. Web Design & Development Steps
The following four step process that is essential to every web design and development project.
.Step 1: Business Requirements
Firstly, determine what kind of activities you want your customers to be able to perform on your website. Do you want to set up an ecommerce site where potential customers can learn about and purchase your products? Do you want a billboard site with information about your company and where potential customers can go to purchase your products? Activities that you can provide for your customers may include:
- Shopping
- Registration
- Requesting information
- Searching a database
- Downloading or uploading files
- Discussion forums
. Step 2: Feature Requirements
Identify the features that you want to add to your website to make it more engaging and interactive. For example, if you want to set up an ecommerce site, you may want to have a shopping cart. Some common features are:
 Forms - allows visitors easily to submit or request information
Message boards - visitors can leave or respond to messages
Photo galleries - display graphical information
Statistics - tracke your site and its component pages are accessed
Flash animation - create interesting animated content
Search - allow visitors to search for content
Shopping cart - collects and records the purchases of your customers
Inventory management - automatic updating of your inventory |
.Step 3: Service Provider Requirements
Determine the expertise you need. There are two components to the creation of a website: design and development. Design deals with the front-end look and feel. Development deals with the back-end functionality. These are distinct skill sets that ammonet can provide.
.Step 4: Local or remote content management
Decide whether your website content will be updated by uploading files generated locally using an HTML editor such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver housed in your own office, or by using a server-side, remote content management system (CMS) that you access using your internet browser. ammonet has extensive experience with CMS development.
. Step 5: Budget Requirements
Website projects typically start at under a thousand dollars and go up to several thousand depending on the complexity and size of the site you would like. In addition to the cost of designing and developing your site, you need to consider these additional costs: domain name registration, site hosting and site maintenance.
. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
Now that you know some of the basics, you need to put together a simple project plan to help you communicate your project needs. Follow these guidelines when putting your plan together.
Determine the objective of your website.
Define your audience.
Determine what content you will need.
Look at other sites for inspiration
Develop a rough storyboard for your site
Write up a detailed project description
By taking some time beforehand to understand what you want and how to get it done efficiently and cost effectively, your website project becomes a pleasurable experience both for you and your designers. |
