Web Design Grand Rapids: A Requirements Document for Dealer Network Sites, With a Health Strand

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

R1: a specifier in any US city finds the nearest authorized dealer in two clicks on a phone. That line is how this page works. This is a brief for web design in Grand Rapids that furniture makers and West Michigan manufacturers can use, written as numbered requirements, each one testable, so bids can be compared line by line. Copy what fits: dealer locator, product data, dealer logins, makers without dealers, sign-off, price, then a short strand for Medical Mile sites on tracking. Progression is a New York City firm that works with Grand Rapids clients remotely, and you can send this list for a free proposal and a written scope.

Website design in Grand Rapids, MI: how to read and use this document

Buyers comparing the website design that Grand Rapids, Michigan firms offer are often asked a template question first: how many pages, at what price? A maker that sells through authorized dealers has a different question: what must the site do, and how will we know that it does? This page answers the second one. Each requirement is one sentence with a number, a test a person can run in a few minutes, and a role that signs it off. The numbers run in one series from R1 to R21 and are never reused, so a bid can say “R7: yes” or “R12: extra cost” and mean the same thing as every other bid.

Whoever you hire, one of the web designers in Grand Rapids, MI or a firm outside Michigan can be handed the same list. Makers commissioning web design in Grand Rapids, Michigan too often brief it in adjectives such as modern, clean and easy to use. A requirement replaces the adjective with something a person can check on a phone.

The Right Place says on its office furniture manufacturing page that Grand Rapids and West Michigan have been a center of furniture craftsmanship, design and innovation since the early 1800s, and that the region has 160+ establishments, 225 suppliers and more than 14,000 jobs. Its list of notable furniture manufacturing companies includes Steelcase (Grand Rapids), Haworth (Holland) and Nucraft (Comstock Park). We name them only because that list is public. Nothing here says they use this page, hire this firm or have any tie to it.

As one public example of a maker with authorized dealers, the Steelcase site has an Authorized Dealers page and a Find a Dealer link in its top navigation. We cite it for that and offer no judgment of it.

What does a testable requirement look like?

It states one thing a visitor or a staff member can do, and it can be answered with a plain yes or no. “The dealer search should be easy” is a wish. “A specifier finds the nearest authorized dealer in two clicks on a phone” is a requirement, because a person can stand in a parking lot with a phone and count.

• Every requirement keeps its number for life. A dropped line is marked not used, never renumbered.
• Every requirement says one thing, so a bidder cannot answer yes to half of it.
• Every requirement has a test that needs a phone or a screen and no special tools.
• Every requirement names the role that signs it off, such as the sales director or the IT lead.
• Every line can be answered with yes, no or extra cost, which is the only vocabulary the sign-off table uses.

Who this document is for

It is for makers that sell through dealers, for West Michigan manufacturers that sell direct, and for the people who write the brief. A store that sells to shoppers has a different reader and different pages; see furniture store marketing for that side. For search work across the state, see the SEO company in Michigan page, and for how the same question looks in other markets, see web design companies by city.

Web design in Grand Rapids that dealers can rely on: the locator requirements

A specifier choosing a product for a project, or a facilities manager replacing a chair, wants a name and a phone number nearby, quickly. Five requirements cover that, and they all depend on one list of dealers that somebody keeps.

• R1. A specifier in any US city finds the nearest authorized dealer in two clicks on a phone. Test: on a phone that did not build the site, type a postal code you choose and count the taps from the home page to a dealer’s name and a way to call or write. Two taps, typing aside.
• R2. Results show only the dealers the maker has authorized, from one maintained list. Test: take one dealer off the list, reload, and look for that dealer in the locator, on its page and in the downloads.
• R3. A territory rule decides which dealer a specifier sees, and the rule is written down. Test: enter three addresses near the edge of two territories and compare each result with the written rule.
• R4. Each dealer has a page with its address, contact details and the product lines it carries, and no dealer appears at an address it does not use. Test: check every dealer page against the maker’s own records.
• R5. A search with no matching dealer goes to a named inbox, and someone answers it. Test: search a postal code with no dealer in range, send the message, and time the reply against the answer time written into the requirement.

Why the dealer list needs one owner

A locator can look right on launch day and be wrong a month later. A dealer opens a second showroom, another changes its phone number, a third is dropped from the network, and the site shows whichever spreadsheet was edited last. The data has to be somebody’s job, with a named backup, and the site has to read from that one list instead of from copies. In short, the owner:

• Adds a dealer only when the maker’s agreement is in place, and sets the territory in the same step.
• Changes an address, phone number or product line the day the dealer reports it.
• Sets a dealer to inactive, not deleted, when it leaves, so the history survives.
• Answers the unmatched-search inbox from R5 or hands it to a named person.
• Confirms each dealer’s details on a schedule the maker writes down.
• Is the only person, with the backup, who can edit the list.

