Below is a quick rundown on what you can expect. Using proven leading edge technology and thoughtful creative design, 3six3 Solutions standards based web sites, will make sure your web site wil load quickly and work with all browsers.
Research
We will ask a few questions and we’ll probably toss out a few ideas, but our main goal is just to sit and listen. As you can imagine, it’s pretty difficult to give you an accurate cost estimate if we aren’t really sure what you want to do, so we do our best to get all the details from you. We take a long, hard look at what will be required to make your vision a reality, and we come back to you with a proposal. Once the contract is signed, there is still a lot of homework to do. We compile a list of all of the content and functionality that you want the site to have, because we can’t really design a site when we don’t know what it will contain. Then, we do a good bit of competitive analysis. We look at the sites of other companies you identify as your competitors, and we look at others that you probably didn’t think of, just to make sure we aren’t missing anything important. Sometimes that analysis confirms what we’re already thinking, and sometimes we start to see a few trends that you may not have considered. If we need to rethink anything, this is the perfect time to do that. Once we’ve developed a list of specifications, we create a simple site map showing the overall site hierarchy. We have to know what the site will do before we even think about how it will look.
Wireframes
After we know what content and functionality we’re working with on the site, our next step is to figure out how to present the information. We typically start by deciding which three or four pieces of content or bits of functionality are the most important — what you really want the users of your site to see and do. Then we draw lots and lots of little boxes on lots and lots of pieces of paper until we have a good idea where all of the content and functionality we identified in step 1 is going to go. Once we’ve got everything covered, we turn those sketches into digital wireframes — just gray boxes indicating the placement and prominence of the major bits of the site. We will send those over for your review, and we’ll typically go through a couple rounds of revisions if you want to tweak things.
Visual Design
Once everyone is happy with the wireframes, it’s time to start pushing pixels. First off, we nail down the color palette. Whether we’re basing things on your existing logo and corporate colors or we’re starting from scratch, we’ll work out a color scheme that will suit you perfectly. Next, we feed the colors, the wireframes, a healthy dose of inspiration, dull gray boxes are transformed into things of beauty as the look and feel of the site starts to take shape. It is usually a fairly lengthy process to get to the finished design, but it is well worth the wait. When we’re done, we send some mockups over for your review, and again, we’ll typically go through a couple rounds of revisions if you want to tweak anything.
Page Coding
Once the visual design is finalized, the layouts will be sliced up and coding will begin. We at 3six3 will reassemble the puzzle pieces using standards–compliant XHTML in conjunction with CSS. This is the point where a bit of code trickery comes in. It is fairly easy to get designs to work in most web browsers, but thanks to Microsoft, getting designs to play nicely in Internet Explorer isn’t always quite so easy. Of course, since 75% of the known world uses IE to surf the web, we will work around the clock to make sure the design looks great regardless of platform and browser.
Application Development
Depending on what is involved in your project — a blog, ecommerce, a content management system — we’ll most likely start working on development around the same time we start on the design. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we can work on the look of the site completely independent of the content and functionality. Some development may go fairly quickly, particularly if you want to use something like Wordpress or Expression Engine. Other development, especially for complete custom jobs, may take several months, but that is the price of seeing your ideas come to life. Rest assured that we don’t rush things or throw code together just to get done quickly. We take our time and make sure that things are done correctly the first time.
Content Editing
Way back when you signed the contract, the 3six3 team most likely asked you to start compiling all of your content. You might just want to reuse everything on your current site. Of course, you might want us to edit it or rewrite everything from scratch. Either way is cool with us, and we’re always happy to help when we can. After the content is ready and the site framework is finished, we will do the necessary copying and pasting. If your particular project includes a content management system, we will insert a little of the content just to show you how things work, and then we’ll teach you how to add the rest. After all, that’s why you wanted a CMS, isn’t it?
Testing & Quality Assurance
Before your site goes live, we at 3six3 Solutions will spend plenty of time ensuring that everything works correctly. That includes all of the functionality as well as making sure the design looks right in all of the major web browsers. We’re sticklers for detail, and we want both you and the people who will be using your site to be happy with the finished product.
