Website design in 5 steps
Ultimately, you should be the real master of your own website. Before anything else, during a free consultation, I'll want to learn as much as I can about your unique situation and your goals for your business.
Then, during the Web design process, I'll do my best to answer your needs with a practical site that engages and serves your customers efficiently. My focus will be on executing your wishes, not on racking up unnecessary charges for whiz-bang doodads or recurring maintenance. Some of my clients prefer to do day-to-day updating themselves, and I'm happy to set this up for them.
Following our initial discussion, I will send a proposal estimating the scope, completion schedule, and costs for your project. If you accept the proposal, work begins, progressing through the following stages:
Information gathering
We meet to assemble information from which to build the site — your target audience, your competition, benefits to your customers, product or service lists, creative preferences such as color choices, and so on. I also collect whatever materials might be useful in your website’s design and content. This includes any printed materials or brochures, testimonial letters, photos, artwork, logos, illustrations, pricing schedules, etc.
Website configuration
If you don't have an existing website, we'll set up your domain name and hosting with one of several major Web hosts — such as BlueHost.com — and charge the service directly to your credit card. Everything is registered in the name of your business, at your address, and you get the passwords. This way, you have ultimate control over your website from the beginning, and the power to make changes down the road.
Web design
Balancing a combination of design considerations — credibility, attractiveness, usability, conversion rate optimization (CRO), search engine optimization (SEO), loading speed, semantically correct markup — I plan your website's layout, navigation, style, copy, and multimedia using industry-standard software applications like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver.
Draft presentation
We meet again to go over a rough draft of the site online. I explain the key points of its functionality, and we settle on any necessary revisions.
Final build-out
Agreed-upon revisions are made, unfinished or placeholder content is brought to completion, and public barriers removed. Your new website is live and operational.
Let's get started
Let's discuss what your website should be doing for you, and then make it happen.
Let's figure out what your potential customers are looking for, and how to get them to your door.
