The process begins with an in-depth conversation about your desired website, your business goals and ideas, your budget and your timeline.

We will be discussing and defining the following topics:

Purpose & Goals: Do you want to provide information, promote a service, or sell a product?

Target Audience: Who are the people you want to reach? Consider their age, sex, interests or professions – this will help determine the look and feel of your site design as well as the content.

Content: What kind of information will people be looking for on your site?

Functionality: What specific capabilities would you like to see in your website?
Examples are: A portfolio section, a job board, latest news, a menu, a blog, Flash animation, video, featured projects, etc. I will help you decide what technologies should be implemented. Elements such as interactive forms, ecommerce, flash, etc. are discussed before design.

Based on this input I will prepare a proposal to include estimated time needed for development and a budget, including possible sub-contracting of specialists like animators or php coders. The development process will be divided into two or three deliverable stages. The contract will be signed by both parties and work begins as soon as the initial retainer is received.

General layout, site navigation and dynamic parts of the site are discussed at this point, then the design process begins.

Content to be provided by the client:
• Logo and corporate identity guidelines
• A list of sites you like
• Preferred colors and description of the look and feel desired
• List of competitor website in the field

The first item I will generate is a sitemap. The site map is a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics. This serves as a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system.

Based on our initial conversation I will create one or more prototype designs for your web site. One of these will be developed to the final stage. The prototype is typically a .jpg image of what the final design will look like. Later you will have access to a secure area of your web site and you will be able to view your project throughout the design and development stages, which gives you the opportunity to express your likes and dislikes on the site design.

Once the design has been agreed upon and signed off, the production process begins.

Production means creating the html, css and/or wordpress template that is underlying your new website. Any animation, illustration and video will be created and incorporated into the site.

I will post a development site on my server or yours, so that you can follow the progress as it happens. During this phase it is still possible to make small adjustments to colors and fonts and to the content and look of individual pages, but the main layout and functionality of the site should be decided upon.

The website will be tested to perform on all major browsers. I guarantee compatibility with Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Internet Explorer 7. I do my best to get Internet Explorer 6 to cooperate, but I do not guarantee an error-free result for this browser.

After the testing the website will be installed on your server. This might happen during a weekend, to give time for troubleshooting and ensure that, by monday morning, the site is ready for the world.