A brief description of our old website development stages. We are updating these.
Every project unique so we may approach your project differently, however here is our standard approach:
Planning Workshop
We go through your aims and goals of your website and overall strategy. We work out the best approach to building your website to deliver these aims within your budget and resources. We also look at your content and what technical complexity you may require.
To get prepared we need you to find examples of websites you like and don’t, examples of your competitors, details on your target audience and an idea how they interact with you. We will also want to hear about your big picture business goals. What is your business strategy?
All this information is important for us to get your website strategy on target. Our briefing document is used to help in this process.
Prototype and Layout Design
In this stage we will draw up the content layout based on our planning discussion in a visual form. These layouts are called wireframes and they are basic sketches of the website layout and structure. We won’t be exploring graphic design nor aesthetics at this stage. We will be focusing on layout and functionality.
The overall aesthetic of your website will be dictated by your WordPress theme choice, which is the next stage of the process. The wireframes are done at 100% screen size and in proportion, so a landscape image will be a landscape image on the website.
It is really important to note that the prototype stage is where you and all your stakeholders can make changes, tweaks, and improvements to your original brief up until we get agreement from all stakeholders in the involved in the project.
Once the prototype stage has been agreed upon it will require you to signed the wireframes off as approved, as once we begin coding, website changes can become really expensive.
Sometimes it is easier for clients to imagine building a website is similar to a builder building a house. Imagine he has built a quarter of the structure. If the client asks for a little change, like move the bathroom to another floor! This changes the layout and structure of the entire house. At this point it may be easier to bulldoze and start again.
It is the similar process for building a website in code.
A little change like adding a sidebar could result in it being quicker to just scrap what we have done and start again. If a client requests changes during the coding phase we will stop work and go back to wireframes at additional cost, however this cheaper than designing in code.
Dvize has allocated a period of time to design your wireframes in your proposal and we generally nail them in this time period. However, if there are considerable changes to the design brief, the additional hours creating the wireframes will be charged per hour. You will be advised when you have reached your allocated hours.
Theme Choice
Dependent on your budget we will help you select on off the shelf theme, design a new theme from scratch or create a hybrid.
Technical Development
This phase is where we build your website and apply any customisations required.
Testing
We do default testing when we are building the site.
Training
Once we have got the website functionality developed we will schedule in your training session. We have found that clients that take notes and start adding content soon after we see them are able to easily manage their site without us.
If you want more training, you can always book additional hours training to further develop you skills.
Content addition
You start adding and/or refining you content.
Client Testing
While adding content, you are also looking for any bugs or further tweeks that are required. This is a much cheaper approach than Dvize quoting for extensive testing.
Final Tweeking
Once the content is in place we give the site another tweek to make sure everything looks and works as agreed.
Installing your new website on your host
Sometimes this process can be complex. Most hosting environments are different and we will have no idea what yours is going to be like until we get in there and start the moving process. Sometimes we have to work with your host to get the site moved, another times it is a one step – done!
If we encounter heaps of problems with your host we will recommend solutions and you will be charged for our time in working through hosting problems.
Final Testing
Sometimes moving hosts causes some glitches. We will give the site a quick test at this stage. Testing of the hyperlinks, forms, ecommerce functionality, and the layout on your browser will be your responsibility. If there are any problems you’ll need to let us know.
Celebrate
Your new website is live. Whooo Hoooooo
