WayLay Design has launched a new project, We Did Your Site. The purpose of the project is to design website mockups for businesses and organizations who either need brand new websites or want to redesign their existing ones. We do this at absolutely no cost to the business or organization.

In such a saturated market, we wanted to approach web design differently than our competitors, so we dropped the pitching and decided to let our design speak for itself. We decided to give people something tangible that was specific to them, not just a portfolio of designs done for other clients in a completely different field. This helps to accomplish two things:

1. The potential client can get a feel of our design style as to how it would pertain to their specific business without any negotiations, quotes, or contracts up front.

2. Having a tangible and completely detailed mockup of their homepage already done right in front of them helps to motivate the client into gathering ideas for refinement, moving into a contract, and having the project completed full scale.

We’re not saying that our designs are "the greatest designs ever" by any means. It’s more to show that we take pride in what we do and want to show potential clients that they can count on our dedication to their project.

The process is simple. Basically, we choose businesses or organizations based on personal experience as a consumer, good reviews from other consumers online, requests that we receive and evaluate, or referrals from friends and colleagues. Once we have a "project," we begin to gather whatever information we can about them, be it from their existing website or otherwise. If they have an existing website we include their current content such as about us, contact information, call to actions, etc and reorganize and redesign the way that information is presented.

If no content is readily available, we create sample content. We do not use any website templates for the designs. We also do not use watermarked stock photos or filler text because they defeat the purpose of the personal and finished feeling we are trying to deliver. Instead, we use our resources to obtain high quality images (which can be licensed to the client if they choose for little or no cost) and we write our own content for the project. Our belief is that the difference is in the details.

Once the mockup is complete, we upload it to our site along with a complete design rationale as to why we made the design decisions that we did. This helps the potential client understand why we did what we did so that it makes sense to them. It also shows that we are trying to do more than "make it look cool." The finished design has to satisfy not only the aesthetics, but it must also be easy to follow and easy to use.

After the website mockup is posted, we contact the owner of the business via email, personal letter, or postcard. Not to try to sell it to them, but just to let them know that we did it. This lack of pitching helps them come to their own conclusion to move forward with the project, rather than seem like someone is trying to sell them something which as most of you know, the first instinctive answer is "no".

That’s basically it. If the client wants to move forward from there, we can then discuss the full details of the website that they want, whether they need features added or removed based on our mockups. If the business owner does not feel that our design style fits theirs or they are not looking for a new redesign yet, no harm no foul. We don’t follow up with pressure to try and sell them on the idea. We simply move on to the next.

Is this approach 100% effective? No of course not, but we feel that by engaging the client by a show of faith on our part, a lot of them will be glad to work with us. We’re just getting started so we have lots more coming. If you want to take a look around at what we’ve done or request that we create a mockup design of your website, visit us at http://www.wedidyoursite.com.