We split our website projects into four main stages:
1. Information Architecture
2. Graphic Design
3. Front end build
4. Backend build
We normally start a project with the 'Information Architecture' (IA) stage. During the IA stage we will work with you to carefully plan out the user journey / user experience around the site making sure each page is laid out with the content structured in the best possible way to meet the objectives for each specific page and for the website as a whole.
Firstly we will meet up for a content workshop where we can talk about the specific content (and functionality) of each of the pages and areas of the new site. In the content workshop we will discuss the the sitemap and different page templates required and how they need to function. We will then go away and work up the wireframes for each of the page templates. The wireframes will be presented to you and once we get to the stage where all parties are happy with the wireframes we will start on the design work.
Once we have completed all page template wireframes, and we have a website structure you are happy with, we can then progress to the Graphic Design phase where we will look to visualise the wireframes and bring them to life. How the site actually looks is also extremely important to get right and again we will work with you to make sure the look and the feel of the site is how you want it to be. We will provide advice and direction throughout the whole process and present our designs back to you as a PDF.
Examples of some of our website graphic design can be found in our clients area:
Once all the wireframes have been worked up into a visual look and feel that you are happy with then we move onto the front end build phase where we will build the HTML/CSS page templates based on the signed off Graphic design.
We make sure we are very thorough and methodical and that the code is cross platform compatible and as close as possible to W3C compliancy. We will build the front end to a test URL where you will be able to look and test etc and check you are happy with the front end build in terms of how it looks online.
After the front end build is complete, we move onto the back end build where we integrate the website into the Content Management System (CMS). More detail can be found on our Content Management System page.
We have spent a lot of time over the last few years looking into Content Management Systems, and we like to think our CMS is one of the most if not THE most flexible system on the market and is able to wrap around any website design. At the same time as being really flexable it is also really simple to use and client training on our CMS normally only takes just over an hour.
When building the backend of the site we will again implement to a test URL where you will be able to look, test and feedback on etc before it goes live.
We will train you on how to use the CMS and update each of the sections on the website. It is a really powerful CMS, but yet really easy to use and we have charity clients in their 60's with little IT experience using the Content Management System.