Discovery

The first step in designing a successful web site is to gather information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when the look and feel of your site is created.

This first step is actually the most important one, as it involves a solid understanding of the company it is created for. It involves a good understanding of you – what your business goals and dreams are, and how the web can be utilized to help you achieve those goals.

It is important that your web designer start off by asking a lot of questions to help them understand your business and your needs in a web site.

Discovery

Define

Design

Develop

Deploy

Promote

Define

Once all the information and assessments gathered from the stakeholder interviews are completed, they should be collected in a well-formatted project brief. (The assignment for Lesson 4 will contain a project brief outline you can refer to.) The brief contains the following elements.

Discovery

Define

Design

Develop

Deploy

Promote

Design

After the planning step is complete, all the information is obtained from the client and resources are gathered, it’s time to focus on the visual aesthetics for the project. The design team will breakdown the planning and requirements for the project and start the process that will lead to the creation of a beautiful design that is unique to your company’s brand. Designers use a few tried and true methods to produce eye popping designs and happy clients.

Discovery

Define

Design

Develop

Deploy

Promote

Develop

Now that approval has been given on the visual aesthetics for the project, it’s time to slice up the mockup, break out the design elements, and jump into code. Many core tasks are involved here such as building the site structure, constructing the templates, importing data, publishing content, and creating news stories and events, etc. Of course, rigorous testing is performed for functionality and performance throughout this stage. Below I have broken out several key concepts.

Discovery

Define

Design

Develop

Deploy

Promote

Deploy

We have the project developed, now we are ready to show the world! While we’ve come a long way, we aren’t out of the woods yet. We need to do some final touch-up, get everything over on the production server, some more testing, and then we can flip the switch.

Discovery

Define

Design

Develop

Deploy

Promote

Promote

At this stage we will provide documentation, discuss additional needs and next steps explained in detail below. Even though your site has launched and your project has reached completion to ensure your site or application continues to yield positive results it will require ongoing care and maintenance. Your team may want to consider an Online Care Plan.

Discovery

Define

Design

Develop

Deploy

Promote