Designing and building a successful website should be an enjoyable experience. Above all the project needs to be collaborative, we cannot make this work without regular reviews and active feedback. Keeping the lines of communication open between us will ensure 100% success.
The Process
1. Your Requirements
What do you need your website to do for you, what are your goals and business drivers, who is your target audience and what image do you wish to portray? We will look at some other websites that you like just to get an idea of the type of web design you are looking for.
My clients are looking for something different with some personal touches. They want to be able to differentiate themselves through fonts and colours and be completely inline with their brand guidelines. They might want a blog layout that is completely different from the norm, a website with lots of bells and whistles or quite simply a beautiful, unique design.
2. Quotation
Once I understand what you are looking to achieve and the functionality required I can provide you with a quote. Using my questionnaire to build your brief, will give us the best start for your project.
3. Forging ahead
Once you decide to go for it I will ask you to pay a deposit and then I will produce a full project specification, including terms & conditions within 7-14 days. Once you have reviewed and approved the specification I will ask you to sign.
4. Providing content
I will be asking lots more questions now to fine tune the project and get it right. At this point you will share your text and images and let me know your keywords for Google. A Dropbox folder will be set up to enable easy file sharing.
5. The design
This starts with research including looking at current trends, formatting, colours and fonts. Then I will draw up the web design making sure everything that you want and need is included.
6. Development
It is now that the design compositions are transformed from images into a live website. Search engine optimisation is built-in from the ground up. Any special functionality will be added to the site. Mobile optimisation will be done.
7. User Management
I will make sure that every bit of content you need to edit is easily accessible. Custom admin pages make managing content intuitive and easy to do.
8. Browser Testing
Your website will be tested across a range of browsers, new and old including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome and Safari. Plus mobile platforms, Apple iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile.
9. User pre-release testing
At this point you will be involved in user testing as you navigate your way through your new website. Ensuring that you are comfortable with the website and the new interface that your visitors will see and use.
10. Security & Performance
Once you are happy with the website in terms of user experience, security and performance testing is carried out. Your site will be optimized for speed.
11. Go Live!
Your website will be published to the internet and will be released for indexing by Google and other search engines.
12. Training
If you have a content management site it will be extremely intuitive and easy to use but bespoke user guides with screenshots will be provided along with a full reference guide.
Onwards and Upwards!
All new websites come with free of charge support and help for 6 months. If you have a platform such as WordPress it is necessary to carry out updates from time to time to ensure optimum security. After the first six months you can take out an optional maintenance contract or manage the site yourself as you wish.