The Design Process

CONCEPT/WIREFRAMES

It all starts with your abstract idea of what you want to build, its like a blueprint for your design. If you’ve ever sketched out an idea on a napkin or piece of paper, you’ve done a wireframe. It doesn’t need to be exact or beautiful. We can take your abstract ideas and begin to give them shape and structure. Even if you only have a vague idea of what you want and can’t quite express it as a drawing (or wireframe), we can still take your abstract and sometimes messy thoughts and create the basic design, almost always, our design starts in our heads, moves onto a paper drawing and then into the computer.

Wireframes give us a sense of the following aspects

  • Overall structure
  • Purpose of the pages
  • Content blocks
  • Aesthetic direction
  • User flow and “call of action” points
  • Basic functionalities and buttons
  • Social Media Content

Then we move into the 5 phases of the website development to completion

PRODUCTION PHASE

The production phase includes information gathering (initial meeting, content details, and photos), planning (site map and architecture) and layout concepts. The prototype layout concept includes a few basic pages to show the client what the final design will look like, this is mockup for your design. The production layout will also give you the ability to view the work-in-progress.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT PHASE

The design development phase is where we start to put your chosen theme into action, where we start customizing your design, taking all the graphic elements from the production prototype to create the actual functional site.

We will first develop the home page with the featured slideshow and the sections of the home page.  Then develop the interior pages or “shell” templates for the content pages of your site. These shell pages start the navigational structure for the site. Once the shell and navigational structures are setup, then we will start adding your content in the appropriate areas.

Elements such as interactive contact forms, blog/news section, and integration to Genbook, online appointment scheduling system, and links to social media sites are made functional at this time. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SES (Search Engine Submission) added. This is the optimization of you web site with elements such as title, description and keyword tags which help your web site achieve higher rankings in the search engines.

During the entire design development phase, you will have the ability to view your in-progress site to suggest design changes or corrections to be done.

The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site, as it contains the main navigational structure for the web site. Once the shell has been created, we will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.

We will be developing your site on a production site until the launch phase.

On the technical front, a successful web site requires an understanding of front-end web development. This involves writing valid CSS code or PHP code that complies with current web standards, maximizing functionality, as well as accessibility for as large an audience as possible.

TESTING PHASE

The testing phase is where we attend to final details and test the website.  We will test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, as well last testing for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that your web site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions and mobile format, making sure all the links work correctly.

LAUNCH PHASE

Once you give your final approval, we will convert the production copy to the live website. We will setup your hosting service with a WordPress database, upload your production copy to your servers and do a run-through on the live site to make sure the site is completely functional has converted from production to live site correctly.

We try and do the launch phase at a time that you have the less traffic on your site to minimize the downtime of your live website, whether that is early in the morning or middle of the night.

TRAINING PHASE/COMPLETION

We train you how to maintain your website, add blog posts, add new pages, update the navigational structure and update content as needed.