Question

As a website developer, you have been contracted to design a website for a retail shop. Discuss the necessary steps that you would take:

1. Before

2. During

3. After Site development.

Answer 1

Ans:

Web designers often think about the web design process with a focus on technical matters such as wireframes, code, and content management. But great design isn’t about how you integrate the social media buttons or even slick visuals. Great design is actually about having a website creation process that aligns with an overarching strategy.

Well-designed websites offer much more than just aesthetics. They attract visitors and help people understand the product, company, and branding through a variety of indicators, encompassing visuals, text, and interactions. That means every element of your site needs to work towards a defined goal.

But how do you achieve that harmonious synthesis of elements? Through a holistic web design process that takes both form and function into account.

Which basically involves the following three phases:

1. Before :
  
a.) Information Gathering -

The first step in designing a successful web site is to gather information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when the look and feel of your site is created.

This first step is actually the most important one, as it involves a solid understanding of the company it is created for. It involves a good understanding of you – what your business goals and dreams are, and how the web can be utilized to help you achieve those goals.

It is important that your web designer start off by asking a lot of questions to help them understand your business and your needs in a web site.

Certain things to consider are:

Purpose
What is the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a service, sell a product… ?
Goals
What do you hope to accomplish by building this web site? Two of the more common goals are either to make money or share information.
Target Audience
Is there a specific group of people that will help you reach your goals? It is helpful to picture the “ideal” person you want to visit your web site. Consider their age, sex or interests – this will later help determine the best design style for your site.
Content
What kind of information will the target audience be looking for on your site? Are they looking for specific information, a particular product or service, online ordering…?

b.) Planning -

Using the information gathered from phase one, it is time to put together a plan for your web site. This is the point where a site map is developed.

The site map is a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics, if applicable. This serves as a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system. The end-user of the web site – aka your customer – must be kept in mind when designing your site. These are, after all, the people who will be learning about your service or buying your product. A good user interface creates an easy to navigate web site, and is the basis for this.

During the planning phase, your web designer will also help you decide what technologies should be implemented. Elements such as what CMS (content management system) such as WordPress to incorporate, will any contact forms be needed, etc. are discussed when planning your web site.

c.) Design -

The third step of the web design process is to design how the website will look. In this step, a website wireframe is created with basic web page elements such as the header, navigation, widgets, etc. The wireframe can then be moved into a more realistic mockup using a program such as Photoshop.

The challenge of good web design, like all design, is balancing form and function. Use the information you gathered in the Discover and Plan steps to shape your design. Good web designers have intention behind every design decision.
Design should also accommodate content. Content often accommodates design instead, and content ends up receiving very little attention. Website content is the number one thing you want viewers to notice. For each page design, ask yourself these questions:

What is the main goal of the page?
Is it clear to users what action they need to take?
How does the design encourage users to take an action?
Good web designers also keep in mind how a design will translate to code. Even if you aren’t doing the development yourself, as a designer, it’s a good idea to invest in your coding skills. Have a developer review a design before it goes to the client.

Finally, use the Design step to finalize the overall look of the website with the client and discuss decisions for colors, typography, and imagery. Confirm the design with the client before moving on to any development.

2. During :

a.) Development -

The developmental stage is the point where the web site itself is created. At this time, your web designer will take all of the individual graphic elements from the prototype and use them to create the actual, functional site.

This is typically done by first developing the home page, followed by a “shell” for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site, as it contains the main navigational structure for the web site. Once the shell has been created, your designer will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.

Elements such as the CMS (content management system) like WordPress, interactive contact forms, or ecommerce shopping carts are implemented and made functional during this phase, as well.

This entire time, your designer should continue to make your in-progress web site available to you for viewing, so that you can suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.

On the technical front, a successful web site requires an understanding of front-end web development. This involves writing valid HTML / CSS code that complies to current web standards, maximizing functionality, as well as accessibility for as large an audience as possible.

This is tested in the next phase…

b.) Testing and Delivery (Launch) -

At this point, your web designer will attend to the final details and test your web site. They will test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, as well last testing for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that your web site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions.

As part of testing, your designer should check to be sure that all of the code written for your web site validates. Valid code means that your site meets the current web development standards – this is helpful when checking for issues such as cross-browser compatibility as mentioned above.

Once you give your web designer final approval, it is time to deliver the site. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program is used to upload the web site files to your server. Some web designers offer domain name registration and web hosting services as well, or have recommendations as to where you can host your site. Once these accounts have been setup, and your web site uploaded to the server, the site should be put through one last run-through. This is just precautionary, to confirm that all files have been uploaded correctly, and that the site continues to be fully functional.

Other final details include plugin installation (for WordPress or other CMS driven web sites and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO is the optimization of your web site with elements such as title, description and keyword tags which help your web site achieve higher rankings in the search engines. The previously mentioned code validation is something that plays a vital role in SEO, as well. There are many WordPress plugins available that further enhance the default WordPress functionality – many of which directly relate to improving your SEO, as well.

There are a lot of details involved in optimizing your web site for the search engines – enough to warrant its own post. This is a very important step, because even though you now have a web site, you need to make sure that people can find it!

3. After Site Development :

a.) Maintain -

This last and final step of web design is often overlooked by freelancers, but website maintenance is important for the long-term health and success of a website, as well as a source of potential recurring revenue.

Before a new website project even begins, educate potential clients on the longterm responsibilities of owning a website. Just like owning a car or house, a website will need upkeep and maintenance.Just like owning a car or house, a website will need upkeep and maintenance. Offer a monthly WordPress maintenance service to take website maintenance tasks off your clients.

On a basic level, a WordPress maintenance service includes the following necessary actions to keep a WordPress site running smoothly:

WordPress Updates
Theme and Plugin Updates
WordPress Backups
WordPress Security
Analytics Tracking & Reporting
WordPress Hosting
WordPress maintenance can also extend into other areas of website upkeep such as SEO, adding new content or updating existing content, comment approval/replies, spam cleanup and more.

If you manage multiple WordPress sites, use a service like iThemes Sync to manage WordPress updates and more from one dashboard.
Ask your clients: Is there a long-term strategy to edit, update, and promote your website? Who will be in charge of maintaining the website? Be ready to offer your monthly maintenance rate and inform clients about hourly rates if they need you to fix website problems, make changes to content, etc.

By following the outline above, the website design process should go more smoothly. With a little research and planning, your website design will be more informed. By following a checklist for development and launch, you won’t miss crucial steps. And finally, maintaining a website protects the investment made in building the website. Ultimately, clients will be more satisfied with their experience and see the value in their website.

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