Phases of Designing a Website

Phases of Designing a Website Research and Information Gathering Brainstorming Decide on Technical Requirements Design Development Testing Delivery Maintenance

Phase 1 Research and Information Gathering Goals Creative direction Target Audience Message Competition

Phase 1 Research and Information Gathering Two or three specific measurable goals that the site should achieve Clear goals allow the Web team the ability to focus on what will provide the most impact and move the organization forward Creative Direction Goals

Phase 1 Research and Information Gathering Who will help the organization achieve its stated goals? Most organizations speak to multiple organizations customers stakeholders internal audience suppliers partners shareholders and/or government institutions Audience profiles include Demographics Psychographics brand perceptions audience needs online goals tasks routinely performed Target Audience

Phase 1 Research and Information Gathering What are the key messages that attract and motivate key audiences to engage with the organization? What are the key brand messages that help differentiate the organization from its peers? Message

Phase 1 Research and Information Gathering Who are rival organizations that provide similar offerings to your audience? Include an overview of competitive organizations’ Web sites, considering visual branding, messaging, navigation, calls to action and key differentiators. Competition

Phase 2 Brainstorming The Goal of Brainstorming Who to Brainstorm with How to Brainstorm Once you know what the project is all about, it’s time to get some ideas together, and brainstorming is a great start. Throw out any and all ideas or concepts for the website as a start.

Goals Phase 2 Brainstorming The goal of brainstorming is to throw out any and all ideas related to a project, eventually leading to one or several to take further Overall concepts and styles Layouts Color schemes Images Typeface options Project goals Ideas related to the mood or emotional feel of the work Goals

Phase 2 Brainstorming Who to brainstorm with Other designers and creative professionals Co-workers The client People in an industry related to the project Family Friends Who to brainstorm with

Phase 2 Brainstorming How to Brainstorm Writing down any idea that comes up Doodling or sketching Relating ideas to the goal of the project Elaborating on concepts that are the most promising Looking for connections between your ideas Combining ideas and concepts that are related How to Brainstorm

Phase 3 Decide on Technical Requirements Basic HTML Content Management Software (CMS)

Phase 4 Planning Site Map Site Architecture Technologies Proposal Prototyping Testing

Phase 4 Planning Site Map List of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics Serves as a guide Essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system End-user of the web site must be kept in mind when designing your site. A good user interface creates an easy to navigate web site, and is the basis for this. Site Map

Phase 4 Planning Site Architecture Includes Sitemap and Wireframes Sitemap considers all the key pages in the site, showing their relationship to each other Wireframes provide a detailed view of the content that will appear on each page Site Architecture

Phase 4 Planning CMS Forms Plugins Other Technologies

Phase 4 Planning Proposal Prototyping Test A website proposal should clearly spell out what will be included on the site. Prototyping Interactive demos of a website Test Test early, test often Proposal, Prototyping, Test

Phase 5 Design Create mood board Create one or more mock ups Create prototype Test prototype

Phase 6 Development Use working prototype to create working code Secure hosting and domain name Implement content SEO Security

Phase 7 Testing Do user testing using good UX practices

Phase 8 Delivery Go live – post site to the web Continue to test devices, platforms and code(forms, plugins, etc) Submit site to search engines – google web console

Phase 9 Maintenance Keeping content up to date If using CMS keeping software and plugins up to date Tracking usage and security issues