Featured Work
Featured Work
Danny Stead | Designer / Developer
For businesses that rely on their website, getting it right early is essential to avoid not just one bad investment on the build, but ongoing losses from missed opportunities and reputational damage.
A survey from Liquid Web found:
When a brief is a bunch of assumptions and preferences, the audience is “everyone”, and you’re trying to copy competitors, it’s no wonder so much money gets wasted.
That’s why Danny Stead, Smith’s Head of Digital, has some strong opinions when it comes to website project planning, as they’re what keep the work working.
“Everything starts with purpose,” says Danny. “You need to decide what you want the website to achieve.”
Before design, before platform, before a word of copy, you need to know what the website is actually for, because that answer shapes every decision after it.
At Smith, that usually means placing the project in one of four categories:
The category decides the brief. A lead-generation site and a brochure site can look completely different and both be right, because they’re doing different jobs.
We always say “strategy before tactics.” That means knowing who your audience are, what they want, and how your website can deliver. Get the content and messaging right first, then design around it.
Most projects do this backwards. They jump into design and then pour content into whatever shapes the design left behind.
It works far better the other way round: settle the message, map the pages and structure, then design to fit. You end up with a better user experience, not just a better-looking page, because the design has an actual job to do.
Danny says “A website is never finished.” The best ones are improved and adjusted over time as the business and its market move. Scale and flexibility also need planning from the start.
Inside a project, the order you do things matters. Here’s what works for us:
Skip that last point and it gets expensive: deciding the platform after the design is signed off is how “small” requests turn into rebuilds.
Most of the damage is done before design starts. The ones Smith sees again and again:
There’s a fourth that shows up in almost every delayed project: content that isn’t ready. Designs get finished and then sit for weeks waiting on copy, images and sign-off. Decide who’s producing the content, and by when, before the build starts, not after.
As businesses mature and adapt, they almost always drift away from their website’s original design or positioning. If it is a positioning problem, that points to a rebrand rather than a redesign. Here are a few signs you’re in need of an update.
Services, products or positioning have moved on; the website still describes an earlier version of the business.
Design, tone and functionality that felt current now make a strong business look behind.
If visitor numbers are healthy but enquiries aren’t, the site is failing to turn interest into action.
Smith is a web design agency in Leeds that gets the strategy right before the design, so the site you launch is built to do a real job. If you’re weighing up a new website or a redesign, talk to the team about a website built around your goals.
Settle the fundamentals first: what the site is for, who it’s for, the core message, the page structure, and how you’ll measure success. Getting these agreed before design is what keeps a project on time and on budget.
Two things. Starting design before the strategy is agreed, and content not being ready when the build needs it. Both are avoidable with a clear brief and an owner for the content.
Look for one that leads with strategy and is willing to challenge your thinking, rather than the one that simply agrees and quotes the lowest price. A good Leeds web design agency should be a partner after launch, not just up to it.
No. Treat it as something that evolves with your business and market. The best-performing sites are improved continually, not rebuilt from scratch every few years.