Making sure everyone knows what's going on is key to the development process.
We know it's crucial to understand exactly what's going on when a website is being planned and constructed. That's why we give every one of our clients full access to our project management system. We use a product called Basecamp which lets you track our milestones, to-do lists, discussion boards and timesheets for your project. We want our development process to be as clear and accessible as our websites are.
One we have taken your brief, we'll create low detail mock-ups of all the pages for your site.
Having outlined your site's requirements, we'll make a full mock-up version of your site. These mock-ups are intentionally 'lo-fi' because we're not concentrating on the design detail, just making sure your site is easy to use and easy to navigate. We use a product called Balsamiq which allows us to create these pages quickly. It can be hard for you to visualise what you need, or what you've conveyed to us, but because the mock-up concepts are easily created, there's plenty of time and opportunity for us to consult your opinion on design and layout before our team start the formal development stage.
Once we have established how your website should work, the real fun begins.
After we've agreed the user flow for your site, we'll design each page in detail and the functionality each page requires. As soon as you're happy with all aspects of the design and functionality so far created, we'll turn these concepts into a working website. At this stage, our development team will add the interactive features of your site. Of course, you can keep an eye on our day to day or week to week progress from our project management system, which is available for you to view.
Making a website available to the public is easy. Making sure it works when your users visit takes time and skill.
Once we've developed your website, the task of making sure everything works properly for every type of user begins. This takes preparation and patience. We have a bank of computers with every conceivable browser to test that the experience on your site meets with your vision. If your website targets mobile internet users, we'll also test the site on a variety of phones. Only once this has been achieved can we launch your site. Our team receives ongoing training in web user usage, and we regularly use members of the public to test our sites where the client requires it.
We've said it before and we'll say it again. There's no point in having a website if nobody visits it.
Our development team has spent a long time refining how to build websites that attract search engines. Even though your pages will contain what we call "search engine bait", it's still crucially important to examine how your visitors are actually using your website. Using powerful tools such as Google Analytics (free!), we can determine which areas of your site are proving to be the most popular. We can show you how to integrate advertising systems such as Google Adwords (not free!) with your analytics tools so you can maximise the advertising success of your site.