What does the dealer record need to hold?

One record per dealer is enough if it carries the fields the pages and the locator need and no more.

• The dealer’s trading name and the name the maker uses internally.
• Street address, with a flag when the location is by appointment only.
• Phone number and a monitored email address.
• The product lines the dealer carries, drawn from the same product list as R6.
• The territory the dealer serves, in the terms of the written rule from R3.
• Status: active, on hold or inactive.
• The date the details were last confirmed with the dealer.
• The person at the maker who owns the relationship.

Website design in Grand Rapids for specifiers: product data requirements

A specifier needs the current sheet for the product on screen, not the one from three catalogs ago. Five requirements keep the product pages honest. If the site also sells direct, ecommerce website design covers catalogs and checkout, and manufacturing website design covers plant and capability pages. Where dealers and staff share data behind a login, see web portal development.

• R6. Every product has one page and one current spec sheet. Test: pick ten products at random and find exactly one page and one sheet for each, with the issue date printed on the sheet.
• R7. Downloads for designers, such as CAD and Revit symbols if the maker offers them, sit one click from the product. Test: from three product pages, count the clicks to each file.
• R8. Finishes and options come from one data source and are not typed into each page. Test: change one finish name in the source and check that every page showing it has changed.
• R9. Discontinued products stay findable, with a pointer to the replacement. Test: open the address of a retired model and confirm that it loads and names its successor.
• R10. Search works on model numbers and common names. Test: search five model numbers and five names that a customer would use, and confirm that each returns the right product first.

Data feeds and the catalog you already keep

A maker often already holds product data in an ERP system or a product information system. R8 is easiest when the website reads from that system instead of from a second copy typed by hand. That makes the integration the real project, and it is development work, not page design; our ERP development page describes that kind of build. The brief should say which system is the source, who owns it and what the site does when the feed is down.

What happens to a product that is retired?

A project can need a replacement part or a matching piece after a line has ended, so a retired product page is not clutter. R9 asks for three things.

• The page stays at its address and says plainly that the product is discontinued.
• The page names the replacement and links to it, or says there is none.
• The last spec sheet stays downloadable with its issue date, marked as the final one.

Where do the CAD and Revit files come from?

From the maker’s own design team, not from the web firm. The website stores and serves the files; it does not draw them. If the maker offers them, R7 asks that they sit one click from the product, and each file should carry a version and a date so a designer knows which one is current.

• A file name that matches the model number.
• The version and the date on the download link.
• The software release it was saved for, where the maker knows it.
• A named contact for file problems.

Dealer logins: requirements for what stays private

Some material belongs to the dealer relationship and not to the public. Three requirements decide what sits behind a login, who gets in, and what is guaranteed to stay open.

• R11. Dealer price lists and sales tools sit behind a login. Test: open the address of a price list while logged out and confirm that it is refused, including from a search engine’s cached copy.
• R12. Each person on a dealer’s staff has an account in their own name, and removal happens the same day the person leaves. Test: create two accounts, close one, and confirm that the closed account cannot sign in while the other can.
• R13. The public site works in full with no login. Test: browse the whole public site logged out on a phone and find nothing that asks you to sign in to read a product, find a dealer or request a quote.

What happens on the day a dealer’s employee leaves?

The dealer tells the maker, or the maker’s own contact notices, and the account is closed. R12 puts that in writing so that a price list does not stay within reach of someone who has left the dealer.

• No shared account, so one person’s departure never forces a password change for everyone.
• A named contact at the dealer who can ask for an account to be opened or closed.
• A maker-side owner who acts on the request, ideally the same person who keeps the dealer list.
• A record of who held the account and when it was closed.
• Dealer-side sign-in that does not reveal which other accounts exist.

Why does the public site not depend on a login?

A specifier on a first project has no account and no dealer yet. If the locator, the spec sheets or the quote form sits behind a sign-in, that person may go to another maker’s site. R13 keeps the first visit open and puts only the dealer relationship behind a door.

• Product pages and spec sheets stay open.
• The dealer locator and the dealer pages stay open.
• Designer downloads stay open, as R7 asks.
• The quote or contact form stays open.
• Only price lists, sales tools and account management are private.

Grand Rapids web design for makers without a dealer network

The Right Place counts 225 suppliers in the region’s furniture trade. A maker of components or materials that sells straight to other businesses may have no dealers at all, and for that maker R1 to R5 and R11 to R13 may not apply. Two lines then carry the weight.

• R14. The site states what you make, for whom and at which plant. Test: show the home page to a stranger for ten seconds, take it away and ask what is made, who it is for and where. Three correct answers pass.
• R15. A quote request reaches a named person with the file attached. Test: send a request with a drawing from a phone and a desktop, and confirm that the named person gets both with the file intact.

