Web Design

1. Identification of objectives

At this initial stage, we need to identify the ultimate goal of the website, usually in close collaboration with the client or other responsible parties. Questions to explore and answer at this stage of the website design and development process include:

• What is the ideal target group for the site?
• What do users expect to find or do on the site?
• Is the primary purpose of this website to inform, sell, entertain?
• Does the website need to clearly convey a brand’s core message or is it part of a broader branding strategy?
• What competing sites exist, if any, and how should this site be inspired by/different from these competitors?

This is the most important part of any web development process. If these questions are not all clearly answered in the brief, the entire project can start off in the wrong direction.

At this stage, it is important to understand the website’s target audience and develop a working knowledge of the competition.

2. Define how and when

One of the most common and difficult problems that plague web design projects is foot-dragging… The client comes in with a goal in mind, but this gradually expands, evolves, or changes completely as the project progresses.

This is not necessarily a problem for us, as we adapt to a positively evolving environment. If the increased expectations are not accompanied by an increased budget and timeline, the project may quickly become completely unrealistic.

Establishing a consistent timeline to the project, defining key milestones, can help to maintain achievable limits and deadlines. This provides an invaluable reference for both planners and clients, and helps you stay focused on the task and goals you have asked us to achieve.

3. Creating a sitemap

The sitemap provides the foundation for any well-designed website. It helps give the web designer a clear idea of the architecture of the website and illustrates the relationships between the various pages and content elements.

Building a site without a site map is like building a house without a blueprint.

The next step is to find design inspiration and set up a draft. Wireframes provide a structure to accommodate the visual and content elements of the site and can help identify potential gaps in the sitemap.

Although a wireframe does not contain any final design elements, it serves as a guide for the final look of the site. It can also serve as inspiration for formatting various elements.

4. Content creation

Once the website framework is in place, you can focus on the most important aspect: written content.

Content has two essential purposes:

1. Content stimulates engagement and action.

First, content engages readers and prompts them to take the actions necessary to achieve a site’s goals. This is influenced by both the content itself (the writing) and the way it is presented (the typography and structural elements).

A boring and uninspiring, long-winded writing style rarely holds the attention of visitors for long. Short, snappy, intriguing content captures them and causes them to click to other pages. Even if pages need a lot of content – and they often do – properly scanning that content by breaking it up into short paragraphs supplemented by images can help it maintain a more engaging tone.

2: SEO

Content also increases a site’s search engine visibility. The practice of creating and improving content to rank well is known as search engine optimization or SEO.

Defining the right keywords and keyword phrases is essential to the success of any website. What do people search for on the web? What terms do users actually use during a search?

Our web design work focuses on designing sites geared to obtain exceptional SEO results. The keywords you want to rank for should be included in the title tag – the closer to the top, the better. Keywords should also appear in the H1 tag, meta description and page content.

Well-written, informative and keyword-rich content is more easily spotted by search engines, which helps make the site easier to find.

Typically, the client produces most of the content, but it is critical for us to provide guidance on what keywords and phrases should be included in the text.

5. Visual elements

Finally, it’s time to create the visual style for the site. This part of the process will often be shaped by existing branding elements, color choices, and logos as determined by the client. But it’s also the stage in the web design process where a good web designer can express their style.

Images are taking on an increasingly significant role in web design. High-quality images not only give a site a professional look, but they also communicate a message, are optimized for mobile devices, and help build trust.

Users want to see images on a website. Images not only make a page more appealing, but they also enhance the communication of text and can even convey key messages without people even needing to read.

We always recommend enlisting the support of a professional photographer to get the right images. We make sure that all the images are compressed without losing quality, saving on page load times, and that the images are as responsive as the site.

Visual design is a way to communicate and attract users to the site. If done correctly, it can determine the success of the site.

6. Testing

Once the site has all its images and content, we will be ready for testing.

Each page will be thoroughly tested to ensure that all links work and that the site loads correctly on all devices. Errors can be the result of minor glitches in the code, and while it’s often a problem to find and fix them, it’s better to do so sooner than to present a non-functioning site to the public.

We always take a final look at meta titles and page descriptions as well. Even the order of the words in the meta title can affect the page’s performance on a search engine.

7. Publish

Finally comes everyone’s favorite part of the website design process: when everything has been thoroughly tested and the client is satisfied with the site, it’s time to launch.

You should not assume that everything will go perfectly. There may still be some elements that need to be fixed. Web design is a fluid, ongoing process that requires constant maintenance.

Web design – and design in general – is about finding the right balance between form and function. You need to use the right fonts, colors and design elements. But how users navigate and experience your site is just as important.

We (corporately and personally) fully adhere to this holistic approach and we strive to create a site that walks the delicate tightrope between the two.

One key thing to remember about the launch phase is that it’s nowhere near the end of the job. The beauty of the web is that it’s never finished. Once the site is up and running, you can continually run user tests on new content and features, monitor access statistics, and refine communication.

8. Site maintenance

Updating content, making back-end changes, fixing broken links-all of these steps are critical to the design process, but the common thread is strategy: the desire to achieve a goal, to move the organization forward, to thrive in a competitive environment.