It's 2021, so you apparently know that your website affects your business's apparent credibility and quality.
However, not many individuals realize exactly how colossal this impact is. In fact, several organizations struggle to convert underperforming websites into websites that really boost credibility and customer acquisition.
Design is the first process of building a website. But, how does it work? People often think it is like doing Xerox photocopy as if all you need to do is make a wish, and something handy and innovative will appear after the click of the mouse.
If only things were this simpler. But, alas! Turning a great design into reality can certainly be a long and complicated process.
Fortunately, you can always hire an experienced team of professionals to manage your project and ensure that the end product aligns with your initial project goals. But do you know how the whole process works? Well, keep reading to get the inside scoop on moving from design to development process.
Moving from design to development
An exceptional design isn't about how you add social media buttons or appealing visuals. In fact, it is about having a website design and development process that aligns with the far-reaching strategy.
Well-designed websites extend more than just aesthetics. They draw visitors and help them understand a business and branding through various indicators, including visuals and text. That means each and every element of your website needs to work towards a designated goal.
However, how does one achieve that amicable union of elements? Well, a well-laid-out web Design process that considers both form and function is the key. Having worked on multiple website projects, today I will share my experience of what an ideal web design & development process should look like. So, let's get started!
Understand what the client wants
The initial step of the whole design process begins with the client. This is certainly one of the most crucial parts of the design and development process. So, we discuss all the important details with them to understand the project's scope better, the audience it caters to, the problems it can solve, and the client's overall vision.
Do the R&D for the project
After communicating with the client, we start with R&D. We look at every detail about the project to understand the design trend better. We:
- Determine the project's target audience, and focus around them.
- Study your competitors, making a note of their strong and weak points.
- Plan out a rough style of the website, select graphic styles, and think over color schemes and fonts.
Once we are done with the R&D, we share the documentation with the client and discuss every intricate detail, including the website's visual appearance. After discussing the details with the client and taking their feedback, we then provide a time estimation required for the design & development of the website.
Create wireframe
When the client gives a green signal to the project, the next step is to create wireframes for the website. Wireframes are interactive schematic pages of the website. Although the wireframes have a concise design initially, they allow us to create a design framework that shows how various website pages connect and what the website functionality will be like.
Note that wireframes development requires regular feedback and interaction with the client. For instance, we tell them what we want to do, take their feedback, make revisions, and get feedback again. This is a back-and-forth process that goes on until all the project’s details are evaluated well, carried out, and approved by the client.
It would help if you always kept the users in mind while creating an excellent user interface. While making the wireframes, we consider even the minor details of the project and how it will interact with the user.
During this stage, it becomes pretty evident which project details have been missed and what can still be improved or perhaps replaced. The main objective is to find those missing details in this stage before hopping onto the front-end & back-end development. After all, making changes once a website has been developed is a much bigger headache than creating a few extra wireframes or UI designs.
After completing the wireframe and verifying the product’s functionality and workflow, we are now ready to jump onto UI Design.
Planning design to development process
Early design ideas often stick and ultimately become a part of the end product as the client gets used to the look and feel of it. Once we have finalized the homepage design, we take feedback from the client and make corrections, if required.
Once we get approval for the homepage, we start working on the internal pages of the website. This stage usually consumes a lot of development time because there are often multiple pages and various interface elements to be created. Pay attention to every minute detail like entry fields, drop-down menus, potential mistakes, and 404-page designs.
Once the client approves the design of the internal pages, we begin customizing the design for mobile phones and tablets. This is a fairly simple task as the product's overall style has already been approved.
However, if you skip creating a responsive web design, the end product will not look professional to users using multiple devices.
Get ready for development
While the client finalizes the designs of the website pages, we get the time to prepare the resources required for the development. While designing an application, we need to adjust all the icons and pictures to fit multiple screens.
You can provide a website mock-up with all of these components, including color palettes, fonts, and vector icons. Mock-ups will surely come in handy for anyone who needs to get familiarized with the project quickly and easily. However, these resources are only required if there is a need for further development of the website.
Launch the final product
Well, finally, after all of the hard work of moving from design to the development process, we are all set to launch the website and deliver it to the clients. And voila, we now have one more client reveling in the celebrations!
Note that the launch stage is not really the end of your job. In fact, the beauty of web development is that it never ends. Once the website goes live, you may perhaps need to run user testing on new features and track analytics constantly.
Wrapping Up
Well, there you go, folks! That was all that goes around in web designing till the final website is launched.
Remember, your website is how people judge you and defines the way they perceive your business as a whole. While a poorly designed website can significantly tarnish its credibility, a quality website can help a business make a great influence and generate leads.
So, go for a web development company that knows its work to the core. And, if you are looking to hire a web designer for your project or if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Editor: Richa Sharma
