Web Dev Process

The Right Process for Website Project Development

We build a lot of websites.  Anything from a simple branding website, to a highly advanced e-commerce website that facilitates the sale of thousands of products.  Immediately upon project start, we build websites in 6 phases.  It begins with a Discovery Phase.  Followed by Design Phase, Development Phase, and Content Phase.  At this point, we really like to shore everything up by focusing on Quality.  Then a formal Final Steps phase is started with the goal of completing and launching the final product.

Website Project Policy & Guidelines

Website construction is a large undertaking, working with multiple different teams, and often directly with clients.  Our policy is to complete each phase before moving onto the next (within reason).  The worst thing we can do is show unfinished products to clients, or their prospective customers.

Teams involved in website construction projects should meet as a team at the conclusion of each phase to ensure all processes and procedures have been met.  This is also our opportunity to ensure we keep the project on target for timelines, and all expertise can be heard.

Step 1: Discovery Phase

The discovery phase of the project and processes within dictate the tone, pace, expectations, and the goals of the website construction build.  We begin this phase first because it sets up the framework for all phases that follow.

  1. Kick Off Meeting
  2. Gant Chart Timeline Setup
  3. Goals & Tracking Planning
  4. Visual Sitemap
  5. Website Features List

Step 2: Design Phase

In the discovery phase we begin to take the information provided by the client, any available market research information,  as well as several other sources of industry knowledge, and implement into a visual manner.  In the grand finale of the design phase, clients are presented a number of design concepts to choose from.

Upon selection of a concept, with approval, additional composite high-fidelity designs are completed to flesh out the look/feel of the total project according to the Visual Sitemap.

  1. Theme selection
  2. Wireframes
  3. Concept Designs
  4. Composite Designs and Internal Templates
  5. Mobile Designs
  6. CRO Design Review & Strategy
  7. Preflight for Development
  8. Visual Sitemap Update
  9. Contract Review

Step 3: Development Phase

Once all design work is complete, it is time to make them interactive in the form of website html code.  Design composites one by one are converted into a re-usable website template, and made interactive for a browser.

This is often the longest phase, as there is lots to do.  Beyond making the designs into a website, we implement content management systems, and the functionality which makes our clients unique.  Concluding this phase, we are able to say our concepts are now transformed into a website.

  1. PSD to HTML Conversions for Designs
  2. Hosting Instance Signup
  3. Contact Form Programming & Setup
  4. WordPress CMS Integration and Themeing
  5. Page creation based off Sitemap
  6. Standardized Plugin Install & Setup
  7. Plugin and Stock Programming Purchasing
  8. Special Programming and Features for all Functionality
  9. API Connections & Integration
  10. WooCommerce Tax, Shipping, and Payment Gateway Settings Setup
  11. Visual Sitemap Update
  12. Contract Review

Step 4: Content Phase

At this point, the website is starting to take shape, and becoming rapidly evermore a useful resource for consuming information.  We need to feed our website visitors with a rich customer experience to meet all KPI related goals for our customers.

Content is uploaded onto the pre-made pages onto the website, ‘greek’ placeholder text is replaced with final content, & products are created to name off a few content examples.  Our SEO teams also get more involved to ensure the web sites content will be optimized for display by search engines like google.

  1. Content loading into all pages
  2. Blog Content Upload
  3. Final Image & Artwork Purchasing
  4. Slider content update and reprogramming as needed
  5. Social Media Link Updates
  6. Offsite Production Links Updated
  7. YOAST SEO plugin configurations
  8. Title and Meta Data upload
  9. 301 Redirect Integrated
  10. SEO Review & Implementation
  11. Visual Sitemap Update
  12. Contract Review

Step 5: Quality Assurance

  1. Internal function Test and Review of all general functionality of site (drop downs, sliders, etc).
  2. Internal function Test and Review of all Special Website Features (payment gateway, api integrations, etc)
  3. Internal Front End Test and Review of Responsive Design for all devices
  4. Internal Front End Test on all AMP Pages
  5. Test all forms to ensure delivery and content in emails
  6. Send Custom QA report request to Test.IO
  7. Resolve issues from Test.IO, repeat steps 1-6 till all bugs resolved.
  8. Visual Sitemap Update
  9. Contract Review

Step 6: Final Launch Steps

It has been a long road, however a valuable experience as the website project is now nearing a launch window.  Final integrations like goal tracking, analytics, and hosting preparations are being finalized.  Quality Assurance checks are key during this phase as we want to ensure that our project is quality and capable of supporting a lot of website traffic for information consumption.

  1. Final Hosting Staging
  2. Update Contact Forms (CF7) to point at final destination emails
  3. GTM & Goal Integrations planned from Discovery
  4. DNS Information Track Down
  5. Cloudflare CDN Setup
  6. Shindoshi Site Check
  7. Pingdom update and uptime addition
  8. Client Review & Signoff
  9. Planned Time for Revisions
  10. Visual Sitemap Update
  11. Contract Review
  12. Website Launch