Setting Goals and Objectives
What do you want your internet presence to do for you? Is your business selling products or taking online bookings, maybe you are a charity trying to raise money?
Understanding what you need from a website is the first step in developing the right solution for you.
Define your audience
Who do you want your website to appeal to? Little details like this help us to get the design right from the outset. For example, a hotel website wishing to attract “well heeled” tourists would have a very different style to a budget B&B appealing to backpackers.
Describe your preferred style
Do you like clean lines with plenty of white space and high quality graphics? Would you prefer to see more details on the screen? What colours do you like or dislike? How do you want your organisation portrayed?
The design brief
Once we have gathered all the information through steps 1 to 3, we will send a design brief. This will include some of the information already discussed with some additional questions, such as 'example websites that you like and don’t like'. The design brief enables our design team to pull together the first draft for discussion.
The design draft
Using all the information you’ve given us so far, our design team will produce a skeleton website for you so that you can see the layout, the colour schemes and the graphics for yourself.
If you are having an ecommerce site, you’ll also be able to see the shopping facility through your customers’ eyes.
This first draft gives you the opportunity to tell us what you do and don’t like. Your feedback at this point is crucial.
Finalising the design
Any changes you have asked for will be made and the second draft will be sent back to you for approval. When you are completely happy, we move on to step 7.
Programming and Developing
Once the design and functionality has been approved, our programmers get to work building the whole site and connecting all of the pieces together. The graphics, the text, the pages, the shop, products, payment portals (if you’re having an ecommerce site) and most importantly of all the content management system so that you can manage the site going forward.
At the end of step 7 your site will be fully functional and ready to publish.
Testing and Troubleshooting
Before the site goes “live”, we will ask you to help us test all of the website functionality and you can give us your final feedback.
Publishing
Your site will go live and you will be given access to your Content Management System. We will give you training on how to use the system. Don’t worry about remembering everything, we are only a call or email away. We also provide short guides and various how to videos within a secret Facebook group, where you can also ask questions.
