Have you ever wondered what goes into creating a website?

Unless you’ve been through the process before, it’s likely that to be more involved than you might think! Having built website for many years, I have improved and refined the process to ensure it’s as effective as possible. It’s broken up into steps, which I will explore in depth in future posts. For now let’s take a look at an overview of the steps involved in the website development process.

Step 1: Discovery Phase – Laying the Foundation

An effective website prioritises the user. The discovery phase is a deep dive into understanding your users, their goals, and what they want and need your website to do. From here we create a solid foundation that informs the rest of the website design and development process.

Although often overlooked, this stage is where any web designers or developers worth their salt will take the time to understand fully what’s required.

In this phase, we uncover:

• What’s the purpose of the new website
• In practical terms, what does the website need to do
• Who is the target audience?
• Ideally, what do you want the user to do and feel when visiting your site
• What action would you like your user to take (e.g. mailing list sign up)

Step 2: Site Map

Once we’ve defined the goals and audience, it’s time to create a site map. This is a high level overview of the website structure – what pages and content will be on the site, and how are you going to structure the site. A bird’s-eye view of the website, pages and navigation.

This is created with the targets and opportunities highlighted in the discovery phase so we can ensure the new website will achieve those goals (now and in the future).

Step 3: Wireframing / Prototype

Now, it’s time to put the web designer hat on – we move on to wire framing phase.

It’s the stage where we outline the layout and functionality of individual web pages. No focus on aesthetics here, just structure and layout. Ideally using real content, or at least content that’s likely to represent the content of the final website.

It’s about ensuring your website provides a smooth user experience and encourages visitors to take the desired actions.

Step 4: Visual Design – Where Aesthetics Meet Functionality

Once the wireframes or prototype is approved and the functionality of the site is hitting the target, we can move into the visual design. This is where the magic happens and the wireframes are brought to life into a stunning website design.

This phase is about selecting the right colours, fonts, images, and layouts that make your new website design sing!

Step 5: Development – Bringing It All to Life

Finally, we arrive at the development phase. This is where the Web Developer steps in and takes the approved design and turns it into a fully responsive website built from CSS, HTML and Javascript.

We turn the design into a functioning website – making sure your website is responsive, fast, and aligns with industry standards.

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Got an idea for a website? Get in touch today and let’s get the project started