The web design process is not the mystery you might think it is.
When you hire a web designer, wouldn’t it be nice to have an idea of what to expect? The steps that they’re going to go through in building your website?
Here is the web design process I use at Pink Toad Studio. It follows a pretty industry standard process. But, of course, I make it special in my own way…
Let’s get to know each other
In this step we learn about each other. You get to tell me all about you and your business. I’ll want to know things like why you started it and who your customers are.
This is our chance to figure out how we’ll work together. Email? Phone calls? Video calls? How often?
Get your information organized
Do you have your domain name? If not, your web designer can likely help.
Where will your website live? Every website needs a home on the Internet. It’s called “hosting”. There are lots of choices. Each web designer has their favourites and can point you in the right direction.
What exactly do you want your website to do for your business? (SEO Strategy)
Are you sharing information with your customers? Maybe building an email list? Will you sell products or services from your website? How about all the above?
Each of these goals affect design choices. The better suited your website is to your goal, the more effective it will be.
What pages do you want on your website? (Sitemap)
The most common pages for a website are Home, Services/Products, Contact, and About. Will these work for your business? Do we need to add more? Maybe you don’t need them all.
How will visitors to your website find these pages? A logical menu structure will help.
Knowing what you want your website to do for your business will help with that decision.
What do you want your website to say? (Content)
All the words on your website are the content. The blurb on your Home page, the About story. Do you know what you want to say?
Will your website include a blog? What topics will you write about? Will you write it yourself or hire a writer?
Planning ahead will make things a lot easier as we approach your launch.
Let’s take all your information and make it look great!
All right, now I take all your information and make it look pretty.
I’ll take your logo, fonts and colours and make them all work together. I make sure to present your business online in the best light.
Here’s where we get in to the real work
Next I take your design and make it come to life.
This is the exciting part because at this stage, you can start to see your website take shape.
Time to make sure everything works!
After all that time and effort, let’s make sure everything works. Menus go to the right places. Buttons do what they’re supposed to do. Contact information is correct.
I always test on a variety of web browsers and devices. Your website has to look and work great everywhere!
It’s time to let everyone see your new website!
After planning, designing, developing and testing the next logical step is… launching!
It’s time to let everyone see your new website. Put your website name on anything and everything to let people know it’s there.
But that’s not all, now you have to look after your website…
Your new website is up and running – looking and working great, of course. But things on the Internet are changing all the time. You’ll need to keep your website up-to-date.
This goes for the information on your website as well as the tools it’s built on. You can either look after this yourself or hire someone to help. Just make sure it gets done!
So, now that you know what to expect, is web design as intimidating as it was before? Are you ready to ready to give this website thing a try? If you are, here’s a list of things your web designer will want to know to get started.
