Ask a Website Design Company ^BETA

24 February 2009
Hi Katie,

The development and features required for website development really depend on the type of website you are developing. For instance for a Country Music Band, some basic features may include a harmonica, and a steel guitar, however for a Classical Music Band those same assumable features are not viewed as basic. Of course the overlap is that both types of band do require instruments. To that end, I can offer you a very brief overview of what development entails and some very basic standard features that a website should include.

The Development Process

PLANNING
This is the first and often times most abused part of the entire process. Many people are impatient and would like their website done immediately. Unfortunately because it is a part of the process that is typically lacking, this is often times the root of all misunderstandings and problems later in the client / developer relationship.

Planning should be taken seriously and depending on the project can be a very long and detailed process. I have been involved in large-scale projects where the planning took several months. But we'll assume that for the most part, websites are typically smaller for the average person.

Planning details should include, target demographics, basic design ideas, layout, features, etc. Careful planning will avoid scope creep during the development process and will make completing the project easier with fewer, “bugs”.

After the planning phase, documents should be provided with an outline of what should be expected, these forms may come in the form of a single document or a complete wireframe outlining in great detail all functionality with page views etc.

DESIGN
Once the planning has been discussed and approved by all parties, a design should be developed that will accurately represent your particular style, demographic, business, etc. You have a very limited amount of time to make an initial impression on viewers, so the closer it is to great, the better.

How do you get a great design? Ask other people to view the design and offer feedback. Also don't get offended if someone says that the ideas you have fallen in love with are horrible. If you as a client love the look of your website, but nobody else does, it will definitely be a non-effective design.

You should expect that the design process will take a little time too, initially you may be presented with multiple design ideas and whittle things down until a final design has been completed.

DEVELOPMENT
Once a final design has been approved, development can begin. This process should be pretty straight forward because the information should all be available from documents prepared during the planning phase.

REVIEW AND SITE BETA
Once all the programming has been completed, a full review should be offered to the client along with a Beta period for testing purposes. Often times a Beta review will come with a deadline and a disclaimer that any, “bugs” found after a the Beta period found by the client are billable changes. This is to ensure that the client is an active participant in the Beta review. Often times during a Beta clients will make a cursory run through the site and deem everything as being complete.

All notable fixes should be addressed and adjusted by the developer(s) during this time.

FINAL ADJUSTMENTS AND LAUNCH
Once the Beta period has been complete, a final review of all systems should be completed by the developers to ensure that everything is working correctly, code clean-up is completed and file directory structure is finalized.

The site is then moved to the live server, or any “holder pages” removed and the site should be ready for production.

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That is a REALLY low-down-and-dirty view of the process, but should provide you with some basic information.

As for features, this once again falls to, “what type of website are you looking for”, below I have outlined the bare-bones features that I believe every website should have. These features in my opinion are essential and should not be billed as extras.

A note about architecture, all websites should include proper architecture to include basic information for proper headers, and information for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) items such as meta information, document type declaration, etc. Additionally all websites should, to some degree, be developed toward current web standards.

Support for older browsers such as Internet Explorer 6 and older is not a given and may incur additional cost during development.

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CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS)
Regardless of how many pages your site has, you should be entitled to manage your own content, and navigation at a minimum. You should also have the freedom to upload and manage images used in the content of your website.

WEB MAIL
Because of the way that hosting servers are typically set up, establishing an email address is a very simple process and at least one email address should be included with a website that matches the domain name. Web access is generally a feature that hosting companies provide and website owners should be afforded the same opportunity so that they can check their email regardless of where they are or who's computer they are using.

I do have to say that web mail does require an active internet connection... just my little disclaimer.

WEBSITE STATISTICS
Because most hosting companies now offer such programs as Urchin for translating and reviewing website log files, they should also be available to all clients. Typically web statistic software has very good documentation included so training, if any may be a billable event.

CONTACT FORMS
It only stands to reason that you would like people to contact you from your website, and that is one of the main reasons you are having one developed, so to be charged for a basic contact page with contact information and a simple contact for is a little silly. It should just be there.

SITE MAPS
For larger websites a dynamically generated static site map is a useful tool for both visitors and search engines.

SUPPORT
A reasonable expectation of support once your site goes live is always important. Requests for changes or additional functionality do not fall under support, but freely speaking with your developer should.

Freely speaking with your developer does not mean that all companies or developer should shoulder the cost of the phone call, but you should not be billed for their time.

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Well, in a nutshell, there you have it. I am sure you will receive many responses from different developers and I am also sure you will receive different opinions about what should be included and not. Please welcome all the information you receive as being valid.

Please do more research based on the information you receive from these posts and after consolidating the information you should have a pretty good idea about the development process and be able to make a sound and informed decision regarding what, “standard” features are or should. be. I sincerely hope you find this information helpful.

Very best regards,
Mark Cloyd
Mark Cloyd Designs

24 February 2009
Katie

I will try and keep this as brief and as simple possible.

Dealing with the steps required to complete a website first:

You will need to register a domain name. Your domain name will depend on what you are offering it might be your business name or product name. This can be registered at somewhere like 123-reg.co.uk. You will also need to obtain hosting for your website, this is your space on the web, your website designer will usually be able to advise you on suitable hosting.

