Depending on the size and complexity of a site, the following information will be helpful for Versa Studio or other design firms to provide you with a quote:
Site map
A site map may be in simple hierachical format, using bulleted lists and indentation to show the structure of the site. This works very well. Alternately, making a visual site map with a tool like Gliffy (free) or Microsoft Visio works well.
Feature list
What amounts to a 'feature' is not clearly defined. However, Versa Studio considers a feature to be anything that is not simple static content. Example features include:
- Articles
- Blog
- Documents
- E-commerce
- Forms for contact, quote request, or other purposes
- Physical products (how many?)
- Digital content (what kind and how many?)
- Email newsletter
- Event calendar
- Event registration
- Facebook Friends bar
- Image gallery
- Link management (dozens or hundreds of links, ordered by category)
- RSS Feeds, incoming (external, pulled from other sites in to yours)
- RSS Feeds, outgoing (your site’s content, syndicated to other sites)
- Search
- Social media sharing links, i.e., Tweet, post to Facebook, etc.
- Staff directory
- Twitter Feed
List of similar sites
Finally, we like to receive a list of at least two or three sites you like, whether for style, structure, or other elements. This helps us narrow down what kind of look at feel you want.
This is just a start
You can read all about this and see a real site map and feature list in our free web site planning guide, which you will probably want to read no matter the size of your project. For sites with quite a bit of content, say, hundreds of pages instead of dozens, more information is required, including a needs assessment.
