1. Let's talk
It’s vital you choose the right partner to create your website. It’s why the process starts with information gathering and a conversation.
After you’ve filled in the contact form I'll get back to you with a couple of questions asking about your business, your market, and your goals. We’ll discuss your responses and you can ask any questions.
Next we'll begin to flesh out your website’s structure and functionality. I'll outline my recommendations and suggestions in your Project Overview document and provide a fixed price quote.
If you decide to go ahead, simply pay the deposit. I’ll schedule your project into the diary and set you up in a project management tool, so we can track and discuss progress effortlessly.
Output: By the end of this phase we’ll know if we're a good fit. If we are, your project will be scheduled in!
2. Discuss and research
‘Pretty’ design alone won’t make your website perform at its best. Instead your site must showcase your business, so your clearly defined target audience stops, pays attention, and takes action.
And that’s the purpose of stage 2… to further understand whom you’re targeting, why they need your product or service, and why your website will make them stick around.
During this collaborative stage we’ll explore:
- The specifics of your business in terms of its features and benefits
- Your story and personality
- Your target market and how your business helps your customers
In short, together we’ll tease out the insights and information needed to design and build a bespoke site, which engages visitors and entices them to buy.
Output: By the end of this stage we’ll create a inspiration board – filled with visual styles and ideas to ensure the ‘feel’ and functionality of your site is spot on.
3. Wireframes and content
Once we understand your audience and your business, it’s time to decide your site’s structure, navigation, and content – to ensure it delivers your goals. It’s at this point you need to supply your draft content, based around the structure we agreed in your Project Overview document, and any imagery.
If beneficial I will create wireframes for the key pages based around your draft content and the features your site needs. These ‘website blueprints’ make it easy to see the layout, information hierarchy, and functional elements of your website – before we move onto design visuals.
These wireframes will also help you finalise your copy, which you can do yourself or with the help of a copywriter.
Output: At the end of this stage your site’s structure and navigation will be agreed and your launch content finalised.
4. Design
Effective design ensures visitors connect with your brand and includes:
- Clean layout to minimise distractions and keep visitors focused on your brand
- Intuitive navigation to make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for
- Colours and graphics that complement your brand and evoke the right emotional response
- Easy to read text and typography, which pulls visitors through your website and entices them to take action
Taking inspiration from everything we're discussed, I’ll create design visuals for an agreed number of key pages (plus a visual for a page optimised for viewing on mobiles).
Output: By the end of this stage you’ll know how your new website will look on a desktop and a mobile device.
5. Website build
Using the agreed design visuals and your final, polished content, I’ll custom-code your website.
During the build process we’ll:
- Constantly review how your evolving site looks, works, and loads
- Polish the onsite SEO to ensure your website is optimised for search engines
- Add your content into the Content Management System (CMS) so you can amend as and when you like
- Test your site rigorously to iron out any niggles
- Ensure the design and functionality work perfectly across a range of devices and browsers
Unlike some DIY web builders, your code won’t be ‘fat’ with snippets you don’t need. Instead it will be lean, accurate, and designed for fast loading.
Output: By the end of this stage your website will be coded, your content will be uploaded into the CMS, and your site will be ready to go live.
6. Launch, tracking, and training
With the website design and build complete we’ll prepare for your launch and beyond:
- Analytics gets added on your site – so you can view your website's performance and see how visitors respond to your content
- Launch – with your website live you can receive the first of many visitors
- You’ll receive one-to-one training – to ensure you’re confident using the CMS to update your website
Output: By the end of this stage your new website will be live, receiving its first visitors, and working hard to get your business noticed.