WEB DESIGN: The web design process
Over the years there’s been a rapid growth in offerings from the likes of Wix, GoDaddy and 1&1 that seemingly allow you to create a functioning website – all without a professional web designer.
The web design process isn’t as simple or as easy as they sometimes make it sound, if it’s done properly. Find out how it works with Dorset Tech – the Dorset Web Design experts.
Some people think that web design is all about sitting at a keyboard on a PC or Mac all day. To an extent, that does happen, but before any of that, there’s some groundwork to be done, a bit like building a house or an extension, where the architect is one of the first people involved.
The Web Design Process
When you ask Dorset Tech to build you a website, the first thing we do is get to know you, your business or organisation, your objectives (more sales, a wider audience) and the people you’re aiming your website at – usually your customers or clients.
It might be that we ask you to show us existing sites that you like. This is so we can get a feel for your design preferences – later on, we look at it from a visitors point-of-view.
Next, we’ll talk about the structure, how it might function.
How many pages? Will you have a gallery of photos or a blog to help with SEO? Do you sell any products or are you offering customer service through your site? All this extremely important because to add or change later could be difficult and incur extra expense.
Once we’re all happy with the proposed structure, we can move on to areas, like branding, colours and the content of your site.
Only then will the design start.
Time to get creative
The designer will start with some rough sketches – called wireframes. These enable us to see how each section or page might be structured.
Once the designer is happy with his/her wireframes, they will start the actual graphic design to show how the actual pages should look on the screen.
Any branding or colour schemes will be taken in to account.
Several different versions may be produced to reflect different designs or how a design will look on mobile. The designs will be shown to you. When you’re happy, the next stage starts.
Code and test
Coding and testing is probably the bit we geeks look forward to the most. This is where we turn the designs into working pages. We’ll probably set up things like web hosting and the domain name you’ve chosen, too. Once the pages are looking like the designer intended, we’ll test thing like menus, some links and a few other things – a bit like taking a new car for a test drive.
Content is king, so that’s next!
Words and pictures
Your website is no good if there’s nothing to read or engage the people who visit it. Early on we discussed where your content is coming from (we write great content!) Now is when we’ll drop it in, including links and other interactive elements, pictures, photos. We make sure that all pictures and photos are sized and in the right format to fit the web design.
Having already considered how the site might work with search engines (keywords, links), we’ll make sure that the site is optimised for them. After all, if nobody can find your site…
If you already have a site, take a look at our great value SEO packages?
Final furlong
Now we’re approaching the end.
We test your site some more on mobiles, tablets and other devices to see that it looks as it should. We’ll ask you to take a look yourself and make sure everything is in order, that we’ve not missed anything. Once this stage is signed off, we can upload your site for the world to see.
If everything goes smoothly, we’ll offer you training on how to update your website.
We’ll keep an eye on things for a while, we may offer you extra services like blog writing or ongoing SEO to make the most of your shiny new website. We’re always a phone call or an email away if you need us.
We hope we’ve given you some insight into some of the work that goes into web design & we look forward to building yours soon. In the meantime, why not browse some of our favourite work and find out more?
