Website planning tools? Meeting tomorrow!

[TerminalAtrocity]

I have a meeting tomorrow with a web design firm and they have asked for examples of sites I like.

My idea isn't quite like anything I've come across (which is why I want to make it, I've needed it and so has an associate but we've sorted of muddled by and worked around it).

Does anyone have any planning templates? I've googled but nothing great comes up.

I have a fairly clear idea of what I'd like in an ideal world (money no object) and what I can live without in the real world (limited budget!).

I don't want to go in like an idiot and have them think I'm amateur with my handwritten notes, pages and pages of handwritten notes.

Help!

Professionals use tools like Balsamiq and Omnigraffle (if you want to google the technical term is 'wireframing').

But they are not asking you to do the design for them, they are asking you what you like so they can use their expertise to come up with something successful.

So if this is a news site, take a look a the BBC, Reuters, CNN, Telegraph etc. and say what you do and don't like about them. If it is a shop, look at other web shops etc.

A good designer will blend these concepts with your pages of content to create something that works.

Oh ok, I definitely don't want to design it. I juat

Sorry - knocked by DD1.

I just want to make sure I can communicate my ideas properly. I have drawn page sketches. I will cringe if it comes to showing them

Oh & thank you by the way

How did it go?

Erm, not great. The guy we met with was obviously very knowledgeable on websites but didn't have a lot of confidence with drawing out what we wanted. I expected him to lead a bit more than he did and he expected me to really know what pages I wanted, what colours.

So I am back to sort of sketching my ideas, putting them into words and emailing them to him so we can get a quote.

Think I will also try a couple of other agencies. I really like this ones work but I need someone who can talk to me too!

He's the one coming up short!

I work with a web developer (they outsource their copywriting to me) and he goes with beer mats, print outs of pretty pictures and has bright markers for his whiteboard. My guy says there are three components to building a website: the design, the construction and the SEO. There are some great people who do the construction but who can't design. The developer I work with is doing my own site and when the first design came back I didn't like it but struggled to say exactly why. They heard out my ramblings and came back with something fabulous. It's part of their job to do that!

There will be an agency out there who will lead you, find them.