Web Creation – What It Actually Takes

Web development follows a similar process as most projects before they become live. The initial stages of defining objectives, planning, and collecting requirements are also common for website creation. In this field, programmers need to collect every bit of information and instruction you give them to help them plan and design a working wireframe for your website.

When you’re looking to create a website for your business, it’s important to choose the right design and development team to do it for you. A website is your primary interface with your customers in the online world. Serving as your business’s front desk window, it needs to be well-equipped to attract customer and offer just sufficient information to convert visitors to customers.

What does it take to create a good website? Understanding this process will help you better evaluate the returns on your investment, choose the right design agency that offers affordable web design services, and evaluate the correct piece of software you need at a particular stage in your business.

Plan Definition

Seasoned companies in the market may have a clear grasp of the needs of their businesses in the market. Their market needs to define what kind of website to create and how badly they require an online presence. In contrast, start-ups may not have a clue what they want and what is provided for the service they seek.

Here’s what you should have above all else:

• Business and Website Goals: what are your values and vision for the business? Clearly define your target audience, and the goals you have set to achieve with your site. It is pointless to create a website that doesn’t necessarily engage anyone directly and hang it out there. If the core objective for the site is to increase engagements, then it would be doing a disservice to your business if t cannot target a particular audience to convince.
• Technical Specifications: Do you need the website optimized for a certain browser or device type? Do you want a static website or do you want a blog, podcast or video series to go with it? Are you looking to create an active community over your site or do you prefer casting the net on social media channels? Do you plan to vend products or services from your site? And need it eCommerce integration? Your development agency of choice will take you through these options and help you come up with conclusive and workable options that help to shape your website wireframe.
• Graphics Sourcing: your site needs to have the face of the business. To succeed in this, you need to customise it to the business logo, theme, colours, name, and other appropriate content that may be needed. You may consider hiring graphic designers beforehand to come up with these requirements.

Research and Planning

At this stage, web developers rely on the information you gave them at the definition stage to craft a plan with which they will use in designing your site. Extensive research and brainstorming sessions are organised to outline the ideas and concepts for the website. At times the agency may request the client for additional details or ask for feedback regarding certain ideas.

This is what is entailed:

• User profiling: The information required to profile prospective users is drawn from the clients’ definition of their target audience. This helps in working out the kind of behaviour they exhibit online. Also, what kinds of designs, colours, templates and content are likely to appeal to them.
• Architecture: This is a basic model of the content structure and how users will access it. It includes details such as; the number of pages the website should have, how they should be layered and how a reader should navigate through them.
• Page Layout: A plan is drawn for each page basing on the market standard, user specifications, user experience, etc. It includes what kind of menu to have, whether or not to have sidebars, positioning of the various types of contents — text, media, forms and so on.
• Wireframe: Once the basic structure and layout are planned, we map it onto a wireframe. This helps convey the designer’s vision to the developers and show the client how things will turn out on the end product.
• Infrastructure: The infrastructure decisions include things like grabbing a domain name, getting server hosting, choosing which CMS to use, what programming languages and tools to use.

Designing

Web designers take the plan from the previous stage to make a tangible website. They put in human feel and aspects that evoke emotions. These include CTAs, functionality, graphics, compatibility, etc.

Consider the following:

• Colour: The colour scheme sets the tone for the user’s experience. There are colours that match best with a young audience. These are vibrant colours. Dapper and subtle colours go well with financial, legal and other such businesses.
• Visual elements: Visual elements on the site include buttons, menus, boxes, typography and more. They need to subtly convey the brand message.
• Media: This includes the images, the videos and the audio content on the site. The elements of the design must tie in with the logo and other aspects of the brand’s visual identity. Otherwise, it creates a dissonance for the end customers.

Developing

This entails writing the code for the site.

Among other things, these are the most important aspects considered at this stage.

• Framework/CMS
• Programming languages
• Database
• Features
• Security
• Performance

All this is usually done on an internal server. A good agency will keep you involved in the process. They’ll show you features as and when they’re developed and keep you posted of any delays or changes.

Launching

Launching is the last step in the website development process. Here, creators do the last bits on testing and may train the user depending on the prevailing complexities.

Maintenance

• Support and Troubleshoot
• Periodic Renewals
• Blog / Live content
• Optimization

The bottom line

The is so much on web creation. This article gives you a generalised highlight of otherwise a long and complex process. Once you have chosen an agency, trust them and give them the creative license to work their magic. Give them a chance to help you revolutionise your company by showcasing its dealings online.