What happens in the design phase
What to expect during the design phase — how we create the visual look of your site, how to review designs, and how to give feedback that moves things forward.
The design phase is where your website starts to take shape visually. Before a single line of code is written, we design how the site will look and feel — and you'll get to review and shape that direction.
Quick summary
We design your site visually before building it. You'll review designs in one or two rounds, give feedback, and approve the direction before we move to development. Your feedback in this phase directly shapes what gets built.
What we do in this phase
Create initial designs. Based on what we learned in discovery, we design the key pages of your site — typically the homepage and one or two representative inner pages. These are high-fidelity mockups that show exactly how the site will look.
Share designs for your review. We'll send you a link to view the designs. Depending on the tools we're using, this may be a Figma file, a staging environment, or a shared presentation. We'll always tell you what you're looking at and how to view it.
Gather your feedback. You'll review the designs and share your thoughts. See How to give feedback that gets results for guidance on how to do this effectively.
Refine and finalize. We incorporate your feedback and present a revised version. Most projects include one to two rounds of design revisions before moving forward.
Design sign-off. Once you're happy with the direction, you formally approve the designs. This is the green light to move into development.
What we need from you
Your most important job in the design phase is to review designs thoroughly and give clear feedback promptly.
It helps to:
- Look at the designs on multiple devices if possible (desktop and phone)
- Share your feedback in one consolidated round, not in dribs and drabs
- Be specific about what you like, what you don't like, and why
- Distinguish between personal preference and genuine concerns about your audience or brand
See How to give feedback that gets results for a full guide.
Design sign-off matters
Once designs are approved and development begins, making significant visual changes becomes much more costly in time and budget. Take the time to review carefully before signing off.
What about content?
Ideally, real content (your actual words, images, and copy) should be ready before or during the design phase. Designs built around real content always look better than designs built around placeholder text.
If your content isn't ready yet, we'll work with placeholder text — but plan to provide your final content before development ends. See What we need from you for the content checklist.
Common questions
Related guides
- How to give feedback that gets results
- How approvals & sign-off work
- What happens in the development phase
- What we need from you
Need a hand?
What happens in discovery & strategy
What to expect from the discovery and strategy phase — what we do, what we need from you, and what you'll have at the end of it.
What happens in the development phase
What's happening behind the scenes while we build your website — and what you need to do (and not do) during development.