Web Design & Development Intake Forms & Client Questionnaires

Web design projects go sideways when scope is assumed instead of documented. The client says they want a “simple website” and means a five-page brochure site. Or they mean a membership platform with user accounts, payment processing, and a content library. Or they mean a full e-commerce store with 400 SKUs, inventory management, and a shipping calculator. All three describe themselves as “a website,” but they are three completely different projects with three completely different budgets, timelines, and technical requirements. The Web Design & Development intake form eliminates the ambiguity before you write a proposal.

The form opens with project classification. Checkboxes define the project type: new website (no existing site), website redesign (existing site needs a new look and structure), e-commerce store (product catalog with checkout), web application (custom functionality, user accounts, dashboards), landing page or microsite, or website migration (moving from one platform to another). Each type triggers different follow-up questions. A redesign needs the current site URL and a list of what works and what does not. A migration needs the current platform, database export format, and content volume. An e-commerce build needs product count, variant structure, payment gateway, and shipping logic.

Technical Requirements and Infrastructure

The technical section captures the infrastructure decisions that constrain the build. CMS preference checkboxes include WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, custom-built (no CMS), headless CMS (Contentful, Strapi, Sanity), and “no preference — recommend one.” Hosting captures whether the client has existing hosting, needs new hosting, or wants the developer to manage it. Domain status asks whether the domain is already registered, who the registrar is, and whether DNS is currently managed by the client or a previous developer. For clients with existing sites, the form documents current analytics access (Google Analytics, Search Console), email service (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, hosting email), and any third-party integrations that must survive the transition (CRM, email marketing, booking system, chat widget).

For e-commerce projects, the form goes deeper. It captures the product catalog structure: number of products, number of categories, whether products have variants (size, color, material), whether pricing is flat or tiered, and whether products are physical (requiring shipping calculation), digital (requiring download delivery), or both. Payment gateway preference checkboxes include Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, and the platform’s native processor. It asks about tax calculation requirements (manual, automatic via TaxJar or Avalara, single-state or multi-state), shipping rules (flat rate, weight-based, real-time carrier rates, free shipping thresholds), and whether the client needs inventory tracking, abandoned cart recovery, or subscription/recurring billing.

Design Direction and Brand Assets

The design section captures what the client wants the site to look and feel like, without relying on vague adjectives. It asks for three to five example websites they admire, with a note next to each explaining what specifically they like — the layout, the color palette, the typography, the photography style, or the overall tone. It captures existing brand assets: does the client have a logo (and in what file formats), brand guidelines, a color palette, approved fonts, and a photography library? Or does all of this need to be created? The form documents the client’s industry, target audience demographics, and the primary action they want visitors to take (call, fill out a form, make a purchase, book an appointment, download a resource).

Page structure gets its own section. The form asks the client to list every page they need, or checkboxes cover the most common ones: Home, About, Services (with sub-pages), Portfolio/Gallery, Blog, Contact, FAQ, Pricing, Testimonials, Team, Careers, and Privacy/Terms. For each page, the form asks whether the content already exists (in a document, on the current site, or needs to be written from scratch). Content readiness is the single biggest bottleneck in web projects, and the form surfaces it early so the timeline accounts for content production.

SEO, Performance, and Compliance

The SEO section captures the client’s search visibility goals. It asks whether the client has identified target keywords, whether they have existing search rankings they need to preserve (critical for redesigns — a careless URL structure change can tank organic traffic overnight), and whether they want ongoing SEO services or just a technically sound foundation. It documents current backlink profile awareness, Google Business Profile status, and whether the client runs or plans to run paid search campaigns that will drive traffic to the site.

Compliance and accessibility checkboxes cover ADA/WCAG accessibility requirements, GDPR cookie consent (for clients with European visitors), CCPA compliance (for California-based businesses), HIPAA considerations (for healthcare sites that collect patient information), PCI compliance (for e-commerce), and industry-specific regulations. These are not afterthoughts — they affect design decisions (contrast ratios, font sizes, form labeling) and development decisions (cookie management, data encryption, form handling) from the start of the project.

Timeline, Budget, and Maintenance

The timeline section asks for the ideal launch date, whether there is a hard deadline tied to a business event (product launch, conference, seasonal peak), and what the consequences are if the deadline slips. Budget is captured as a range rather than a single number, with checkboxes for common ranges that correspond to different project scopes. The form also asks about ongoing needs after launch: does the client want a maintenance retainer (updates, backups, security patches, content changes), training to manage the site themselves, or a combination? Monthly maintenance scope checkboxes include plugin/theme updates, security monitoring, performance optimization, content updates, analytics reporting, and hosting management.

Pricing

Each form is $19.99 for the complete set (intake + questionnaire), $14.99 for intake only, or $9.99 for questionnaire only. All PDFs are fillable in Adobe Reader and password-protected against editing.

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