Process
What will it involve?
Each project is unique and will require different skills and techniques to ensure that is successfully concluded, thus it is difficult to specify beforehand exactly what will be entailed for any individual job or how long it might take without initial discussion so that we can understand your requirements. Often even then the project evolves as new needs are identified: we are open-minded and try to adopt a flexible attitude during development.
Nonetheless, most projects evolve through a range of reasonably well-defined phases, though there may be overlap betwen them on an individual project. Here is a brief outline of an example project’s process to give you an idea of what might be involved in the commission and creation of a new website.
Research
We need to meet and discuss your ideas and needs. We need to collect any current material you may have and think about what your audience really needs and what your competition are doing.
Plan
The final form will evolve from your diverse requirements and is the most visible aspect of a project, but the work that happens before is often more important to success. We need to define content and labels, and organise it into a structure. Then we can work out a roadmap and scope for the project, agree a budget and outline objectives, assign tasks and define a schedule.
Design
The graphic design and interface - the surface aspect needs to be considered, your brand and identity, the layout and typography. Interaction, the navigation through the facets of the website also needs to be created.
Develop
The actual programming and coding of the modular parts of the website needs to be done. Building any database framework or setting up and integrating with a content management system and tieing that into their hosting needs to be organised.
Production
All the actual content - individual images, pieces of writing and anything else all need to be collected. The individual web pages need to be constructed and put together. All of this needs finally to be tested and checked.
Launch
The website is now at last made public. We handover the project and final payment is settled. This is the time for us all to celebrate.
Post-launch
But it’s not all over. Now we need to evaluate things. The website needs marketing and promotion. It will need maintenance and you will need support in doing so. The website will need to evolve and grow as you respond to the changing needs of your business and audience. Eventually the website may need to change shape completely. Requirements might have changed, technology moved on, and then it may become time to think about a redesign. And so the cycle continues….