The Brief
Before we can start your project we both must understand the problem you are trying to solve. I’ll ask the right questions to find out what you need and why you need it. Some of these questions might make you a bit uncomfortable or make you go “What????”, but in the end we’ll both know exactly what we need to do.
The Brief starts with you telling us about your website project. Get started here.
The Site Map
Once I know what your website needs to do for you, I’ll build a visual sitemap so that we can both see where we are going. This sitemap will tell you at a glance what it is your website is trying to say and the best way to structure that information. Here’s a sample sitemap. (It is the sitemap for this website.
The Prototype
Confession: I’m a write it down and read it type. A lot of people aren’t, especially when it comes to highly technical information. That’s why, in most cases, instead of sending you the technical requirements documents I’ll write for your website project I’ll build an interactive prototype you can see in action in your web browser. This will show you how my solution to your problem will work. Note that there is no design involved at this stage: it won’t be pretty, but it shows you where we are going and does it quickly. Here’s the prototype of a real-life project I did.
Design
Now comes the fun part. We play with crayons and building blocks to make our prototype match your brand identity.
Development
Here’s where I get to have my fun! This is the stage where I’ll add the functionality your website needs to do its job. Things like forms, memberships, online stores, etc… will be built in the Development phase. Here’s the same website shown in the sample prototype, fully designed and developed.
Delivery & Support
Here we dig in for a couple of weeks, testing everything both on the development server and after we’ve deployed it to your hosting server. Once testing is done, it’s launch time: now you can show your shiny new website to the world. I include 30-days free support (starting on Launch Day) with every website project so your project has a real “shakedown” before you are on your own.