From Inception to Completion

This video explains the process our web designers and developers go through when building a website for clients. It uses a recently completed development project for www.barneysmcr.com as an example.

There are five stages to the process:

Client Brief

Our designers work closely with clients to establish their hopes, dreams and aspirations for a development project. 

During this fact-finding phase, we want to gather knowledge about exactly what the client likes and how they feel their brand should be portrayed.

Analysis

In this phase our designers and account team review all the collected information, mix it up and distil it down to the core messages and functionality that the project should deliver.

This is an informal stage and can involve anything from simply sitting and thinking about the project to creative sessions around the whiteboard.

Idea & Concept

As a result of the analysis phase, we develop an idea or concept that we can discuss with the client.

At this stage we’ll normally present a layout of the proposed homepage so that our clients can buy in to the direction we want to take their site – on most occasions, because we have thought about what we’re proposing for the client, the design concept will be approved. If not we’ll go around the loop again to make sure our clients will be delighted with the results of the project.

Design Phase

Once we have concept approval, we work through the design of all the sub-pages of the site.

At this stage the designers begin to consider the usability of the new site. Our clients’ clients need to be able to use the site effectively and we always endeavour to marry stunning designs with ease of use.

Throughout the design phase we will stay in contact with the client to ensure they are happy with the look and feel of all the sub-pages and, once all necessary design work has been completed, we will gain sign-off so that we can kick start the development.

Development

At this stage the project moves into the hands of our developers who use the latest programming techniques to deliver a site that not only adheres to the designed functionality, but also loads on users’ computers as quickly as is possible.

It is at this stage that the concept becomes a reality.