Building a website, from vision to realization

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This article offers guidance to new clients in the process and steps towards creating a website.

Pre Construction Tasks

Building a website is somewhat similar to building a house. Often, people ask us “how much does it cost to build me a site?” That’s similar to asking a realtor “how much does it cost to buy a house?” The price range is infinite, but with some concrete plans, the home builder can build your house and your web designer can build you your website.

Pre-construction is about planning and creating the “blueprints” that will become your site. There are three tasks that I recommend starting with. First is to write a list of requirements. Requirements are what you want your site to “do” or “have.” Your requirements will in turn as a list of project goals. Requirements are the most ideal way for you to clearly communicate what constitutes a successful and completed project. Requirements capture needs, functionality, ideas, and design. Anything specific or special should become a requirement. It is best not to think in concrete specifics, but rather in general concepts and ideas. For example:

The web site needs to allow visitors to buy my products.
Shoppers should be able to browse products by looking at pictures of each product.
I should be able to log in and easily update the content of pages.
Visitors should be able to sign up for newsletters.

The second task is to map out your site as a diagram. In home building, this is known as the “blueprints” or layout. Its a very similar task in web design. You use a drawing program arrange boxes that represent content. Lines between the boxes represent the relationship between the content. If you don’t have software that can create this, you can simply sketch a diagram of your site on paper. Your goal is to map out the structure of your content visually. It doesn’t have to be all-inclusive, but you’ll want to begin to explore what the major areas of content are, how they relate to each other, and where minor content lives in relation to the major content.

The third task is to design a template or the general look of your site. This is very similar to picking out paint colors, cabinet woods, and carpet choices for your new home. In web design, the template is what a typical page will look like. You can use a drawing program to create a mock up image or if you feel more comfortable, sketch out a design on paper. If you need ideas to help you get started, look at websites you like or frequently visit. Deconstruct these sites into elements that you would like to use on your site. If you have less preference on how your site looks, simply relate to us the key “feelings” or general idea that your site should visually convey. We’ll create a look that matches your ideas while maintaining maximum flexibility in design.

At the completion of these three tasks we can return to you an accurate estimate of the cost to build your site. If you accept the proposal, we continue with the next phase: Construction.

Construction Tasks

We’ll begin this phase by assembling content. Everything from photos, existing publications, and other miscellaneous media needs to be collected. Textual content (also know as web copy) needs to be written in rough draft. The text will need to be edited later for maximum search engine visibility and user readability. This total content plus the output from the pre-construction tasks will come together to create your website.
The construction tasks end when all of the content is included, the requirements regarding content and functionality have been satisfied, and the final draft is ready. You’ll have the opportunity to request adjustments, changes, and fixes before the site goes live.

Post Construction Tasks

Even after a site is built, there is still work to do! Post-construction tasks can require as much time as the construction tasks. Final tasks include search engine optimization, training, setting up user accounts, and final testing. While they are frequently considered “extras,” the key to a site’s success often lies in these post-construction tasks. While you ultimately have control over what is included, try not to forget the importance of a finely tuned site - it’s like the difference between a prefab house and a luxurious home!