Many web designers, programmers and agencies chose to handle their projects in completely different ways. Some spend hours over planning and visuals where as others tend to dive straight in to the programming and make the changes on the website.

Ideally to ensure you get the site right first time you spend to spend some time talking through ideas and then working out what and how you are going to include in to the site. The best way to do this is to write down all the functionality and pages that are needed on the site then create a flow chart to show the flow through the website. This will allow you to work out what pages link on to what and where the functionality needs to be. Once you have this you can then create a flat visual based on the information. You may want to visuals just the home page or you may do a few additional ones two if they are going to look quite different. Once you have this agreed with the client you are then ready to go in to the programming. At this stage it is worth agreeing the final price with the client (if not done already) and telling them that if they change anything after the visual is signed off then costs may be incurred.