Imagine you have decided to build a house. The builder does not walk you through a painted, furnished flat on day one. First you get a drawing showing where the rooms go. Saying "the kitchen should face the living room" at that point is easy. Say it after the walls are up and it costs a lot and annoys everyone.
Websites work the same way. The designer sends an image, you say "I like it", and two weeks later, when the site is live, you ask why the booking button is so small. In this article I walk through the stages you will see during the website design process, what to look at in each one, and how to give feedback that actually helps. You do not have to prepare anything yourself. The goal is that you can read what you are shown.
What will the designer show you, and in what order?
In a well-run project you normally see three things. Each looks more "real" than the last, and each is more expensive to change.
- A layout sketch: plain gray boxes showing what will sit where on each page.
- A colored design image: a picture of the finished site with colors, fonts and photos.
- A clickable trial version: a rough preview where you can press buttons and move between pages, even though nothing really works behind it.
The order exists for a reason. Big decisions come first (which pages, what should a visitor do), then look-and-feel decisions (color, photos), and finally usage decisions (what happens when you click). A designer who skips a stage is only postponing decisions.
Stage 1: the layout sketch made of plain boxes
Here you will see something colourless, with boxes labeled "Heading" or "Text goes here". Designers call this a wireframe, which simply means the skeleton of the site. Your first reaction may be "this looks bland". It should. The point is not to look good but to test the arrangement.
What to look at:
- Would a stranger understand what you do within five seconds of landing on the home page?
- Is the one action you want most (a call, a booking, a quote request) visible straight away?
- Are the menu labels written in your customer's language rather than yours?
- Can people easily find your services, common questions, address and phone number?
- Is a page missing? A dentist, for example, might want a separate page just for implants.
Cheap to say at this stage: adding or removing pages, reordering sections, simplifying the menu. Nothing has been designed yet, so boxes simply move around.
Stage 2: the colored design image
Now the boxes turn into real photos, colors and text. It is usually shown for both desktop and phone. Think of it as a photograph of the finished site. You cannot click it yet.
What to look at:
- Do the colors and fonts suit your business? A law firm and a children's play center should not feel the same.
- Is the text easy to read? Light gray lettering looks elegant but disappears on a phone in sunlight.
- Do the photos show you, or are they stock images everyone else uses?
- Is there a proper phone version? Most of your visitors will arrive on a phone.
- Are your logo, address and phone number correct? Typos are easiest to catch here.
Cheap to say: colors, fonts, photo choices and wording. Expensive to say: "actually, let's make the home page completely different". That sends the designer back to stage 1 and much of the work is redone.
Stage 3: the clickable trial version
On larger projects, especially sites with bookings or reservations, the designer may send you a link. You open it, click the menu, and pages change. There is no real site behind it, but you get the feel of how it behaves.
What to look at:
- How many clicks does it take to reach the booking or contact form? One or two is ideal.
- Hand your phone to someone who has never seen the site and ask, "How would you contact us?" Wherever they hesitate is where the problem is.
- Is it clear what happens after someone sends the form? Is there a message such as "Thank you, we will call you"?
- Can buttons be pressed comfortably with a thumb?
Cheap to say: button positions, form fields, the flow between pages. After this stage, changes are genuinely expensive because the developer has started building.
How do you give good feedback?
The sentence designers struggle with most is "I don't like it, do something else". The clearer your feedback, the faster the project moves.
- Talk about goals, not taste. "Most of our patients are elderly, so the text should be bigger" helps more than "I don't like the blue".
- Send it once, in one batch. Talk to everyone involved, then send a single list instead of a message every evening. Make it clear who has the final say.
- Describe the problem, not the fix. Say "the booking button is easy to miss" rather than "make it red". Finding the solution is the expert's job.
- Show, don't describe. A marked-up screenshot beats a long email.
- Do not reopen an earlier stage. If you approved the layout, changing it during the color stage wastes time.
Questions you can ask your designer at the start:
- How many stages will I see, and what am I approving at each?
- How many rounds of corrections are included per stage?
- By when do you need my approval, and what happens to the delivery date if I am late?
- Will I see the phone version at the same stage?
Timelines vary by project, but a delay on your side usually pushes the delivery date back as well. Answering quickly is the biggest contribution you can make.
Frequently asked questions
Can I skip the layout sketch and go straight to the colored design?
On small one-page sites some designers merge the first two stages, which can be fine. As the number of pages grows, seeing the arrangement without color reduces the risk of mistakes.
Can I ask for changes after approving the design?
Small text or image corrections are usually possible. Changes to the structure count as new work and extend the timeline. Ask how many correction rounds the agreement includes.
Is a clickable trial version needed on every project?
No. For an ordinary company site the colored design image is often enough. If there are bookings, reservations or multi-step forms, a trial version prevents serious mistakes.
What if I have no ideas of my own?
Show the designer three or four sites you like and dislike, with a line on why. That is often more useful than a long written brief.
What next?
Giving feedback at the right stage, with the right kind of comment, protects both your budget and your time. If you want a process where you know in advance what you will see and what you are approving, have a look at how I work on my website design page.