Process: The 6 Step System to creating your web presence

INTRODUCTION: What is a website design?

It is key in the design process to ask questions: What is the goal of this project? Whose needs must we fulfil? What are those needs? In this way, the design process is akin to the business process: questions are asked, innovations are made, and projects are brought into the world, only to be questioned, innovated upon and brought into the world anew.

It is a designer’s job to mediate the gap between how things were, how they are, and how they might be. A designer is, thus, an advocate for everyone involved, discovering how best to serve the needs of diverse people in a unique situation. The website is actually the locus of a dynamic and evolving relationship between the organization, its customers and its employees.

Designing a website, therefore, does not simply imply a graphical treatment attached to a navigation system. That is only a small part of the process. A site design can encompass the entire way a business operates in the digital world. We are in fact focusing on the digital interface between the organization and the world.

The renowned new media designer/thinker Clement Mok, in his book Designing Business, goes to the heart of the matter. On the web there is no paper to touch, or smiles to greet, or leather to smell. We have to create ‘look and feel’ on the web by using what can exist on a computer screen: identity, information and interactivity. The look of the company can come from existing identity materials, but the feel of the site must come from content, features, architecture and usability. These factors are essential in building an experience, reinforcing the sense that you are merely entering the business through a new door.

Our production process involves a phased approach consisting of Discovery, Conceptualisation, Prototyping, Design, Production, and Launch. This is a user-centric approach based on the needs of the people involved. It is a tried and true formula, crafted by pioneers like Clement Mok among others. It considers the ‘design’ of the website to be inseparable from the overall identity of the organization. Website design based on user-centred approaches is not merely a question of aesthetics, it is a business development process adapted to fit the needs of organization in the new digital world.

Instead of thinking of this process as ‘designing a website’ it would perhaps be more helpful to think of it as a ‘digital expansion’, a thoughtful extension of your business into the digital realm. A business is not defined by a building or a CEO or a product; it is a network of complex relationships drawing on the past and looking towards the future. The website is an integral part of that relationship.

A look at the process

What follows is a high-level guide to each phase outlining tasks and deliverables. This process is, of course, tailored as necessary to fit the needs of each client.

1. DISCOVERY

  • Define users and their needs, both current and desired
  • Solicit input and begin dialogues with site stakeholders
  • Technical assessment
  • Identity assessment
  • Analysis of key competitors sites

CLIENT DELIVERABLES:

  • Input and ideas
  • Hosting Information
  • Assistance in identifying a few patrons and employees who would be willing to respond to some usability and needs assessment questions 2-3 times during the design process.

VENDOR DELIVERABLE: User Research document outlining current/desired users (both inside and outside the organization), their tasks, and their goals

CLIENT SIGNOFF: Approval on user analysis and needs assessment

2. CONCEPTUALISATION

  • Define project, technology requirements, goals, content and scope.

CLIENT DELIVERABLE: Any additional content (may be representative, if exact content is not available).
VENDOR DELIVERABLE: A Scope document that defines the project goals and requirements
CLIENT SIGNOFF: Final approval on project goals and scope

3. PROTOTYPING

  • Develop content structure
  • Develop navigational scheme and interface
  • Create information architecture based on Discovery and Conceptualisation.

CLIENT DELIVERABLE: none
VENDOR DELIVERABLE: A comprehensive visual specification document that defines the overall interface, graphical treatment, interactive components, content structure, navigational scheme, information architecture and back-end technical components of the final system.

CLIENT SIGNOFF: Client must approve specification document

4. DESIGN

  • Visual design: the “skin” of the site

CLIENT DELIVERABLE: none
VENDOR DELIVERABLES:

  • Home page design (2-3 variations)
  • Secondary page designs
  • Tertiary page designs

CLIENT SIGNOFF: Visual technology design approval (assumes 2 iterations of design)

5. PRODUCTION

  • Create web standards and coded templates in accordance with the specifications
  • Implement content management/ site administration tool
  • Beta-testing and quality-assurance
  • Technology design: content management / site administration tool
  • Content Managment System Customization

CLIENT DELIVERABLE: none
VENDOR DELIVERABLES:

  • Final coded pages
  • Web-standards guide
  • Functional Web site

CLIENT SIGNOFF:

  • Final coded pages
  • Web-standards guide

6. LAUNCH

  • Training
  • Knowledge transfer

VENDOR DELIVERABLES : Updating guide, training consultations
CLIENT SIGNOFF:

  • Updating guide
  • Final project signoff