When designing a website, there are specific planning, design, and development stages that are followed in order to create a successful final product. Let’s break down each stage of the process.
RESEARCH:
The first stage of the website design process involves research. This can be as simple as finding out what kind of look and feel the customer wants, but it will likely include an analysis of competitors, several meetings regarding approach and feasibility, design proposals, and an analysis of the potential audience. All of this information is used to help shape how the team comes up with a prospective design.
THE WIREFRAME:
Once the research is done, the next stage is the wireframe. Just as artwork may start with a pencil outline, a site design will start as building blocks of content areas to be worked in and linked. Much of this will be driven by the planning phase and the decisions made early on regarding the visitor journey, goals, and click paths. The team creates an outline of what the page structure will look like and how it will be navigated on both landscape (desktop) and portrait (mobile/tablet) devices.
THE PAGE DESIGN PROPOSAL:
Once the wireframe is in place, the next stage is the page design proposal. The website design process has multiple feedback stages, specifically designed to engage the customer as much as required. This approach means that the team truly understands what the customer likes in terms of design, elements can be refined for the finished product, the customer feels involved and helps shape the site, and there’s maximum freedom in making changes.
Initially, the team creates the homepage design in full. This can sometimes have the site content included, where available, but will often use “lorem ipsum” filler text to illustrate how the site design will present content. This makes the finished site easier to visualize for the customer.
SITE DESIGN FEEDBACK:
At this stage, the customer is free to make whatever changes they feel are necessary to the design. The team uses Adobe XD which gives a collaborative feedback section where customers can annotate notes or changes effectively in a visual manner. The team actively encourages participation at this stage, any customer ideas or requests can be incorporated, and the end result should be a homepage design that accurately depicts the brand, message, appearance, and style the customer is looking for.
SECONDARY PAGES:
Once the homepage is signed off, the team then builds out the secondary pages of the site along a familiar visual style, building on the approach agreed upon when tackling the homepage. Examples of secondary pages include content pages (such as About us, Contact, and Privacy), service pages (generally a top-level descriptive page with key “child” pages that expand upon each topic), and e-commerce pages (specific page designs for a transactional website, such as category, product, checkout, and basket pages). Depending on the site size, this can be done in stages with approval and feedback sought at design milestones, again changes can be easily made at this stage.
FINALIZING THE DESIGN:
Once the site is designed in its entirety, the team generally sits down together and ensures all goals have been met from their end and they’re happy with the product. Now is the time to look at the website design holistically and evaluate the customer journey, from inception to goal completion. From a customer point of view, this is when the team looks to agree on the finalized design and implement any changes required.
Once the site design is signed off, and the customer is 100% happy with the proposed site design, it’s time to move onto the development stage. This is where the design is moved across to our development team and turned into an interactive site, essentially bringing the design to life.
In summary, our website design process involves extensive research, wireframing, page design proposals, site design feedback, and finalizing the design. This approach ensures that the customer is fully engaged throughout the design process, resulting in a visually appealing and interactive website that meets their goals and requirements.
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