At the risk of going against popular belief, designing and developing a website is not as easy as 1,2,3. In fact, Xhilarate’s design and web teams believe that it can take up to 16 steps to develop a website that optimizes performance and meets its clients expectations. This holds true whether you are using an off-the-shelf CMS template or going the customized route.
Right out of the gate you must work with a clearly defined and approved scope of work (SOW) so both the agency and client are aligned on roles and expectations. If you are launching a new company, a critical next step is to ensure that the URL is available. The agency will undoubtedly bring its vision for the site’s look and feel, and the client will bring theirs for the site’s content. Success can only be achieved when both work in harmony. The core agency and client teams must collaborate on mapping out the content and information architecture which provide the foundation for site map development and wireframing. While 16 steps may seem cumbersome and time consuming, once the initial 6 steps are achieved, many steps can be executed simultaneously to help gain time efficiencies. Two last pieces of advice:
- Schedule lots of work-in-progress status meetings between the agency and the client to keep the project on track.
- Just because your new website has launched doesn’t mean your job is done. You must maintain your website to optimize its performance.
