clear roles

A website palette works best when colours have defined jobs.

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Design the experience

Choose website images that support your message

Images should help explain the business or the decision a visitor is making.

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Design the experience

Organise a page with a clear content hierarchy

Content hierarchy determines what readers notice first and how they move through the page.

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Design the experience

Keep a website consistent without making every page identical

Consistency lets visitors carry what they learn from one page to the next.

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Design the experience

Review a website prototype through realistic tasks

A prototype review is most useful when participants try to accomplish something.

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Design the experience

Use the website footer as a useful second route

A footer helps visitors who reach the end of a page or expect standard business information there.

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Plan an online store

10 guides
Plan an online store

Define ecommerce website requirements before choosing a platform

An online store’s requirements come from its catalogue and operations.

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Plan an online store

Design category pages that help customers narrow choices

A category page helps customers understand a range before choosing a product.

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Plan an online store

Write product pages that reduce uncertainty

A product page should answer the questions someone needs resolved before buying.

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Plan an online store

Present product variants without confusing buyers

Product variants are choices within a product, such as size, finish or capacity.

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Plan an online store

Plan product photography for an online store

Product photography should answer visual questions the description cannot resolve alone.

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Plan an online store

Plan checkout around the information an order needs

Checkout should collect what is necessary to complete and fulfil an order.

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Plan an online store

Make shipping information easy to find and understand

Shipping information should explain where the business delivers, how costs are determined and what timing information customers can rely on.

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Plan an online store

Plan clear returns information for your store

A returns page explains the process customers should follow when a purchase does not work out.

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Plan an online store

Plan store search around how customers name products

Store search helps people who know what they want or do not understand your category structure.

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Plan an online store

Prepare a product catalogue for migration

Catalogue migration is a data project as well as a design project.

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Manage your content

10 guides
Manage your content

Define what your CMS needs to let editors do

A content management system should support the tasks your team performs regularly.

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Manage your content

Static website or CMS: decide from your editing needs

A static website serves prepared pages, while a CMS provides a system for managing content.

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Manage your content

Plan a content model before building CMS templates

A content model defines the types of information your website stores and how they relate.

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Manage your content

Train website editors using everyday tasks

Editor training should focus on work the team will actually do after handover.

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Manage your content

Design a publishing workflow your team can follow

A publishing workflow moves content from draft to live with clear decisions along the way.

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Manage your content

Plan website user roles around responsibilities

User roles should reflect the tasks people need to perform.

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Manage your content

Organise a website media library for future editors

A media library becomes difficult to use when files have unclear names and duplicate versions.

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Manage your content

Use a staging website to review changes before launch

A staging environment is a place to review changes before they reach the live site.

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Manage your content

Choose a CMS theme by content fit and maintainability

A theme should support the content and workflows the website needs.

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Manage your content

Define a website maintenance agreement clearly

A maintenance agreement should say which tasks are covered and how requests are handled.

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Make pages usable

10 guides
Make pages usable

Include accessibility in the website brief

Accessibility planning starts by considering how different people will use the website.

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Make pages usable

Check a website using only the keyboard

Keyboard review can expose controls that look usable but are difficult to reach or operate without a mouse.

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Make pages usable

Write form labels that remain useful while typing

A form label tells people what information a field needs.

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Make pages usable

Write form errors that help people recover

An error message should identify the problem and explain a useful next step.

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Make pages usable

Plan image descriptions according to their purpose

An image’s text alternative depends on what it contributes to the page.

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Make pages usable

Check layouts when visitors enlarge the text

Visitors may enlarge text to read comfortably, and a robust layout should allow content to grow.

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Make pages usable

Use link text that explains the destination

Link text should help readers predict what happens next.

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Make pages usable

Use motion without making content harder to use

Motion can show a relationship or draw attention, but it should not be necessary to understand ordinary page content.

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Make pages usable

Present comparison tables that work on small screens

Tables are useful when readers need to compare the same attributes across several items.

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Make pages usable

Run a small usability review with realistic tasks

A usability review explores whether people can complete important tasks on the website.

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Keep the site efficient

10 guides
Keep the site efficient

Set a website performance budget before adding features

A performance budget sets limits or targets for what a page asks a visitor’s device to load and process.

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Keep the site efficient

Prepare website images for their actual display size

Image preparation starts with how the asset will be displayed.

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Keep the site efficient

Plan font loading without sacrificing readability

Web fonts contribute to a brand’s appearance but also add loading requirements.

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Keep the site efficient

Review third-party scripts before adding them

Third-party scripts can provide analytics, chat, video or other functions, but each one creates another dependency.

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Keep the site efficient

Use website video with a useful fallback

Video is valuable when demonstration matters, but it should have a clear role.

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Keep the site efficient

Test website performance beyond a fast desktop connection

A site that feels quick on a development computer may behave differently on a mobile device.

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Keep the site efficient

Reserve space for content that loads later

Unexpected layout movement can make reading and clicking difficult.

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Keep the site efficient

Plan caching together with content updates

Caching can let a website reuse previously delivered resources, but the update process must account for it.

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Keep the site efficient

Plan image crops for different screen sizes

Responsive image planning considers both file size and composition.

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Keep the site efficient

Keep a record of website performance after launch

Performance monitoring helps reveal when later additions make the website harder to use.

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Launch and improve

10 guides
Launch and improve

A website launch checklist focused on real visitors

Launch checks should confirm that the finished website supports its main visitor journeys.

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Launch and improve

Plan a website domain change before moving pages

Changing a domain affects more than the address printed on a business card.

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Launch and improve

Create a redirect map for changed website URLs

A redirect map records where a moved page should send visitors.

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Launch and improve

Organise website quality assurance by page and task

Quality assurance combines repeated page checks with complete user journeys.

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Launch and improve

Check broken links without overlooking useful destinations

A broken-link audit looks for links that fail or no longer lead where their wording promises.

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Launch and improve

Make a missing-page response useful and honest

A missing-page experience should explain that the requested address is unavailable and offer useful ways to continue.

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Launch and improve

Plan website backups around the ability to restore

A backup is useful only if the team can restore the parts needed to recover the website.

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Launch and improve

Run a post-launch review with a clear baseline

A post-launch review checks whether the released website works as intended in its real environment.

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Launch and improve

Improve enquiry quality through clearer website information

Better enquiries often begin with clearer expectations.

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Launch and improve

Create a website improvement roadmap after launch

A website roadmap turns observations into a manageable sequence of improvements.

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