Following a detailed and well explained web design and development process speeds up my workflow and thus saves you money and save everyone involved a lot of headaches. Hopefully once the process has been explained you’ll feel much more confident and comfortable with the services you’re paying for. This article will give a general outline of the steps needed to be taken, from start to finish, for completing a web design and development project. It’s divided into 3 main sections; Planning, Design and Development.
This is what I consider the most important stage, because this lays the foundations for the project. This stage requires a lot of client interaction and good attention to detail.
NB: The design and development process can’t proceed until the web specification, site map and wireframes have been signed off and confirmed by you, the client.
Resources for this phase:
Google Docs – File sharing and collaborating
Drop Box – File Sharing
Mindmeister – Drawing site maps and brainstorming
Lovely Charts – Drawing site maps and wireframes
Mock Flow – Drawing wireframes
iStock – Stock imagery
The second part of the web design process is the actual design itself. This where we take the wireframes and content from the planning stage and dress it up according to your brand guidelines.
Resources for this phase:
Kuler – Creating colour schemes
Type Tester – Screen type comparison
Now for the technical phase, where all the planning and design mock ups becomes a reality.
Resources for this phase:
Adobe Browser Lab – Check cross-browser compatibility
W3C Validator – HTML validation check
I hope this has helped you get a better idea of what’s involved in the web design process. But if you still have some questions or would like to contact me for a job then don’t hesitate to get in touch.