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How
we work
We believe working closely with our client is the key
to delivering a web site that meets the needs of the owner. We actively
encourage your participation in the development process so that
we can understand your business, your customers and the environment
in which you operate.
Following initial comprehensive briefing procedures, a staged and
ongoing consultation and approval process ensures you get the best
possible result for your budget, a cutting edge web site, crafted
through the combination of our creative and technical expertise,
into a successful and impressive web presence.
Web
site development: five stages to success
Stage 1: Definition and Strategy
First we help you define what your online image should be, and what
your short and long term goals are for the site. This involves looking
at your competition, working out with you just what your particular
edge is, and thus what we might develop to set you apart from that
competition online. We also need to know what makes up your target
audience so we can develop a strategy to attract them to your site,
make them want to stay long enough to get your message, and then,
to return.
Stage 2: Navigation
Structure
Once we have agreed on the strategy, we have to determine the scope
of your site. You will need to help us clarify what you want visitors
to find there, what information you want to communicate to them
and what information you want to elicit from them. This will require
thinking about how you want the site to work, what you want it to
actually do.
From our discussions we build the plan of the overall information
structure of your site, the paths and viewing places available to
your visitors and how we want them to navigate between those places.
This plan becomes the ongoing paper-based map of the site, to which
both of us can refer and which can be refined throughout the progress
of the site development.
Stage 3: Visual Design
Now that we agree as to what we want the site to do and how it will
do it, we move on to how it will look – its visual personality,
your online image.
The design of your site must firstly create a distinctive and recognisable
online extension of your brand or identity for your visitors. It
must also provide a compelling and user-friendly experience for
them.
We explore the possible design directions within our agreed guidelines
and structure, incorporating your information into a logical delivery
format. The design takes shape, with your input, helping to refine
the process and determine the final solution.
At this stage, depending on time and budget constraints, we often
produce a prototype site and test it for usability.
Stage 4: Functional framework
Once you have approved the design, we construct the site interface,
to integrate your information with the technological engineering
that will make it work on the Net. This can also mean providing
links to the sites of your suppliers, vendors and related industries,
or simply the click email facilities for visitors to contact you.
It also involves quality assurance testing to prevent technical
hitches later.
Stage 5: Future developement
With all the above stages completed and approved, you will be up
and running with an effective on-line presence. Yet one of the web’s
big advantages is that it is, or should be, up-to-date, so your
site will need to constantly change and grow.
With this in mind, and depending on what your requirements, we can
develop tools, such as style guidelines and templates, for your
staff to maintain the site, or we can agree to do it for you.
To maximise the effectiveness of this great site you now have, we
can also assist with marketing and promotion of your site through
traditional print and on-line, ensuring the integration and consistency
of message to your market through both media.
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