Before you get started on your new Web site, there’s one thing you should know: your role in development is critical. We’ve developed this overview of process milestones to help guide your site’s development along the most efficient and cost-effective path. But first, some words to the wise.
Time
Creating a Web site will probably require more of your time and energy than you expect. Unless you’re a dot-com, nurturing your site through development may take a back seat to the day-to-day operation of your business. But there’s no getting around it: your site won’t bloom gracefully without your help, no matter how skilled and innovative your Web design firm.
However, the rewards in watching your Web vision blossom into reality are tremendous — as are the business benefits you stand to reap. The best approach is to block out realistic amounts of time in your schedule specifically for Web tasks, or to delegate.
Process
There are several points at which we need your feedback and approval to proceed. It’s crucial that you complete each of these reviews with a fine-tooth comb. At each phase, we’ll let you know just what you need to be watching for and the kind of feedback we’ll need from you.
Schedule
Before the project gets underway, we will create a production schedule based on your resources and needs. Adhering to this timeline does more than bring the project smoothly to the finish line. It can be a money-saver.
Consider, for example, the delivery of text content. If the original scope calls for our receiving your files in a single batch, but then they drift in piecemeal, one-by-one, that results in more project management and implementation time on our end. And unhappily, that may turn out to be a change order situation. That said, we understand that sometimes schedules do have to shift — yours and ours alike — and we always do our best to accommodate our clients’ needs. Just be aware that good planning can circumvent cost implications.
Foresight
Web development generally follows a linear sequence of tasks, each building on the one before. Though a site is updatable, there are milestones after which changes become counterproductive and costly.
Here’s an example: once you approve the home page design, we begin the time-consuming process of graphics production. Then we do the programming. What happens if, after that, you want to add a section or change nomenclature? It may just be a simple matter of creating a new graphic and the cost could be minimal. But often one change has a domino effect, necessitating other revisions, even to the approved design itself. Then we have to step back to Square One and start over. And that is likely to be expensive.
The lesson is not that you should be excessively wary about giving approval. All you need to do is give your full attention to each review, and know where you are in the process.
Milestones
On to a step-by-step look at the production process. Depending on your specific situation and our agreement, some or all of these will apply.
Phase 1: planning.Groundwork — You lay your ideas, needs and budgetary requirements on the table. We sprinkle in some of our own suggestions. Then we sift and sort these to create your unique Web strategy.
Project Brief — We create an outline for your approval that reflects our understanding of technical specs, planned content, target audience, functionality needs and visual requirements.
Domain Name and ISP Set-Up — You can do it yourself, or we can do it for you.
Phase 2: information design.Preliminary Content Delivery — You assemble all existing text and graphical content for the site, along with a list of any planned content still in development. Content doesn’t yet have to be in final, approved form.
Information Architecture and Navigation Nomenclature — We pore over all the materials you’ve supplied and, with audience and medium in mind, make recommendations for how best to organize and present them. We also may suggest nomenclature for describing the site’s content areas.
Review, Revision and Approval of Information Design — You examine what we’ve done. Does it reflect your expectations and needs? We make revisions based on your input, and submit them for your final approval.
Phase 3: visual design and production.Home Page Sketches — Once you’ve okayed the site structure and section labeling, we proceed to preliminary design of the home page. We develop a digital sketch based on your visual and content requirements.
Home Page Presentation — We sit down with you to review the home page sketch on screen. Together, we identify which elements of the treatment work for you, which don’t, and why.
Home Page Revision — With your feedback in mind, we refine the home page sketch. Now that general direction is concretely established, we move on to solving for issues such as color and typography.
Home Page Approval — You review the revised home page to make sure we’ve correctly understood and interpreted your feedback. If all is well, you sign off on it and we move onward.
Delivery of Final Content — The next step is for you to give us your text content (edited, proofed and Web-ready, unless our scope includes editing or proofing tasks).
Primary Page Sketches and Text Hierarchy — We adapt the home page design for application to other pages in the site, and develop a system of information hierarchy to convey your supplied content with maximum clarity.
Primary Page Review, Revision and Approval — You look at what we’ve done and give your feedback. We offer solutions and make changes. If you are happy with what you see, you give your approval.
Graphics Production — You’d be amazed at how many graphics there are even in a simple Web site: navigational “buttons,” artwork, and sometimes even blank spaces may be graphical, all fitting together like pieces of a puzzle. During graphics production we polish approved elements and condition them in a format compatible with the Web.
Phase 4: technical development.Programming — With the puzzle pieces (graphics and text) lined up, we begin to assemble the pages of the site. We program the HTML, links, rollovers and any advanced functionality as specified in our agreement.
Local Review — First we build the site and review it internally to make sure that your direction has been implemented correctly. We fix any problems we find, and then “stage” the site in a place on our server where you — but not the general public — can access it.
Review, Corrections and Approval — You’ll review the staged site page-by-page. Because of the volume and intricacy of information even on simple Web sites, you will almost certainly find things that need fixing. That’s a normal part of the process. You’ll note problem areas and will give your approval contingent on their correction.
The Site Goes Live — We’ve reached the finish line! We’ve made the corrections and uploaded the site to the host server. You give your friends and business associates your URL. Then you pop the cork!