Brainstorm ideas - have a look at a variety of websites that are out there already just to get ideas of what you like and what you don't like. Brainstorming can be done with your designer as they will be able to advise you on what is and isn't possible. Discuss layout, fonts, images, navigation, content, colours, number of pages, keywords etc. Make sure you agree a price and terms for any additional work that may be required that is outside of the original remit.

Once you have settled on some ideas your designer should be able to go away and make a start on your site. It is important that you have good communication with your designer throughout the design process so problems can be ironed out straight away, you should also be able to view your test site all the way through. Get other peoples opinions on your site as well as it is being developed.

Once the design is complete it can then be uploaded for everyone to see. Your designer should optimize your pages for the search engines as they are designing and be considering the W3C web standards, once your site is complete you can discuss the possibilities of off -page optimization, for example, building links from other websites. You should also discuss maintenance of your site and any ongoing costs.

A few good features of a website include:

Good navigation - all pages should be easily accessed from the home page if possible. Draw out the pages of your site in a tree with the home page at the top and work out how the other pages will fit in. Internal pages shouldn't really be more than three clicks away from the home page.

Make it easy on the eye - don't use colours that make it difficult to read the text.

Shouldn't need to scroll from left to right.

Keep image sizes small so they don't take a long time to load.

Keep your site up to date there is nothing worse than viewing a site that includes out of date information and make sure the text content of your site is relevant and there are no spelling mistakes.

These are just some of the main points of developing a website and hope they help.

Kind Regards

Paula

2 March 2009
The number one step in developing a website is to find a developer/designer that you trust to get the job on time and to your standards.

The process that I take to complete a simple website is as follows:

1. Get domain/hosting package
2. Brainstorm design ideas
3. Gather content
4. Lock down menus
5. Approve design
6. Finalize content
7. Search engine optimization
8. Make site live
9. Submit site to major search engines
10. Maintenance

Features that I feel make a great website are:
1. Appealing design inline with industry standards (design, flash, forms, etc.)
2. Solid framework (menus, templates, and architecture)
3. Clean functionality (links, meta tags, loading times, etc)
4. Precise front page content leading onto more great content
5. Custom menus
6. Custom graphics and photo treatments
7. Favicon
8. Search engine optimization

All sites are different and have different requirements. The larger and more complex the site, the more time it will take planning it and locking down each step.

It is vital to find a developer/designer that will follow through on the job. Check references, take a look at previous sites, can you knock on their door when their site goes down? Do not pay for a site until it is done or hold back a portion until completion, get educated, learn the lingo and know your host, login and password in case you decided to move your business elsewhere.

On a last note, be prepared to do some work. It is up to you to pull together the content, approve designs, graphics and photo treatments. Without your commitment to the project there can be no forward motion.

We hope you have found this answer both easy to follow and informative.

Yvette Cioran
IM Solutions

31 March 2009
Hi Katie,

The previous responses have covered a great many of the aspects of planning, designing and building a good web site but do you really want to attempt to do this yourself?

First and foremost I am a firm believer in the fact that you shouldn't really be concerning yourself with this aspect at all as that is what you hire a good web developer to do for you.

Good web developers are in possession of the knowledge and have the experience to take all of the worry away from you so why not let them build you what you are seeing in your minds eye. If you can describe what you want and what you need the web site to do for you then they will be able to create it and make it a reality.

Tony Green
Webography.

18 April 2009
Every website is a project and a project follows some very simple steps, for me it's as simple as this:

Create a brief or receive one from the client following consultation.

Use this brief to create a project scope and functional specification.

Design a template.

Once the client has approved the template design the remaining pages.

Hand over the project.

Obviously there's a lot more to it than that and the answers above will pad out what I have placed here but in essence, that's it.

11 June 2009
I think I can give you a brief answer and a pretty good one too ;).

Get hands on, the best way to learn is by doing;

1. Get a domain and hosting:
http://www.hostmonster.com/

2. Download this free website template:
http://www.freewebplate.org/ - it has above and beyond what a good website should have. There are great instructions on the site too. Get in there, mess up the code and then fix it, change colors and fonts... mess it up good and have fun. You can always download a fresh version if you mess it up beyond repair. Practice and practice some more.

3. Download this free blog template:
http://www.wordpress.org/ - continue your rampage of destruction.

4. Download this free forum template:
http://www.phpbb.com/ - continue your reign of terror.

Read tutorials and practice.

Good Luck!

Thanks, Bryan

4 August 2009
1. Previous answers to this are pretty good ...

What I do is find out what style & colors you like, then make up a few designs using Photoshop. I will then publish an image to the web for my client to view. Once approved, I will use the images created (not necessarily the whole image - especially the wording) & develop the HTML files using Dreamweaver.

2. The first condition of a successful website is to make good sense with your content. Viewers should immediately be able to recognize what your site is all about, and the structure should naturally lead your customer to a point-of-purchase, a sign-up or a contact-us.

5 August 2009
Briefly, there are 3 steps.

1. Graphic design of all elements, don't leave any to chance, make sure to see mock-ups of all pages.

2. Locate your own hosting from a mainstream hosting company. This will remove the possibility of you loosing control of your site and email.

3. have your content ready, if you think you will write your content in 1 night multiply that by 10 to do it absolutely correctly. If you have typos and bad grammar it shows you do not care and have no attention to detail. These are not a qualities any business needs to communicate.