Website Design Process
Ever wonder what you need to do to get your business on the Web?
The process can seem daunting at first, but with careful planning and analysis of your needs, creating the right website for your company can be achieved easily. At Bluelime Media we create sophisticated websites tailored to each client so the process the process can vary, but overall all websites go through the following stages.
The process can seem daunting at first, but with careful planning and analysis of your needs, creating the right website for your company can be achieved easily. At Bluelime Media we create sophisticated websites tailored to each client so the process the process can vary, but overall all websites go through the following stages.
Planning
Whether your building a house, planning a holiday, searching for a job or building your company’s website, you need a plan! In order to create a great plan you need good answers.
» Who is your audience, your target market, what do they want?
» Does your company have a brand?
» What is your budget, timeline?
» Who are your competitors and what are they doing?
This first set of questions needs to be answered before the project can begin. Knowing the answer to these questions will allow you to plan the right technology to use, what language(s) to cater for, how to write your content, plan the design and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
This information will become the true roadmap for your project.
Content Architecture
Once we know who your customers are we need to find out more about you, your business and the most important part of your website, your content.
» What are your services?
» What is your message, mission?
» How can you break your content down in logical sections?
Content is what will drive customers to your site. Good content describing your product and services, describing your company and explaining why you are better than your competitor will make your website successful. Use short paragraphs instead of long drawn out text and easy to read titles and list of bullets.
Breaking down your content into clear, logical sections is the next step. How many sections do you need and what should you call them? Keep in mind that your customers shouldn’t have to think when they surf your site. So keep your sections simple, easy to understand.
Functionality
Once you have your content ready and broken down into pages, you need to think of what else your customers will do on your site.
» Can they download PDF?
» Watch videos?
» Purchase items?
» Sign up for a newsletter?
» Email a page to a friend?
» Print articles?
» Answer a quiz or survey?
What about yourself? Will you need to change information on a regular basis or only once in a while? If changes are to be made frequently then maybe a CMS is the right solution for you.
All of these questions affect the functionality of your site which is how your website will work and what it will do for you or/and your customer.
Design
Now that we have a roadmap, content and site architecture, we can start the design. This is the stage of the project were we can get creative. Colours, images and layouts are examined to create your individual look and feel. If you need inspiration, take a look at www.csszengarden.com to get some ideas.
Development
This is the stage where it all comes together. Design is integrated with content and functionality. Your Web developer transforms all of your ideas into a website prototype.
Testing
Testing of the prototype is carried out. This stage needs to address the issues of the planning stage. What browser should you test? This depends on your target audience. If you know for a fact that all of your Web customers are Macintosh users, then there is no need to look at your website on a Linux box.
Launch
You can now celebrate and tell the world. Your website has been carefully planned, designed and developed and is now ready to be used.