Website Development Process
Plan
Design
Develop
Launch
Post-Launch
Establish the clients goals, target audience and detailed requests as far as features, functionality, design and any other relevant information that can be gathered.
All of the information gathered needs to be analyzed to give a more precise idea of exactly how the website should be designed, what information it must present and in what manner it must be represented.
Now that I have the information analyzed, it is time to make a sitemap to represent all of the web pages needed and how they will be organized. This breaks down our site on a very generalized level, but helps to organize data.
Every website needs a different set of tools to accomplish all of their functionality and features. At this stage I take the time to determine what all of the features are going to require and what languages and softwares will help to make sure they run smoothly.
Using the information gathered and analyzed from the planning phase, there is now enough information to begin organizing our design elements usually in wireframe format.
Using Axure RP enables me to create mock-ups that are available for view by the client at any time. All mock-ups of websites are given a web host and url so that clients have the opportunity for a more hands-on approach if they choose, allowing constant access to the latest updates.
Now that the mock-ups are created, it is a good time to gain feedback and work closely with the client to make changes before beginning to code the website itself. This tends to be one of the longer aspects of the phase, but allows for tweaking and editing, saving time later on.
It is now time to start developing the CSS/HTML code for the website. This is simply to create the design of the website and interactive elements will be added later.
Now is the time to get the framework up and running. Despite what the framework may be such as ASP/PHP or a CMS it is important to implement it early on and get the basic engine up and running.
As websites typically have several pages, it is time to create the templates for each page. This allows a view of a shell of our site to view and will make it easier to add the special features/interactivity more easily.
The page templates are created, which makes it easy to implement special features and interactivity. Once they are applied they will be tested vigorously through all web browsers and different OS tablets/mobile devices.
Content strategy is a big part of web development today and when adding content to the website it is important to make sure each placement has logic and reasoning behind it. When a user visits a web page they are guided through design to look at specific locations in order of important, this is why making sure the content is strategically placed is key.
The website is essentially ready to go at this point and now it is just time to test all of the links and verify that the functionality is working. These tests will be performed across all browsers and all OS mobile devices to ensure maximum optimization on every device.
At this point it is time to go over the smaller details and see what minor improvements could be made. These improvements could be as small as adding drop shadows or changing the wording of content. After all, I want to be just as proud of this website as the client is.
This is simply the act of taking all that has been developed and uploading it to our webhost, the client is always made aware when approaching this phase as often times it is productive to have a last minute review of the site.
Running the website through final diagnostics is extremely important. Using code-validators, website health checks and spell checkers it helps us find any mistakes that may have been overlooked rather than having to hear complaints from an end-user.
Now that the website is live it is time to make sure it works across all browsers and mobile devices. Just because the diagnostic check is valid does not mean it will look good in Microsoft Edge.
At this point it is time to go over the smaller details and see what minor improvements could be made. These improvements could be as small as adding drop shadows or changing the wording of content. After all, I want to be just as proud of this website as the client is.
This is simply the act of taking all that has been developed and uploading it to our web host, the client is always made aware when approaching this phase as often times it is productive to have a last minute review of the site.
Running the website through final diagnostics is extremely important. Using code-validators, website health checks and spell checkers it helps us find any mistakes that may have been overlooked rather than having to hear complaints from an end-user.
Depending on the business model some companies benefit heavily from SEO optimization. Mastoris Designs can provide for a small monthly fee.