How to Decide What Goes on a Corporate Portal

When a company is preparing to build a site, the question the development company asks most often is: what style do you like, and what kind of site do you want? If it is your first site, that question is almost impossible to answer — the word style has no referent yet. Which is why the development company starts offering examples instead: a Western layout, a minimal layout, and so on. So let us talk about choosing the content of a corporate portal, which is the question underneath the question.

What content means here

Before working out how to decide, it is worth being clear what content is. Put simply, content is what the site is going to be — the pages, what sits on them, in what order. Once that is settled the style conversation becomes much easier, because the style has something to attach to.

Start with what you sell

First: what is the product, the project or the service? You know this already, and every other decision depends on it. Different products demand different content structures. A development company that understands what you sell can tell you which structure fits it, which is why the first meeting should be about your business rather than about design.

Then borrow a reference

Second, if you have opinions about the design but cannot articulate them, collect sites you like and send them over. A reference does more than a description, because it makes the conversation concrete — the company can see what you mean rather than guess at it.

Or say it directly

Third, if you can describe what you want, say it plainly: a Western layout, a large minimal layout, something restrained and formal. Vague direction produces vague work, and being specific at this stage costs nothing.

Then approve the mock-up

Finally, the company produces a mock-up against what you have described. Once the modules are agreed, the next thing to look at is the design draft: approve it and development starts, ask for changes and it is revised. That is the loop — and it runs best when the content was settled before it began.

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