The Web Development Process
In the real world, web development is a messy business. That's why we've developed tools such as Templation that help blur the boundaries between the architecture and production phases. Even so, all great websites start with a vision, and this is how we bring yours to reality:
Goal Assessment- You've got to have concrete goals before you ever start. Are you trying to generate awareness for your organization or just providing reference information? During the next two phases many questions can be answered by returning to your original goals asking how they can best be met. Organizations will often have unspoken and conflicting goals that can impede good decision-making, making everything explicit is essential.
Architecture- For small sites most architecture decisions are easily made using familiar conventions. For larger sites, the challenge of organizing information can quickly balloon out of control. To help with this, we sometimes conduct a form of usability testing known as a card sort. Combined with our extensive experience this will give you direct feedback on your choice of terminology and how it fits together in a typical user's mind.
Development- Once we have a clear idea of what this site needs to do and how it will be organized we begin the process of development. In reality, what actually happens in this stage is very job-specific. It could be mostly simple web design, or it could be installation of prepackaged web applications, or it could be all custom programming to your specification.
Hosting- Finding a reliable and affordable host without trusted resources is nearly impossible. Online research will turn up 5 times as many scam hosts as it will legitimate ones. The professionalism of the website tells you nothing, worse yet, web host ranking sites are dominated by shady marketers. Finding the right web host can only be through word of mouth. That's why I provide hosting for my clients through Dreamhost (for value) and TextDrive (for quality).
Maintenance- Once your site is up you will eventually need to make updates. Depending on your level of expertise and what kind of updates you make frequently we can set up systems for you to manage your own maintenance. If that's not your cup of tea than we can also manage the site for you. Our more expensive hosting plans give you a certain amount of free maintenance, which is very nice if you make frequent small changes. See our rates page for more info.