Trojan Soul SEO Essex and Web Design Essex Blog
The Website Design Process
OK, this is our first entry so we figured for our first entry we'd give an insight into what actually goes into the website design process for our customers. Unsurprisingly, quite alot of our customers do not actually know what goes into building a website, I mean, why would they? Unless you're a website designer, then there would be little need right? So for our first website design entry we're going to explain the entire process. We feel that our customers could benefit in knowing what's coming and why.
Step One: The Brief
First things first, we'll talk with the customer to find out exactly what it is the customer is looking for, the purpose of the website, the websites target audience and it's goals. We will then advise accordingly how we feel the path their website should follow in order to reach it's full potential.
Step Two: The Design Process
We appreciate that not everyone is a designer. We also appreciate that not every customer has a clear idea of what it is they want from their website design. Therefore, we do our best to use our skills to advise on how we feel would be best for the websites structure, layout and so on ...
Customers quite often just want a website that looks great and has all the functions that it needs. Of course, with any design, we would need an idea of what colours to use. The way we see it, everyone has a favourite colour or two. All we need to get started are two colours. Obviously those colours should ideally compliment each other, but if they don't, all we'll need is just the one coloour, then we'll advise on a second colour. It's always a good thing for us if the customer can provide a brief idea of how they want their website to be laid out in terms of where the menu will sit, how many columns there should be etc... But this is not important as once we've discussed the websites purpose, then we use our skills to lay the website out the way we feel it would benefit most.
Step Three: Getting the look
Every website design starts in Photoshop. A website designer will put together the layout, with the colours requested and logos etc .. and create a sample image where the customer can take a look and decide if the website design is exactly the type of website they were thinking of. Now, due to people's individual tastes, this is not always a formality. What looks great to one person may not always look great to another. It does happen from time to time that there'll be a few re-designs, so that everyone is on the right page as it were regarding the way the website is going to look.
We've been quite fortunate here at Trojan Soul Website Design. We'd say that 80% of our website designs have been approved on their first draft. Though we of course don't mind if they don't. We're quite happy to adapt any website design until it hits the spot with the customer. There are no limits with our re-designs. It's your website, so as far as we're concerned, the customer is always right, which means we'll perform as many re-designs as is needed to get the website design just right.
Step Four: Coding the website
Once the customer is happy with how their website is going to look, the next step is to code the website. We'll take the approved website design image and code it accordingly. This basically means that we'll turn the website sample image and convert it into XHTML format which your browser can read, which is the website code that makes a website work. We'll then apply a custom stylesheet for the website so that the end result becomes a website that looks exaclty like the sample website design.
Whilst we're encoding the website, this is where we implement your basic search engine optimisation (SEO). Making sure that your title tags, Meta data, Image optimisation and so forth is in place. We must stress at this point that the search engine optimisation (SEO) we provide at this stage is basic search engine optimisation (SEO). SEO is a timely service that cannot possibly be implemented all at once for your website to be number one on Google. For a full description of SEO, please visit our search engine optimisation page.
Step Five: Cross browser capability
Of course, with so many website browsers out there, we have to make sure that the website looks exactly the same in all of them. Now, most of this would have been done whilst encoding the website design. But there are always a few quirks that individual browsers have that need to be addressed so that the website design displays as it should. This process has been the website designers nemesis in the past, and, in some cases still is. But it's a process that needs to be addressed for total satisfaction.
Step Six: Functions
Once the look and feel has been addressed and converted, then we'll add any features that the client has requested into the website design. Also adding further pages should they be requested.Step Seven: Deployment
Once we feel every angle has been covered, we will then deploy the website design to the internet. Once deployed we'll run through the website to correct any unforseen problems should there be any, which isn't often, but it does happen from time to time. After the website has been deployed, then now is the time when you can go and brag about your new website!
To Conclude
We hope this has given you a good idea of what is involved in creating a great looking website. And help you to appreciate the amount of effort that goes into creating a first class website design. We look forward to working with you.
