General Process for Producing a System
While the exact process varies slightly between projects, the basics remain the same.
Step 1
Discovery
Before we do anything, we like to sit down together and find out more about you. Many things need to be taken into consideration when designing the look and feel, so you are first asked a lot of questions to help get a clear understanding of your business and your needs.
Step 2
Strategy / Plan
We carefully plan each project before any designing or development takes place.Here we develop a site map – a list of all the main topics and sub-topics for your web site. This gives us a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system.
This is also the point where we decide what technologies should be implemented – contact forms, custom post types, specific plugins, etc.
Step 3
UI/UX - Design
Once ideas get the words, this is where our ideas take the form. In this phase, communication is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. If you’ve already done the legwork of learning and planning, it makes the actual designing much easier. When you don’t have to worry about the little details, it really opens up a whole new level of effectiveness and productivity because you can focus on more important things.
In this phase, communication is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. We work together in this way, exchanging ideas, until we arrive at the final design for the site. Then development can begin…
Step 4
Code / Development
We take all of the individual graphic elements from the preliminary design and use them to create the functional web site – more specifically, they are used to create the functional WordPress theme, which establishes the look and feel of your site.
This includes not only the desktop view, but also the mobile responsive views, ensuring that your site is accessible to as large an audience as possible.
This entire time, you will continue to be able to view your site in the Client Studio, and suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.
Step 5
Testing / Delivery
We test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, we test for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that the site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions.
Once we receive your final approval, it is time to deliver the site. We upload the files to your server – in most cases, this also involves installing and configuring WordPress, along with a core set of essential plugins to help enhance the site.
Here we quickly test again to make sure that all files have been uploaded correctly, and that the site continues to be fully functional.
Step 6
Maintenance / Support
During your planning phase, you should have determined who will be in charge of site maintenance. If a client is unable to maintain the site, you may want to suggest that they hire you on a regular or as-needed basis to manage and perform maintenance tasks.
During the hand-off/closeout of the project, it might also help to provide some guidelines and basic training to your client to make sure they understand how to properly maintain the site.
