Design Questionnaire

By Vaishali Singh
Posted Friday, October 1, 2004

Lets look at some of the Design Areas in details and check out some questions we can add to a design questionnaire. (Beware lot of scroll ahead)

Browser Standards

Start with the Browser Specifications, ask some of the following questions:
What monitor resolution and browser standards will the website pages be optimized for?
What will be width of the page? Will it span based on resolution of the monitor or will it be a fixed size?
Will the pages be left or center aligned in case of fixed page size?

Navigation Style

Good Navigation make Usable websites always lay a lot of emphasis on them. Inquire about some of the following:
In how many clicks should a user reach to his/her desired page?
Would the top links follow a tabbed interface, if yes Graphics or Text?Will the color of selected tab change on mouse over.
Will the sub area have the tab's color to indicate active area?
Should alt text be used in case of graphical links ?
What will be the Link Font Face and Size in pixels?
What will be the Link Font Color?
Will the sub categories be displayed in dropdown or popup?
Can symbolic icons be used for links and sections?

Content (Text) Style and Layout

What is the maximum length of a page & how much of a scroll down is permitted (maximum) on any page?
What is the maximum number of words allowed on any article / piece of information, beyond which the page needs a logical split with either next page link or a subsection to be clicked from within the page?
What are the rules on page alignments? Text alignments within pages? (left, right, canter, justified )
In pages, which are likely to be printed, what should be the printer-friendly-version template standards?
What text (content) to be included in footer of the WebPages?
What Font Standards to be applied to titles and headers?

Logo Specifications

Where will the company logo places in the layout? With what clearance around it? Can the designers place according to designed layout?
Incase the logo will be provided in hard copy pls provide a high quality jpeg and minimum 300dpi.
Please specify URL of the website from where the logo has to be saved.
Which Tagline or Slogans to be include with the logo and what are the specifications for it?

Font Standards

What will be the font system followed? Will we follow a cascading font style sheet?
Please specify the main body Font Face, Size and Color?
What font standards to be followed for graphical text and for text on graphical tabs and buttons

Button Style

What kind of buttons to be used for buttons like go, submit, reset, search, whether graphics buttons, text links, default buttons or CSS buttons?

File Formats and File Names

Can Numeric Characters be used while naming a file? Can they contain underscore" _ " as a spacer?
Html Files will be named .htm or .html?

Image Standards:

Which of the following can be used in the Website

Photographs
Illustrations
Clipart
Animated Clipart
All of the above

Which image formats can be used gif, jpeg or both?

Animation Standards

Should gif animation or Flash be used?
What Graphic/Font Standards and Style to be followed?

Banner Specifications

What is the Max File size in Kbs?
What will be Banner Size in pixels?
Will the banner have border/ no boarder? border specifications?
Will the banner be looped? If yes, how many times?

Color Standards

Please specify the color schemes that you would like to use for the website?
What colors are recommended? What colors are barred?

Design Style

What should the website convey? Should it have a very formal look, very vibrant or a combination of both?
How will any section/page flow from the Home Page, in terms of look & feel?Can it be different in colour and images to indicate to the user that he has entered a different section or subsection while following the over all design?How will consistency be kept while designing new sections?
What will be the coverage of the grid chosen? E.g. 50% or 75% etc. to indicate what amount of relief needs to be provided?Will there be a "splash" screen?

Optimisation Standards

What is the law on the size of a page of the website?
What is the law on the size of any image?
What is the suggested or the maximum limit of the page weight of a single page, HTML file and images, plus other elements included?

Rules for usage of JavaScript / DHTML / CSS

Can javascripts / dhtml / css be used. Pls specify banner compatability?

About the Author
Vaishali Singh
yshali@yshali.com
Visit (http://www.yshali.com/)