Design & Development

Process

Define

A good designer asks meaningful questions in order to discover, understand, assess, and prioritize the needs and expectations of both the client and the end-user. Establishing these goals early on in the process, helps keep a project in focus, on time, and under budget.

  • Site Objectives
  • Business Goals
  • Brand Identity
  • User Segmentation & Needs

Research

Although research may not seem like an integral part of a project, taking some time to get an impression of the competitive landscape, talk to a couple of potential users, browse through existing web statistics, or reviewing old content can provide invaluable information about the direction to take a site.

  • Content Requirements & Inventory
  • Functional Specifications
  • Competitive Analysis
  • User Research

Structure

The structure of a website has to be considered on many levels. How will users move through the site? What information will be delivered to search engines and how will it be prioritized? How can each page's real estate be used to give focus to the proper areas of content? These questions must all be answered before an effective design can be created.

  • Information Architecture
  • Metadata Strategy
  • Navigation Design
  • Wireframes

Design

Often times, it's a good idea to use images to start mocking-up web designs, but they should be moved to HTML & CSS as quickly as possible since only a web browser can truly show what a website is going to look like in a browser, both in terms of layout and design elements triggered by user interaction.

  • Color Palette
  • Graphic Design
  • Mock-ups
  • Interactive Prototyping

Build

Clean, easy-to-read, standards compliant code should be at the core of any project. Not only does it make a site more accessible, but it’s also easier to maintain, search engine friendly, and can easily be used as a base for other mediums such as printer friendly pages or mobile sites.

  • Clean, Easy-to-Read Code
  • Cross-Browser Functionality
  • Search Enginge Optimization (SEO)
  • Mobile & Print Stylesheets