Grand Rapids website development can mean the second line, and web development in Grand Rapids for suppliers may be exactly that. A quote request that carries a drawing into an estimating system is development work, not page design, and our web development services page lists what we build. A supplier that wants engineers to find it in search will also want manufacturing SEO, which is a separate job from the build.

What does a quote request need to carry?

Enough that the person who opens it can answer without writing back for basics, and little enough that a buyer finishes the form.

• Company, contact name, email and phone.
• The part or material, with a drawing or a specification attached.
• The quantity, and whether it is a one-off or a repeat order.
• The date the parts are needed.
• Any standard or certificate the buyer requires, chosen from the list the maker actually holds.
• Where the parts ship.
• A plain confirmation on screen and by email that the request arrived, with the name of the person who will answer.

What does R14 say about the plant?

That the site names the plant, not only the company. A buyer qualifying a supplier looks for the town, the processes and the materials. State a certificate only if the maker holds it, in the form it was issued. Use photographs of the real plant, not stock images, so the page shows where the quote will come from, and offer a capability sheet to download only if the same facts also appear as a page.

Sign-off: how each requirement gets accepted

A requirement is finished when its test passes in front of the person who signs it. Two lines apply to every maker, dealer network or not. When you ask a Grand Rapids web design company, or any other firm, for a bid, send this table with the brief.

• R16. The site is built and tested to WCAG 2.2 level AA. Test: a keyboard-only pass and a screen reader pass on the main paths, with the results written down. Our ADA compliant website design page and the website design and development page state the same standard.
• R17. You own the domain, the hosting, the admin accounts, the content, the design files and the code. Test: the domain registrar, hosting and admin accounts are in your business’s name, and the handover list shows each one. The same ownership is stated on our website design and development page.

How do you mark up a bid line by line?

Put the 21 lines in a table, send it to every firm and ask for one of three answers on each: yes, no or extra cost. A firm that answers yes to everything with no questions has probably not read the tests.

• Yes means the bid price already covers the line and the firm will run the test with you.
• No means the firm will not do it, and you decide whether to drop the line or the firm.
• Extra cost means it is possible, with a price, and the price belongs in the table.
• A blank is not an answer. Ask again.
• Ask each firm to say which role it expects you to name as signer for every line.
• Compare totals only after the extra-cost lines have prices.
• Keep the filled-in tables. They become the acceptance list when you choose.

What to attach to the brief before you send it

A firm can only mark a line it can see. Gather these before the first bid, and most of the questions that delay a quote will not come up.

• An export of the current dealer list, even if it is a spreadsheet.
• The written territory rule, or a note that none exists yet.
• Twenty sample product records with their spec sheets.
• A list of the systems that hold product data and who owns each one.
• Examples of CAD or Revit files, if you offer them.
• The names of the roles that will sign each line.
• The domain registrar, hosting and admin accounts in use today, and in whose name each sits.
• Your current analytics and tag list, if a site exists.
• Any certificates you hold, in the form they were issued.
• The inbox that will receive unmatched dealer searches and quote requests.

Changing a requirement after you sign

Requirements change after a bid is accepted, because dealers change and so do product lines. The numbering exists so that a change is visible instead of absorbed.

• A new requirement gets the next free number, such as R22, and goes through the same yes, no or extra cost answer.
• A changed requirement keeps its number and gets a dated note.
• A dropped requirement stays in the table marked not used.
• Any change with a price is agreed in writing before the work starts.
• The signer for the changed line signs the new test.

Grand Rapids website design: pricing these requirements

Price comes after the requirements for a reason. A site with the dealer locator and product data of R1 to R10 is a different project from a brochure site, and dealer logins push it further. No published price covers Grand Rapids alone, so this section states none.

Our prices against these requirements

The table is the fixed-scope pricing on our website design and development page, with the same “Price from” label. It lists build types, not requirement numbers. Read R14 and R15 against the brochure and business site rows. A dealer network with logins is quoted after a written scope.

Published US price bands for dealer network builds

The bands below come from other publishers and run from the typical low to the published high. Which requirements sit in which band is this page’s own reading of those publishers’ descriptions, and no band was written for dealer networks.

Which requirements move a job toward the custom and enterprise bands?

These move the price more than the page count does.

• Dealer logins (R11 and R12), because accounts, permissions and a removal process are software, not pages.
• A feed from an ERP or product system (R8), because the integration has to be built and kept alive.
• A territory rule that a computer has to apply (R3), because someone must turn the written rule into logic and test it.
• Several sites or languages, which multiply every other line.
• A large catalog, because each product needs a page, a sheet and data that stays current.

