Our Website Design Process
With our commitment to customer satisfaction, you can trust that we will be there for you every step of the way, ensuring that your online presence remains strong and successful. Follow our proven 8-step process from discovery to launch and beyond.
The Processing Steps
Phase 1
Discovery and Engagement
During this phase, we meet with your key stakeholders to gain a deep understanding of your business, products and services, brand identity, target audience, and specific goals for your online presence. We discuss your business needs, requirements, identify budget parameters, and establish the foundation for your project. This discovery phase ensures we fully understand your vision before creating a detailed proposal.
What We’ll Cover:
- Understand your business, products, and services
- Identify target audience personas and user demographics
- Discuss desired website functionalities and features
- Review examples of websites you like or dislike
- Identify budget parameters and expectations
- Confirm design and functionality requirements
- Discuss available resources (content, images, brand assets)
Based on our initial consultation, we prepare a detailed project proposal outlining the scope, deliverables, timeline, and investment required. We review the contract and project brief with you, answer any questions, and finalise all terms. Once you approve and sign the agreement, we officially kick off your project and move into the onboarding phase.
What We’ll Deliver:
- Detailed project proposal with scope of work
- Comprehensive contract and project brief
- Clear deliverables and milestone breakdown
- Transparent pricing and payment schedule
- Estimated timeline with key dates
- Defined roles and responsibilities
- Approval process and revision policy
Phase 2
Onboarding
Now that we’re officially partners, we begin the onboarding process. This critical phase involves collecting all necessary materials from you including logins for existing systems, brand assets, images, any written content, and any third-party integrations. We establish clear timelines, identify dependencies, and set up our project management system. This ensures we have everything needed to hit the ground running and keeps the project on schedule.
What We’ll Need From You (if you have, or we’ll help you to obtain):
- Domain and hosting account access (if applicable)
- Existing website logins and admin credentials
- Brand assets (logos, fonts, colour codes, brand guidelines)
- High-quality images, photos, and visual content
- Written content, copy, and text for all pages
- Third-party service credentials (email, CRM, payment gateways)
- Confirmation of project timeline and key milestone dates
- Identification of dependencies and potential bottlenecks
- List of stakeholders and approval decision-makers
Phase 3
Research
Understanding your business, customers, and competition within the local business landscape provides valuable insights into industry trends, best practices, and areas for differentiation. This research phase ensures your website is strategically positioned to stand out and resonate with your target audience. We analyse what’s working in your industry and identify opportunities to give you a competitive edge.
Research Activities:
- Conduct comprehensive market research and competitive analysis
- Identify industry trends, opportunities, and emerging technologies
- Document detailed target audience personas and user journeys
- Define key brand differentiators and unique value propositions
- Analyse competitor websites and digital strategies
- Research relevant keywords and SEO opportunities
- Create a comprehensive content brief and strategy document
Phase 4
Planning
This step involves outlining the basic structure and layout of the website before moving on to the visual design stage. We create initial wireframes showing the site architecture, navigation flow, and content placement for all key pages. This blueprint approach allows us to focus on functionality and user experience without getting distracted by colours or graphics. Once you’ve reviewed and approved the wireframe design, we can proceed to develop a more detailed visual mock-up before starting actual development work.
Deliverables & Activities:
- Create site architecture diagram and information hierarchy
- Develop user flow diagrams for key conversion paths
- Design initial wireframes for all key pages and templates
- Define specific functionalities, features, and interactions
- Plan third-party integrations (payment, CRM, analytics, etc.)
- Determine hosting requirements and domain strategy
- Client review session and wireframe approval
Phase 5
Design & Build
We work closely with you and your team to ensure that every aspect of your website reflects the essence of your brand and effectively communicates your message. From crafting compelling content to selecting colour schemes and fonts, creating custom graphics and layouts, and building the functional website, we guide you through each decision-making process with care and attention to detail. This is where your vision comes to life as we transform wireframes into a beautiful, functional website.
Design & Development Tasks:
- Create initial design mock-ups with full visual styling
- Client review and design refinement iterations
- Develop responsive website pages (and any required front-end code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
- Build back-end functionality
- Write, edit, and integrate all website content
- Create and optimise custom graphics and visual assets
- Implement mobile-responsive design across all devices
- Set up hosting environment and configure domain settings
- Integrate third-party services and plugins
Phase 6
Testing, Launch & Training
Conducting comprehensive testing and reviews allows us to identify and address any issues or inconsistencies before the website goes live. This includes functionality testing, cross-browser compatibility, mobile responsiveness, performance optimisation, security checks, and final content review. This thorough quality assurance process helps prevent negative user experiences and maintains customer satisfaction from launch day forward. We don’t launch until everything is perfect.
Testing & Launch Checklist:
- Comprehensive functionality testing of all features and forms
- Cross-browser compatibility testing (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
- Mobile device testing across multiple screen sizes
- Performance optimisation and page speed improvements
- SEO technical audit and on-page optimisation
- Security testing and SSL certificate implementation
- Content proofreading and final quality review
- Client final walkthrough and approval
- Image optimisation and asset compression
- Launch preparation and go-live deployment
As a local business, we understand the importance of providing ongoing support to our clients even after their website has been developed. We provide comprehensive training through video tutorials and live Zoom sessions so you can manage your website confidently. We also offer flexible post-development support options to ensure that your website continues to function smoothly and effectively as your business grows. Your success is our success, and we’re committed to being your long-term digital partner.
Support & Training Include:
- Prepare comprehensive training materials and documentation
- Conduct live training sessions (video tutorials and Zoom)
- Provide all login credentials and administrative access
- Set up content management system (CMS) training
- Establish maintenance and support service agreement
- Schedule regular follow-up check-ins and reviews
- Monitor site performance and analytics post-launch
- Provide ongoing technical support and updates
Contact
We’re thrilled to connect with you!
Our team is thrilled to collaborate with you and bring your vision and ideas to life. Contact us today and let’s begin this exciting journey towards achieving your goals.
We can’t wait to start working together!
Don’t miss out on this opportunity – get started now!
Get a free consultation today and find how we can support and design great websites for your business, community, church, sporting club or hobby.
Send a Project Brief
If you already have information about the project, please feel free to send them to us and let our team of experts provide you with tailored solutions.
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