What should you ask before designing an interface?

The list of screens or journeys to cover, the devices targeted, whether there is a brand or a design system to keep to, who builds it afterwards, and whether the empty states, the errors and the loading are part of the job.

Should empty states and errors be counted?

Yes, and say so. A list screen is three screens: full, empty, in error. Leaving them off the quote and then delivering them anyway is the most common way to work a week for nothing.

Interface design: how many screens, and who builds them, decided first

Screens and journeys to cover, devices targeted, an existing design system or one to create, who picks the files up next.

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Designing an app can be six screens or sixty, and the sentence sounds the same either way. Hiding behind it: the empty states, the errors, the loading, the responsive work, and the question of who builds it after you. A developer picking up your files does not expect the same handover as a client looking at them, and that is decided up front, not at delivery.

This is a suggestion, not a standard. We do not do your job: this list is a starting point, to be added to, cut down and rephrased to suit the way you work.

The questions

15 questions. Designs, user journeys, a design system. Five minutes of brief.

The product

What we are drawing, and how far.

What are we drawing?
Dropdown · Required
The answers offered:
- A website
- A mobile app
- A web application
- In-house software
- A dashboard
What has to be delivered?
Multiple choice · Required
The answers offered:
- A site map
- Wireframes
- Finished designs
- A clickable prototype
- A design system
- User research
Roughly how many screens?
Number · Optional
An estimate is fine. A page that changes depending on the user counts as one screen.

What already exists

Something to build on, or a blank page.

New build or rebuild?
Single choice · Required
The answers offered:
- New build
- Rebuild of something existing
The address or the name of what exists
Short text · Optional
Do you have brand guidelines?
Single choice · Required
The answers offered:
- Yes, complete ones
- A logo and some colours
- Nothing, they need creating
Guidelines, logo, current screens
File · Optional
Screenshots of what exists are useful, even if you have gone off them.

The users

Who it is drawn for. The answer changes everything else.

Who uses it, and in what circumstances?
Long text · Required
The two or three most important things people come to do
Long text · Required
Everything else on the screen is either on the way there, or in the way.
On which devices?
Multiple choice · Optional
The answers offered:
- Phone
- Tablet
- Computer

After the designs

What happens once the screens are signed off.

Who builds it afterwards?
Single choice · Optional
The answer decides what I hand over at the end.
The answers offered:
- A developer at your end
- You, if you offer that
- Nobody yet, it is to be decided
Interfaces you think work well
Long text · Optional

And finally

Your deadline, and anything that did not fit the questions above.

When do you need it?
Dropdown · Required
The answers offered:
- As soon as possible
- Within 2 weeks
- Within a month
- No particular deadline
Anything you would like to add?
Long text · Optional
A constraint, a question, a detail I ought to bear in mind.
Any other files to attach
File · Optional
On top of what is asked for above: screenshots, sketches, documents. HEIC from an iPhone is fine.

The colours to offer

A client who writes “blue” and a studio who reads “blue” are not talking about the same colour. A list of shades settles it straight away.

Soft black
White
Interface grey
Indigo
Sky blue
Teal
Pink
Yellow

How it works

1
You pick your trade
When you sign up, and the questions on this page are already in your account. You cut them down, add to them and rephrase them: nothing is fixed.
2
You send one link
Your client answers from their phone, when they can, and uploads their files. They install nothing, create no account and choose no password.
3
What follows stays in one place
The conversation, the chasing, the later rounds of questions, the deposit and the balance, and the delivery of the files, which can open on its own once the payment settles.

What it costs

Free up to five orders a month, with no card and no time limit. Past that a paid plan takes over, and nothing about the way you work changes.

See the plans

Frequently asked questions

What should you ask before designing an interface?: The list of screens or journeys to cover, the devices targeted, whether there is a brand or a design system to keep to, who builds it afterwards, and whether the empty states, the errors and the loading are part of the job.
Should empty states and errors be counted?: Yes, and say so. A list screen is three screens: full, empty, in error. Leaving them off the quote and then delivering them anyway is the most common way to work a week for nothing.

Think something is wrong?

A question that is missing, one that means nothing in your trade, a word that is not the right one: write to us and we will fix it.

Write to us at [email protected]

These questions are already waiting for you

Create your studio, pick your trade, and this brief is there. You send one link, your client answers once, and you follow what happens next in the same place.

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