It would be much easier to just give some text and pictures to your web designer, and say "do the magic. Let me know when it's ready."

This is your enterprise.
The most successful websites are the result of collaborative experience. Your web designer will help you to clarify how you want to present yourself online. This is a major piece of your overall picture, so understanding is key.

The User Experience

  If your website is starting a conversation with perspective clients/customers, the experience that your visitor has at your site should be the major concern from the outset.

• What is their experience likely to be?
• What will they be looking for it to be?
• What do you want their experience to be?
• Do you have specific goals/actions in mind that you wish to see them take as a result of this, or subsequent visits?
• What do you want them to be looking to you for?

Collaboration

The web can seem like magic, but it takes a lot of work to make the magic happen.  Collaboration in this respect has to do with Without collaboration from the start, the process could be long and bumpy. This is what makes it work, a good understanding from the outset, and solid communication throughout.

Here are the basic elements of the give and take:

Getting to know you - and your business.
   In the beginning, there is you and me. We chat. Get a feel for what this project is about. We want to know you, your business, it's goals, attitudes, and where your website fits into this picture. We go as deep into this as we need to so that we are thinking in the same light, and the clarity expedites the process, making it run smooth and pleasurably.

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 First, why should it matter to you? You've hired a web professional, and he/she should know what they're doing. Well, no argument there. Still, a little understanding goes a long way.

The web is not like a piece of paper. You place something somewhere, and there it is. Turn over this piece of paper, and you see just what you expected - the back of the paper. So far, this isn't sounding so brilliant is it?

Here's the thing - on the web, the 'other side' is the code. Code is the language (html, xhtml, php, etc. see glossary) that you are speaking to the internet telling it what to put out there to the world. I make a point of this as the first thing to know about design because it really is at the heart of things, and you can't expect it to behave like something that it isn't.
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