Most website projects that go wrong do not go wrong in design. They go wrong in the first week, when nobody agrees on what the site is for.
Start with the pages, not the pixels
Before we open a design file we write a sitemap and a one-line job for every page. If a page has no job, it does not get built. This alone usually cuts a site by a third.
Write the content outline together
Next we outline the content of each page with the client: headlines, sections and the one action we want a visitor to take. Wireframes come after that, and they are fast because the hard decisions are already made.
It feels slow for a week. It saves a month.