Health strand: requirements for Medical Mile sites

The Right Place says on its health sciences page that the Medical Mile is located just north of downtown Grand Rapids and that clinical, research and academic institutions line it. It also reports more than 100,000 health sciences jobs in West Michigan, 516 health science establishments and 55 medical device manufacturers, and describes the region as home to the highest concentration of medical device manufacturers in the state. A site for one of those organizations can have pages behind a login and pages open to everyone, and online tracking behaves differently on each. This strand is short, it is not legal advice, and every legal question in it goes to counsel. Our hospital website design, healthcare website design, HIPAA compliant software development and medical device marketing agency pages cover the wider work.

What the HHS bulletin says about logged-in pages

The bulletin is the Office for Civil Rights notice titled Use of Online Tracking Technologies by HIPAA Covered Entities and Business Associates, dated March 18, 2024. It is written for HIPAA covered entities and business associates, which it calls regulated entities. Whether an organization is one is a question for counsel, not for a web designer.

• It defines user-authenticated webpages as pages that require a login, such as a patient or health plan beneficiary portal or a telehealth platform.
• It says tracking technologies on those pages generally have access to protected health information, which may include an IP address, a medical record number, a home or email address and dates of appointments.
• It says a regulated entity must configure such pages so the technologies use and disclose that information only in compliance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
• It says a tracking vendor that receives protected health information on the entity’s behalf for a covered function is a business associate, and that a business associate agreement is then required.
• It says a banner asking visitors to accept or reject cookies is not a valid HIPAA authorization.

What the bulletin says about public pages and forms

For pages that need no login the bulletin is more mixed, and the sentence that matters is narrow.

• It says tracking on many unauthenticated webpages does not have access to protected health information, and that in those cases the HIPAA Rules do not regulate the entity’s use of the tracking.
• It also says that in some cases tracking on an unauthenticated page may have access to such information, and then the rules apply.
• Its example is an unauthenticated page where a person makes an appointment or enters symptoms in an online tool: tracking might collect an email address or a reason for seeking care, and the bulletin says the entity is then disclosing protected health information to the vendor.
• It treats a patient portal login page or a registration page as unauthenticated, but says that if tracking collects the login or registration details typed there, that is a disclosure.
• It carries its own disclaimer that its contents do not have the force and effect of law.

What the court vacated in 2024

On June 20, 2024, the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas decided American Hospital Association v. Becerra, No. 4:23-cv-01110-P. We read the opinion and order in full. The court declared that what it calls the Proscribed Combination, as set forth in the HHS bulletin of March 18, 2024, is unlawful because it was promulgated in clear excess of HHS’s authority under HIPAA. It denied a permanent injunction and granted vacatur. The Proscribed Combination is the circumstance where an online technology connects an individual’s IP address with a visit to an unauthenticated public webpage addressing specific health conditions or healthcare providers. In its reasoning the court held that this combination falls outside the statute’s definition of individually identifiable health information.

Footnote 8 of the order says the vacatur is not intended to, and should not be construed as, limiting the legal operability of other guidance in the germane HHS document. The copy of HHS’s page we read opens with a notice that the court vacated the guidance to the extent it says HIPAA obligations are triggered by the IP address combination described above, and that HHS is evaluating its next steps. The American Hospital Association’s news item of August 29, 2024, reports that HHS withdrew its notice of appeal; the AHA’s item is the AHA’s account, since the AHA was a party. We predict nothing about what happens next.

Requirements R18 to R21

These four lines are this page’s own, not HHS’s and not a court’s. They turn the reading above into things a person can check, and none of them is a statement that a site complies with any law.

• R18. No third-party tracking on logged-in pages unless counsel has approved it and a vendor agreement is in place. Test: list every tag that loads on the logged-in pages; the list is empty, or each tag has counsel’s written approval and its agreement attached.
• R19. Appointment and symptom forms send data only to the systems named in the written scope. Test: submit a test form and trace where the data goes; every destination is on the written list.
• R20. Public pages get a tag inventory, with a named owner and a review date. Test: the inventory exists for each public page type, shows who owns each tag and says when it was last reviewed.
• R21. A medical device maker’s claims go through its own regulatory review before they are published. Test: every claim on a published page appears on the approved claims list, and the list shows who approved it and when.

What should you bring to counsel?

Counsel can answer a question about a particular site only if the facts are on the table.

• The list of pages behind a login and the list of public pages that carry forms.
• The tag inventory from R20, with the vendors named.
• Where each form sends its data, as written in the scope for R19.
• Any vendor agreement in place with a tracking or analytics provider.
• A copy of the privacy notice the site shows today.
• The claims list that R21 asks the regulatory team to approve.

Beyond the requirements list

Pages on the work that sits around a dealer network build:

• Website design and development
• Manufacturing website design
• Web portal development
• Hospital website design
• Ecommerce website design
• Manufacturing SEO

Dealer network site questions, answered