You need a website built. Maybe it's a personalized blog site, or for a new business, possibly an existing business that needs a re-design. Well congratulations! The process involved in designing a website is fun and exciting.
Below we will outline the six steps involved in the web development process. This should help to answer many of your questions, allowing you to confidently move forward with your web design.
The six steps are:
This may not sound exciting but it really is. Let's say you are starting a business. You have an idea that you know will be successful. You have spend countless hours dreaming about your new business, how it is going to run, how it is going to change your life and your customers lives. You have probably spent days/weeks or even months writing your business plan. It's a lot of work! And now you get to share it with somebody that cares! You get to share your dreams, goals, and vision with me. And I care! Not only do I care, I want to help you succeed!
This is exactly what the Information Gathering stage is. Where I speak with you about your ideas, dreams and vision. Because without that, I can't possibly build a website that you will be satisfied with. It's that simple.
I will ask you questions that help me determine your needs. Then I can recommend and suggest solutions that will address all of your needs. Once we finish working with each other than I will do additional research to further help in the design process.
Depending on the size of the project this may days a couple of days or several weeks.
In the planning stage I take everything I learn from you and put it on paper. I will decide which solutions best fulfill the requirements you gave me. I then arrange it onto a time-line, set milestones, tasks and checklists so that we have a guided plan to follow throughout the entire process.
At this point I also determine the cost of the project so that you know before hand all the costs from start to finish.
Once you have approved the plan, including the time-line and costs, I will write up the final contract. Once the contract has been signed and the initial payment received I introduce you to what I call My Project. My Project is part of my website that allows you to log on and view the overall progress of your site from start to finish. I upload any important documentation and images, track milestones and tasks, and communicate with others who may also be assisting with your website. If you wish, you will also be able to participate in the process by offering feedback along the way. To learn more about our project management software visit our My Project web page at http://www. twdw.net/myproject.
The next step in the web development process is often the most fun part. This is where I actually design your site and start showing you the solutions I have come up with to address your particular requirements. A lot goes on here, from old school brainstorming with pen and paper, to hand drawings of logos and layouts to full blown computer generated mock-ups of your site design.
I will be communicating with you several times during this stage. The first time is usually to present logo designs. The design of the site often is built around a companies logo. David Airey, a successful logo and graphic designer says that, 'A logoless company is a faceless man'. A powerful logo is an important and necessary step in creating a website. After gathering feedback from you I either make the necessary modifications or move on to the actual website design.
Once the website itself has been created we meet again for the Design Presentation. Here I will review your goals and present the designs, showcasing how they address the requirements you set forth. I gather feedback from you, make any necessary adjustments and continue on to the development stage.
You get a break during development. This is where I take the images I created in the last step and turn them into working web pages. I make the buttons click-able, the links actually work, the slick mouse-over effects to work and whatever else is needed to make the design a real working website.
Once your website has been built it needs some preliminary testing. I make sure all the buttons and fancy programming works, check for cross browser compatibility, our fancy way of saying I make sure it works in all the most commonly used web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome etc).
After it passes this inspection it's time to load it onto the Internet. This consists of loading the images and files onto the web server and usually, setting up the Content Management System. I'll load up the initial content (writing or text) and go through one more round of testing to verify everything is running as expected. When everything is 100% certified working correctly the site goes live and the entire world may see it!
After your site if completed and available to the public it still needs nurturing. If you forget about your site, so will your customers. Websites need constant love and care, we call this maintenance.
Maintenance means that the information on your website needs to be kept up to date and new. If you want to keep your customers coming back you need to give them a reason.
Depending on how comfortable you are with the idea of maintaining your website, you can either make changes and update the site yourself or have us do it for you. Regardless of who does it, you will have some responsibility in keeping your site fresh and up to date.
And that is the web design process from start to finish. I look forward to working with you!
Ask me a question.
The Project Planner