Website Design Process

Building a new website can seem like like a big undertaking, but it’s not as strenuous as it may seem. Below are the major steps in the website design process.

1) KICK OFF MEETING

Whether in person, or by phone for remote clients, we’ll start the project discussing your goals and reasons for building a new website. We’ll also explore what the unique selling proposition of your company is, and it’s key differentiating factors, as well as who your competition and target market are. In doing this, we ensure your new site to not just look pretty, but accomplish marketing goals for you.

2) DISCOVERY & RESEARCH

We’ll take the information you gave us in the kickoff meeting to define key goals for the website, allow it to determine the calls-to-action and site map of the new website. Along with looking at similar companies in your industry and your competitors, we’ll determine a direction for the website. At this stage, we’ll present you with a document detailing the creative direction, site map (a list of pages and features on the site), and the calls-to-action and main goals of the site. If you agree with it, we’ll proceed to the wireframe stage.

3) WIREFRAME

A wireframe is a way of roughly showing how information will be laid out on a website. Think of it similar to a blueprint, showing how the rooms of a house would be arrayed. The wireframe appears without color and style at this stage, because it’s concerned only with information architecture. In addition to the wireframe, we’ll also provide you a list of images and text we’ll need from you to design and build the site. Upon seeing the wireframe, you may approve it to proceed to the next stage, or offer feedback and we’ll revise it. Once approved, we’ll start designing the site out in a mockup.

4) DESIGN COMP

The design comp stage is where the new site begins to take shape. Here you’ll see the wireframe fleshed out with style and color. This is a rendering of how the real-life website will appear. You’ll notice in the design comp, we may use placeholder images, and sample placeholder text (or Latin text starting with Lorem Ipsum, sometimes called Greeking) to show how the real content will appear. Upon seeing the design comp, you may approve it to proceed to the next stage, or offer feedback and we’ll revise it. Once approved, we’ll start building the site out in code.

5) BUILDOUT & CONTENT LOADING

Now that the site has been laid out and designed, the actual work of constructing the site begins. While we work on building the site out, it’s a good time for you to work on sending everything needed to fill the site (all the images, documents, and text) requested in the list we provided earlier. Once the site is constructed, we’ll start adding add the pieces of content you’ve provided. At the end of this stage, we’ll being testing the site and making adjustments if needed. Once complete, you’ll be asked to check out the site on a test link, and offer feedback/changes. Once finished, and with your final approval, we’ll proceed to the launch stage.

6) LAUNCH

Now comes the fun part! We’ll change your domain name’s (eg: example.com) settings to point to the newly completed site. Now the whole world can see your new site.
We ask that in the first 48 hours you wait to publicize it, so that it can domain changes can fully propagate, and any minor bugs from launching can be addressed. After that, promote away!

7) POST-LAUNCH / MAINTENANCE

We’ll be happy to host your new site for a reasonable yearly fee, and perform maintenance to make sure the WordPress and its plugins are up-to-date and trouble-free.
We can train you on how to make updates to the content on your site within the content management system, or if you prefer, for a nominal fee we can make content changes for you.