And now for the conclusion of our popular post, Taking Control of Your Website Process:
Step Four: The Design
Just as the Step 2 focused on the information and site architecture, this step will establish how we will translate all of that visually into what the user will see and experience. We begin, as we do with most of our creative projects, by creating a moodboard which will determine the design direction of the site. Moodboards visually gather our thoughts on the look and feel of the design – colors, typography, images, etc. Once we have consensus on the design direction, we begin to layout the templates or page structures of the site.
This step can take anywhere from two to four weeks, depending on the size and complexity of the site.
Step Five: Development
Once the design templates are built and the content is complete, the design files and foundation document are sent to the web developers. The design team is still involved behind-the-scenes to ensure a smooth transition from our design blueprint to a completed test site. During the development step, we will work with the development team to ensure all the third-party integration details are accounted for so that when the site is ready, we have all the hosting, domains, passwords etc. ready to transition over to the new website.
This stage also varies depending on the scope of the site, but typically allow anywhere from four to six weeks for development.
Step Six: Testing
This critical step is when the development is completed and a test site has been built for our review and feedback. And, I must warn you, no matter how awesome of a team you have, or brilliant the design, or talented the developer – there are always, always changes that need to be made. A perfect ‘as is’ launches never happen. So allow for it, plan for it and know that how you respond to revisions will contribute to how successful your final project will be.
Allow anywhere from two to six weeks for testing and revisions to be made and implemented depending on size of the site, number of people reviewing and giving feedback and complexity of any requested changes.
Step Seven: Going Live
At last you made it to the finish line – or did you? “Flipping the switch” and making your new site live only takes a few hours to transition. Once the switch has been made, there will be another round of testing and reviewing to ensure everything works as it should. However, once a site goes live, anticipate more changes. There are always items that were overlooked, missed or forgotten – it just happens. Once those are squared away, take a moment to enjoy the new site. But, only just a moment. Because once live, it’s right back to work. You now need to work on keeping up with content creation, more edits, SEO, analytics – like laundry, having a website is a never ending task. However, the payoff for having a functional, user friendly website will never end, either.
If you are ready to begin your website project, or you are curious about further details on our process for website projects, I hope you will give us a call – or send up the bat signal, and we’ll come running.
~Amy
