Website Design and its Process

Website Design and its Process

Web design is the planning and creation of websites. This includes the information architecture, user interface, site structure, navigation, layout, colors, fonts, and imagery. All of these are combined with the principles of design to create a website that meets the goals of the owner and designer.

Website Development Process of Appzinc

We’ve developed a series of processes that enable us to be efficient while keep your goals as our top priority. If we are redesigning your website, we will thoroughly review your current website’s content prior to our first meeting and discuss with you what’s working vs. what’s not. We will also discuss your goals and ideas and help you understand the opportunities a new website can open up for you.

Introductions & Project Assignment

1. Kickoff meeting – Let’s get this party started! This is our first chance to hear about your organization and goals for this project. This phone call or meeting sets the stage for how you define a successful project and what elements you’ll be looking for Appzinc to provide.

2. Team Brainstorm - Our brains move at a million miles a minute, sometimes in the wrong direction. Before a big plan, design or development can get going, we must confirm we’re on the same page. The team brainstorming session gets what we heard in the kickoff meeting on the table so the client can confirm or correct our direction. Your participation in the process makes a world of difference. We discuss the organization’s audience, objectives and project value which will lead to an estimate or a project discovery. The goal of a brainstorm session is to develop the project scope & creative brief.

3. Contracts - The scope is finalized, budget minimums and maximums are set, milestones and goals have been determined, roles and responsibilities have be agreed upon. Paperwork makes sure it’s in writing and we’re ready to embark on a wonderful project relationship. 

Design & Engineering

4. Content sitemap – The blueprints to your new website We build a hierarchy (or sitemap) of the pages your new website will include. This sitemap serves as our guide to understanding where each piece of content will reside on your new website and allows us to plot navigation and lay out pages in a manner which is easiest to navigate. Upon completion of this step, it is the responsibility for someone defined in the scope to begin delivering content for the website. Sometimes it’s the client, sometimes it’s a copywriter, but regardless of who… it’s very important. 

5. Prototyping & Wireframes - Planning a user friendly experience Using both the content sitemap and the creative brief our designers and engineers work together to plan the interactions of the website. How a user moves through a website is of equal importance to the content they’ll be interacting with. 

6. Artwork mockups – Your website begins to take shape By this stage your website will have vision, purpose and direction, but still needs the tangible look and feel that communicates your company brand and positioning. Our gifted interface designers begin to give the skeleton some muscular definition and posture. No slouches here, just lean performance machines. Revisions are made until all objectives are met in accordance to scope. 

Construction & Inspection

7. Coding – Design comes to life Once artwork is approved, we move to the coding stage where the art is coded using standards compliant HTML and CSS to allow it to be viewed on the internet. Throughout the process we run tests and process bug reports to launch with the most stable, polished,  finished product possible. 

8. Content build out – Making your site a resource Page by page, we organize your content and carefully optimize each page for search engines. All that aside, if any content is not useful to people we help you figure out a strategy to make it so. Search engines are trying to make the web more human friendly, so it’s a good idea to build content following the same strategy. 

9. Quality control & assurance - Your website is going to be visited, hopefully revisited & shared if users find it worthy. Just like building inspectors make sure pipes aren’t going to spring leaks, or electrical boxes aren’t going to start a fire, we put the site through it’s paces to help ensure users have the best experience possible. 

Secure, Launch & Learn

10. Security - From the beginning we’ve been thinking about security, making decisions on your behalf that protect and preserve the security of the system and those that connect to it. It’s at this point we begin the recurring monthly process of checks and balances that help your site stay as secure as the day it launches. 

11. Final approval and launch – Your website is made available privately for you to view and click through page by page. Once approved, we flip the switch and go live! We train you on editing your content using the simple content editor and you’re off to the races! 

12. Monitoring and follow up - We recommend you or allow us to monitor your new website’s performance after launch. Data should be the driving force in the decisions for change on the website, not hunch. Some data will need additional testing to fully comprehend value. Having someone around to translate the statistics into an actionable resource is hugely valuable as you make adjustments to improve the site’s ROI over time.