The Web Design Process
The purpose of this document is to describe to you, the client or prospective client, the general process we will undertake together to create your new web site. It will also help you understand what questions you will need to ask yourself and what you will need to provide during the process.
The process of creating and implementing a new web site is usually broken down into the following phases:
- Initial consultation and discovery
- Client research and planning
- Project proposal and design kickoff meeting
- Initial design concepts
- Design review and revisions
- Build and test
- Site launch
- Follow-up "tweaks"
- Marketing and on-going maintenance
Initial consultation and discovery
The initial consultation will act as a “discovery” phase, during which the primary goal is to determine the purpose and scope of your web site project and to map out the process we will undertake. We’ll discuss what your ideas and needs are for a web site as well as your expectations of how it will help your business grow. This discussion will also include basic topics like your domain name, web hosting solutions, and what the basic structure of your site might include. We’ll talk about what Delaney Design will be responsible for and what you, as the client, will be responsible for. And of course, we’ll talk about costs.
Client research and planning
The purpose of this phase is to research and answer any specific questions that arose during the discovery phase, as well as to address the following tasks:
- Review the web sites of your competition, and determine what you like and don’t like about those sites. What works or doesn’t work about their message? Make notes of any ideas you have as a result.
- Review other web sites from your industry (or even from outside your industry) to determine what your likes and dislikes are. Make note of any sites where you particularly like the look, style, or functionality. What do you think would work best for you?
- Take inventory of what marketing material and assets you have in-house already that might be helpful in providing content for your site. Does your company have a logo and a consistent branding that we’ll want to carry over to the web site? Do you have logos and photos in a usable file format? If not, we should be able to request those files from the design firm or person who created them.
- Determine whether you have a specific budget and/or timeframe in mind and communicate this to Delaney Design. We will work together to provide you with a timely solution that is within your budget.
- Consider possible domain names for your company. Your domain name will be your web site address and in most cases it should reflect your company name as closely as possible. It should also be as easy to remember as possible. Delaney Design will help you select an appropriate domain name for your business and will also determine whether that domain name is available (many common names are already taken).
We will meet again, if needed, to discuss and review the results of this research. Reviewing these details will help establish the scope of the site and provide design direction.
Project proposal and design kickoff meeting
At this point, a proposal will be presented based on the information discussed so far. Once the proposal has been reviewed, discussed, and accepted, we’re ready to get to work. Assets like logos, photos, and copy would be provided at this point. An in-person meeting for this purpose may not be necessary depending upon the scope of the project. A phone conversation and/or some e-mails may be all it takes to get the project rolling.
Initial design concepts
This is where you, the client, get to rest and wait to see the goods. Delaney Design will create “comps” for your review based on the results of our research and discovery phases. Initial comps will be presented via the web as static images (usually 1 or 2 comps are presented, depending upon the complexity of the site and the project budget).
Design review and revisions
After you review the comp(s), we’ll meet (either in person or on the phone) to discuss your feedback and comments. This phase may require some back-and-forth where Delaney Design will make design changes based on your feedback until we arrive at a final design that you are pleased with. Please note that a reasonable amount of “design and review” time will be built into the project proposal, and that if this phase grows beyond that amount, you will be notified before incurring additional expense.
Build and test
After the basic site design is approved, comes the building and testing phase. Delaney Design will construct your site and stage it for your review (either on the delaneydesign.com site, or under your own domain, if it’s available. If content has already been provided, it will be in place. If content had not been submitted yet, then the site will be constructed using placeholder copy and the real copy will be added when it is ready and provided. We will then both test the site to be certain it’s ready before we go live with it or announce it.
Site launch
This is truly the rewarding part. If this is a new web site and domain, it will probably already be live and we can now announce it to the world. If your new web site has been staged on the Delaney Design server (as in the case of a site redesign), then we will make your new site live.
Follow-up “tweaks”
After your new site is live and available to the world we’ll continue to make any “tweaks” that we may discover are needed. Most likely these tweaks will be in the form of minor copy changes.
Marketing and ongoing maintenance
Your level of involvement in the follow-up marketing and the ongoing maintenance of your site is up to you. Some aspects of marketing your site will begin during the planning and building phases (like creating meta tags containing your site description and keywords which will help the major search engines index and rank your site). Other ways of marketing your new site are to get other sites to link to your site (like trade groups and industry related sites), and to include mention of your new site on any and all collateral marketing materials you may produce (like business cards, stationary, brochures, etc.). While the marketing of your new web site is not included as part of the initial price proposal, Delaney Design will gladly help with these efforts if desired. Again, it’s up to you, the client, to decide how much you want to do yourself and whether you want Delaney Design to help.
Ongoing maintenance is another consideration. Delaney Design will typically continue to work with you whenever your site needs updates or modifications. Alternately, some clients may decide they want to make their own updates. If this is the case, then Delaney Design can also provide you with one-on-one tutoring on how to make changes to your own site.
Summary
Hopefully this document has provided some direction to you as a client or prospective client as to the process we will undertake together when creating your new web site. One other thing to note is that this process is meant to be flexible. The larger your site, the more closely we will probably follow this process. If your site is small and very straightforward, on the other hand, we may be able to combine steps and move very quickly through the process.
If you have any questions about this process or anything that is discussed here, please don’t hesitate to contact Delaney Design.