The Website Development Process

Over the years we have worked out a website development process designed to produce a site that looks great, does the job you want it to do – and to get all that done as quickly and efficiently as possible. We are all busy.

Before we start to work on your site, we gather a lot of information from you on what the site is for, who it is targeted at, and what message is the site supposed to communicate to the visitor.

Knowing what message your website is to get across is vital to the development process.

We will need to understand a good deal about your business to do it right. In addition to this we need to know as much as possible about how you want the site to look and work. We will build a site that, based on our marketing experience, will be effective in accomplishing its marketing purpose. However, that still leaves plenty of room for taste and preferences.

What colors do you like? What kind of shapes or imagery do you want on your site? What sites do you like or dislike? This is important information we need as guidance in creating a look for you. Otherwise, we may be left trying to guess what kind of a look might be appealing to you. Of course, you can leave this completely up to us, but if this is something you have strong feelings about, we need to know what they are.

We’ll also need your logo (if you have one) or any other imagery that will be a vital part of the site look (such as the book’s cover, for a book website). Note: If the logo or other provided key imagery isn’t consistent with the message, that will be a point of discussion.

There may be things you want that we would not recommend for marketing reasons. For example, colors have an emotional connotation to them and you may want a color scheme that we don’t feel is suitable. If that is the case, we will let you know. It will still be up to you and we will follow your instructions on such points.

We will then develop one or more ideas (concepts) for the site as to how to communicate the message to the named target public, within the constraints of logo and other imagery, etc.

There are then several “reality checkpoints” to ensure we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves perhaps doing something you aren’t happy with.

1. The first thing we will do is develop a possible “look” for the site based on the idea or ideas we’ve come up with. This will be in the form of graphic images. The “look” is also known as a “mockup” or “comp” (short for “comprehensive”).

We will put this up on one of a series of “tester” sites we maintain, where you will be able to see what it looks like and how it works. This is also where you’ll be able to see each of the following steps as they are done, until your hosting is set up and your site is launched.

Once we have something we like, that we think will do the job and that you will like, we will send a link to you for review. Included will be an explanation of why we made the choices we did.

2. We will then make adjustments or a redesign or otherwise have a dialog about the look until we are both satisfied. Note: The exact appearance of colors will vary depending on the monitor used. This (along with size of text and screen resolution) are not under our complete control but are determined by the computer displaying the website. Any text appearing in the image is at this point, there as a placeholder only and not meant to represent the actual copy to appear on the site.

With Fast Forward, there is never a limit or extra charge for more versions or revisions.

3. We will work out in coordination with you the navigation of the site: what buttons there will be, any “dropdown” menus, and critical text links.

4. We will then build the home page. This may include a “Flash” animation on the home page, videos, how the navigation buttons look when you roll over them and other aspects which can’t be seen from a static image such as we present to you at step one. Again, any text appearing in the image is there as a placeholder only and may or may not be the actual copy to appear on the site

Again, we will need your feedback and if necessary make adjustments.

5. We will now complete building the site including putting in actual copy, additional imagery, links and so on. Interior pages often have a slightly different look to them than the home page, that will be sorted out at this stage.

This is still offline – on one of our tester sites or on your hosting setup, but not publicly launched.

6. If the site includes an online store or blog, the hosting will have to be set up before that part of the site can be built. In that case, if you have an existing site and will be continuing to use the same hosting, a “dev” or development site will need to be set up so we have a place to complete site construction.

7. There will be a lot of back-and-forth on material (information, copy, links and images) we need to fill in blanks on the site, until we have a complete functional site. The faster you can provide the material we need from you, the faster we can complete the project and you can start enjoying the benefits. We can get sites done very quickly when we have all needed material. Note: We will supply “stock photography” for any generic images from our usual sources, as available.

8. We will make any adjustments or edits needed until you are happy with the site (and so are we).

9. The final stage is a complete review of the site by both of us, ensuring it is factually correct, fixing any typos, making sure all the links work, the site flows properly and doesn’t have any “holes” in the way of vital missing information, any other actions to complete basic search engine optimization, etc. This is a coordinated effort as there will be things only you will know (factual points, spelling of technical terms, etc.).

10. At some point we need to actually launch your site. This may be before all work is completed. That will be determined in coordination with you. Our general rule is, when the site is at a stage of completion where it will be a positive benefit to have it up – launch it.  We can provide hosting if you wish. Your choice of hosting service will need to be made several days before your want or need your site to be up, as it can take up to 72 hours before a site is visible online to all visitors.

And that’s it! Your site, finished, launched and ready to do its job!

You should also know that it is common for minor adjustments to be needed and typos to be discovered after the site is done and launched. Such are included in the project fee and will be made at no extra cost to you even if discovered weeks or months after the site is completed.

Getting an effective website done is not a small process. Working together, we can and will accomplish that for you.