Our Web Design Process
Web design can be a complex process, even for small sites. Let us guide you through it in an easy and logical way.
Our typical website design process consist of three major phases:
- Planning
- Design
- Development
1. Planning
Analyse requirements
We ask you questions about the proposed website’s content, functionality and target audience, and your business marketing/communication objectives. From this information we will determine the scope of the project and estimate the time and cost to complete it.
Draft sitemap
We will provide a simple list of your main web pages in the form of a site map. For example, a small sitemap might look like this:
- Home
- Services
- Overview
- Service #1
- Service #2
- etc.
- About
- Contact
Design brief and mockups
We work with you to create a detailed design brief for the graphic designer. This includes example sites and design elements that you like, a list of requirements for the designer to follow and rough mockups of web page layouts.
Copywriting
You can either start writing copy (text) for the site or we can engage a professional copywriter on your behalf. The latter option is well worth considering as projects can easily be delayed while waiting for copy. Writing good, clear concise copy that effectively persuades readers to take some sort of action requires significant skill, time and attention to detail.
Note: Copywriting is often the most overlooked area where websites fail to convert customers. Effective and results orientated copywriting will ensure customers are delivered right to your doorstep.
2. Design
Concepts
The graphic designer will produce one or more concept images (full colour mockups) for you to review. Most small business sites will require two layouts designed: the home page layout and a sub (or inner) page layout. You can request changes and the designer will revise the concepts to ensure you are satisfied with the ‘look and feel’ of each layout. This process may be repeated a few times until the layouts are finalised.
Artwork
The designer will finalise the artwork based on the finished concepts and supply the files in industry standard formats.
3. Development
Web templates
We give the artwork to skilled ‘front-end’ coders who develop functional web templates for each layout using HTML and CSS code. All code will be compliant with relevant web standards, ‘search engine friendly’ and tested for compatibility with all popular browsers.
CMS website build
For most sites, we will implement a Content Management System (CMS) so you can login and easily update your own content and images.
Static website build
For simple websites with content that is likely to only require a few minor updates each year, it will be more cost effective to produce a ‘static’ website. This means that there is no Content Management System (CMS) in place and the content will remain unchanged until you send us an update request.
Content population
Text and images are added to each web page and any formatting including headings, sub-headings, bullets and links, is applied.
Testing and QA
We test the functionality, navigation, links and browser compatibility of the site. We also ask you to conduct a final check to make sure you are happy with your new website.
Go live
When you are ready we will make the website live on the web.
Get a FREE custom web design quote
Contact us today for a FREE web project assessment and quote. We can quickly and easily customise the above package to your needs.
We will sit down and discuss your needs and help you determine what style of website is best for you.