Did you know it takes users less than one second to form an opinion of your website?
You only have a small opportunity to make an impact, and your website needs to do exactly that. How can it, though? What does the website development process even look like in practice?
Luckily, we’re here to help. Read on to learn everything you need to know.
Information Gathering
This stage helps determine the entire process. Here, you’ll define things like:
- Your future website purposes
- Your main goals
- Your target audience
The purpose of this step is to define the role the website is going to play for your company. The more detailed your information, the easier the rest of the design process is going to be.
Planning
At this point, the developer is going to take your ideas and turn them into a tangible site map.
The purpose of a map is to set up the navigability of your site. The clearer this is, the more usable your final product is going to be. The ultimate goal is to give your user a clear point from A to B that can easily be followed to reach their end goal.
Design
Once you have navigability out of the way, your website can start taking shape. You’ll start implementing things like visual content, brand colors, fonts, and even your logo.
If you’re working with a web design company, they’ll create mockups to show you. If there are things you don’t like or want to change, they’ll go back and implement those.
Code
This is the fun part. This is where you’ll actually begin seeing your website come to life, and all the visual elements will begin coming together. Usually, you’ll see your homepage created first, and then other pages created according to the site map.
Test, Review, Launch
Once the website is designed, it’s time for the agency to start testing. Every single link, form, and script needs to be checked, and you can also run spell-checking software to find typos.
From there, your website can be loaded to a server, deployed, and then launched. After that initial launch, however, more tests should be run to ensure everything has been installed correctly.
As testing progresses, problems will be fixed and you can even start incorporating feedback that you get from users. Remember, you might like your site, but if users don’t then they will find another one to use.
Ready to Carry Out the Website Development Process?
The website development process isn’t one that should be taken lightly. It’s a fun process, but it’s also important for the overall success of a business or brand. It’s often the user’s first interaction with many businesses, and it doesn’t take much to lose that lead.
If you’re interested in learning more about web design and branding, check out the rest of our website.
