Having a plan is the most important strategy we use for getting your project done. Here are the steps we take to help organize our work so you can journey through the project cycle while spinning our wheels.
IDENTIFY THE GOAL
This is where we work with the client to determine what goals the site needs to fulfill. I.e., what its purpose is. Client feedback is an essential part of the design process, so there’s constant communication if everything goes well.
We collect all the work items that are needed for your project, including text content, addresses and phone numbers, and custom images, if any. We ask for all social media sites or review sites that should be displayed. We want to make sure that we portray the key parts of your business through your website.
DEFINE THE SCOPE
Once we know the site’s goals, we can define the scope of the project. That’s where we decide what pages and features the site requires to fulfill the goal, and the timeline for building those out. We organize all these pieces and prioritize them as tasks. We ask ourselves the following questions:
- What is the deadline?
- How long will it take to build out and configure the website?
- How many hours, based on content, will it take to build the pages?
- Are outside developers needed?
VISUAL ELEMENTS
Depending on the client, this may already be well-defined, but you might also be defining the visual style from the ground up. I send over a first draft with the images and color concept in place for review. Once checked off, I continue to build the rest of the pages.
TESTING
Our memories need a good refreshing to stay organized. Plus, a review might give us fresh insight into what needs to get done, reprioritized, or reorganized. Set a time each week, such as every Friday afternoon or Monday morning, to review work items. This not only keeps your mind fresh but also helps you see all the things that are part of a bigger project and vision. Change happens, so you’re probably updating a lot of tasks in the course of a week. This review process will help you stay on top of your moving work.
LAUNCH!
Once everything’s working properly, it’s time to plan and execute your site launch! When will you launch and how will you let the world know? After that, it’s time to break out the champagne or tequila lol!