Website designing begins with the meeting of the customer with the contractor. It discusses the details of the future project and draws up the terms of reference.
Website design steps
The development process is divided into the following stages:
- Determining the type of future site.
- Statement and analysis of project objectives.
- Determining the target audience.
- Layout preparation and design development.
- Approval and layout layout.
- Programming and transferring the site to hosting.
- Filling a resource with content.
- Testing.
- Delivery of the project.
Types of Sites
It is important to correctly determine the purpose for which the site is being created. First you need to select the type of project. Sites can be conditionally divided into several categories based on a set of functions and goals for which they are created. Depending on the purpose, the resources can be commercial and non-commercial.
Commercial sites are created to sell goods and services, as well as to promote the company.
This type includes:
- landing pages, business card sites where only information about the company is located;
- online stores where you can purchase goods or order services;
- promotional sites created to promote products;
- product catalogs;
- corporate sites ;
- paid services.
Non-profit sites do not set themselves the goal of selling a product or service. They can be:
- informational;
- news;
- entertaining.
By accessibility, sites are divided into two categories:
- local - are open only to a certain circle of persons;
- public - for all comers.
Goals and objectives of the project
The customer selects the desired type of site and describes in as much detail as possible why he needs this project, what functions he should have and what tasks to perform. A “brief” is drawn up - a special document with the wishes of the client, thanks to which you can more accurately determine the value of the site. It covers the following issues:
- What is the project deadline?
- Does the customer have another site, what are his disadvantages?
- If the project is commercial, does the customer have competitors?
- What is the difference between his proposal?
- What languages should the resource be in?
- Can a customer give examples of sites that he likes?
- What will be the requirements for the logo, color scheme?
The list may be supplemented. When drafting the terms of reference and brief, it is necessary to discuss as many issues as possible. This will help to more accurately determine the cost of the project and quickly coordinate it with the customer. The difference between the brief and the technical specification in a more free form of its presentation. It is a list of customer wishes, and not clear requirements for the characteristics of the project.
Site Audience
Having decided on the goals and objectives that the website should solve, it is worth thinking about the audience of the resource. People can access sites for various purposes:
- receive information (news sites, thematic resources, online stores with product reviews);
- share information (personal blogs, business card sites);
- exchange information (social networks, forums).
A site conversion is the ratio of the number of users who visited the resource and performed certain targeted actions on it (registered, clicked on an advertising link, or bought something) to the total number of visitors, expressed as a percentage. Website design should be focused on maximum conversion. There are many methodologies that are used to increase this value. But than to spend money on additional improvements after the completion of the project, it is better to immediately develop a site so that it meets the needs of not only the customer, but also future users.
Designing a website is worth starting with the answer to the following questions:
1) How to attract visitors?
2) Where will they come from?
3) What needs to be conveyed to the visitor?
It often happens that the customer forgets to answer the last question, as a result of which site traffic is significantly lower than expected. On the commercial project , the products themselves and their advertising will attract new customers, information portals should be filled with high-quality content, and news resources should be constantly updated. The site should not only attract new visitors, but also stimulate access to it again and again.
Website Design Design
At the next stage, the web designer begins work. Design is an important tool for improving the efficiency and promotion of a project. A template with a site frame is created. The designer develops it, taking into account the wishes of the customer for graphic elements, color palette and user interface.
It all starts with a sketch - a sketch of the layout, which must be approved by the customer. It looks quite schematic and gives an approximate idea of how the final result will look. Often the initial version is finalized several times until all the wishes of the client are taken into account. After agreeing on the basic design, the specialist begins work on individual design elements, including the interface.
Interface Design
Laconic user interface is an important component of the future success of the project. It should be understandable to any user and look attractive. Site navigation should reveal a set of its functions and help find any content, otherwise you will have to redo the entire design. Designing a site without a clear internal organization and thoughtful structure is doomed to failure. Users should enjoy visiting the project, and not experience negative emotions due to the fact that they can not correctly enter their data in the registration form or find the right button. The time spent on the search matters.
Approval and layout layout
If everything is done correctly, then the customer accepts the sketch, and the design and development of the site goes to a new level - the layout designer takes up the matter. It translates the layout into a specific programming language. The domain of the site and its CMS (Content Management System) are discussed in advance - the so-called engine, a management system by which the site is filled with graphic data and content.
After that, the project is transferred to the selected hosting. It is important that it is stable, because no design and content will save the site if the resource is constantly unavailable to the user. Reliable hosting is one of the key components of a project’s success, which cannot be saved. After programming and transferring the layout, the next stage of work on the project begins - filling in the content.
Content Filling
Web site design and design should be oriented so that the person wants to return to the resource, becoming interested in the information received and satisfying their needs for it. After the design is completed, you will need an SEO specialist (optimizer or content manager) and a copywriter editor. It can be either one person or several. Ideally, he should make up the semantic core of the site, choosing the most popular search queries on a given topic, write unique literate texts and optimize them by entering keywords. Site content is the main sales tool. Therefore, the information should be relevant, useful and meet the needs of users.
But do not forget about search robots, which determine the ranking of a site - sorting pages in search engines according to the most relevant user request (relevance). The design of the site should include the registration of meta tags, the position of the site in the issue depends on them in many respects. Mandatory meta tags are:
- title (title) - description of the site as a result of the search;
- description (description) - a brief description of the page;
- text headers (h1, h2);
- keywords (keywords).
Properly written title and description help significantly improve the site’s position in the ranking, the structure is necessary for a comfortable perception of the text, and keywords help robots find the necessary information at the user's request.
Testing and delivery of the project
When all the work is completed, the site design proceeds to the final stage - testing. If everything went well, the project is handed over to the customer and launched. If not, it is finalized and checked again. After the site is published, it must be registered in various search engines and directories. Further promotion and maintenance of the project, as well as updating and technical support are discussed separately.