RSS Feed
All of my projects involve personal communication and cooperation with my customers. I work with you from start to finish and make sure to keep communications flowing the whole way. Here are the steps involved in a typical website design/redesign so you can become familiar with the process and how I work.
Communication from beginning to end
I begin by talking with you to determine what are your needs, what are your goals and what is your long-term vision. I request any site & project documentation. I use this information to created a detailed estimate in the form of a Website Proposal.
Creating an accurate estimate
The Website Proposal is extremely detailed and serves 3 purposes:
- To outline all of your needs & requirements
- To explain how I can fulfill all of your requests
- To let you know how much it will cost
I offer a fixed cost for the whole project so there are no surprises. If there are major changes to the requests in the middle of the project, I work with you to adjust the total cost. This doesn’t happen very often – I try my best to cover ALL the bases right from the start.
Security for you and me
Once you are happy with the solution I offer and accept the Estimate, I create a contract and ask that it be signed along with payment of the initial deposit. The contract is a commitment on both our parts and makes sure that we are both clear on expectations and obligations. I use a secure online service called Echosign (no relation to Echoleaf) so the contract can be signed no matter where we are located. I then immediately get to work on the site design.
I design with your goals in mind
Your site design is guided by the most important objectives for your business and your primary target audience. These factors let me know what site content is needed to accomplish your goals and how to organize the layout for the most impact. I request site statistics to note what browsers and screen resolutions are most common, helping us determine how rich and wide the design can be. (No worries if you don’t have them – we’ll make sure the design is visible to the vast majority of site visitors.)
I also ask for a short list of websites to get a feel for what you want. These could be
- Competitors’ sites that you may want to beat
- Websites with features you want
- Websites whose colors and designs you love
Next comes a discussion on the site colors and then I put my imagination to work to create a design that enhances your objectives and goals with great visual impact.
Fine-tuning your new website design
Next, I email you 2 ‘mock-up’ designs of the front page – pictures of what the design looks like. You review these designs and tell me which one you prefer, what you like and what you don’t like. I work with you to decide what changes are needed to bring the design closer to your vision, and then provide a new mock-up. This new mock-up completes 1 round of revisions, and we do this 2 more times. By the end of the 3rd round, my design will fulfill your vision and I can start coding and building the site.
How long does designing a site take?
The design process – from discussion, to initial mock-ups to the completion of the 3rd round of revisions – is usually 3-4 weeks. I emphasize usually – it is possible to be completed in 2 weeks if the communication fast & constant. It’s more common to think things over for a day or two, talk things over and so forth – which is fine because what your site looks like is important and should not be rushed.
Coding – where the geek in me takes over
Once you have approved the design, I start what’s called the development process by coding the design to be a webpage and not just a picture. The languages used here are xhmtl & css, and I make sure that all of my code is standards-compliant (that’s just a geeky way to say that I don’t do any funny stuff with the code). I also test and re-test how the design looks on Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari and Opera to make sure that the design looks the same on the browsers that are used by 99.3% of the people on the internet. You can check the latest browser usage statistics here.
You get a test-drive of your in-progress site
All of this is done on my testing server, where I build a private copy of your site. I keep you posted on the progress and give you login information as soon as the site is ready for testing. You can see how your new site looks and get a feel for how your site works before it’s finished. The site will remain on my server until it is completed to your satisfaction. When it’s ready, I move it – either to your chosen host or my live server – and work with you to adjust any necessary server and domain configurations.
How long does this all take – designing & coding?
The development process – from coding to site completion – takes about 3-4 weeks. That’s it – the site will now be complete! With the design process and development each taking 3-4 weeks, the total average project time is 6-8 weeks. Like I mentioned before, things can move a lot faster but the average project has consistently taken 6-8 weeks from start to finish.
That’s the whole process – in the end, what you get is a great, easy-to-use website designed to further your goals and objectives. You will be turning your ideas into action in no time!
Want to turn your ideas into action today?
Fill out the form below and get a free quote on my services!