At BlueBolt, we think everything is about process…it allows us to follow a plan and learn from our mistakes. At the same time, it allows us the framework from which to build upon it all toward an even better process. Because of our strict adherence to this process, and, going through the following steps for any given project, we think we separate ourselves from all other ‘would be’ competitors for our clients’ business.
Without going through the actual details (later pieces of this same topic are planned for our blogs, and future articles…), our process includes the following:
Sales and Proposal – learning about what the client wants to do, the changes that need to be made, and the timeline in which to make it happen. At this time, we learn about customer expectations and plan accordingly.
Client Awareness – Post-Sales, we make sure to really dig into the "who is?" question behind our customer, and get a solid lay of the land. We ask questions to lead us to the following: what markets they serve (online and off-line), who their stakeholders are, where their website visitors come from, who they compete against (for business, as well as online traffic), what internal forces make a difference, what future considerations there might be, and much more.
Information Architecture – We need to use all that we learned from our client interviews to really know how to orchestrate valid click-paths and help to organize our customers' online content. Also, at this point, we begin to give wireframe visuals to our clients and remind them that they must always be thinking about images, messaging, graphics, and content.
Website Design – All quality website design begins with a totally separate process; choosing a graphic designer. Selection is extremely difficult, because the designer must ideally “get” the concepts being pushed out from our Architecture and interpret that information visually. It is extremely important because this is where page views and conversions might succeed or fail. Ultimately, the website must be appealing to a wide range of visitors and audiences, and it has to be graphically enhanced in many ways that will help to capture the company’s branding, personality, and purpose, all while inviting more and more visitors to fully view the site.
Website Development and Technology Implementation – By the time we are fully on the way to setting up a solid hosting and development/staging area, we will have planned out how to technically integrate the tools available to us. Still, much has to be done, such as:
HTML Creation and testing
Skin development and full install of the Content Management System
Application of the actual website design into skins
Template and Container design
Software design and development … (esp. custom coding or specifying these requirements)
Basic SEO build-out, and planning steps to attract search engine traffic (where applicable)
Site Page build-out and considerations toward making the navigation most efficient
Training, Testing, and Customer Approval
Hopefully, this description of our process helps to understand, at a basic level, the steps leading up to, into, and out of, ANY successful website development project.