The Process of a Website Creation | Part 2

We just want to make sure that we have all that information out there and you understand the process...

Hello there!

We wrote this article in order to help you understand our process of a website creation better. Last time we introduced you to Part 1 of this article, where we explained how the pricing works and what the process is to determine whether we’re going to work together. Check it out to get a better idea of it!

Read part 2 of the article to understand more about how we design the website and what our tech process is, up until launching your website.

Q3: What kind of information do we need in order to start working?

This is the time that we ask you for a lot of information that we’re going to need in order to really start working on the website. Some of the base things that we need is access to hosting, access to domain and access to the theme that we have decided upon. Another big chunk of information that we’re going to need from you is:

images that you already have and you really want to be included on the website;
logos and your brand book;
to make decisions on fonts;
any available texts that you have prepared for the website is going to be very much needed at this stage.

Sometimes the clients struggle with writing their texts for the website before they see the actual design. There’s several ways that we can overcome that, but having a design before actually having started working on the website costs more and this is why many of our clients prefer that we use a ready template. If you decide that you need some help with your copywriting or creating a design before we start working, we can provide it for you as an extra service.

Please have in mind that having the copy before we start working on the website is going to be very, very helpful for us, because we can craft the best looking design, based on your content. This is the case when we work with the option of full customization of a WordPress theme. But if you like a certain template and you love everything about it that means that you can write your copy based on the text placeholders in the template.

Some extra information that we may need is a Google account access for example, so that we can complete your SEO optimization. Because of the GDPR law, we’re going to ask you to have ready legal documents for the website – such as Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, etc.. The data collection, storage and processing part should also include a Cookie Policy. We’re going to provide a list of cookies that the website uses, if you decide to include it in the policy. We can only help you with suggesting people or tools that are legal and can help you with creating these documents. Since we aren’t lawyers, we cannot provide them for you. We really hope you understand.

Q4: What about design?

1. Design
This is the time to discuss each page, each section and each element on the website – their designs. We may like several WordPress templates and we may collect from them different elements and functionalities and afterwards we’re going to build them like a puzzle, but make them work together with your branding and overall feeling and design of the website.

2. Choose a Template & Theme
After we’ve gathered all the information that we need we’re going to go through the designs and what we suggest we do with your template’s customization. We’re going to show you some of the features we may include for a specific section of your website and for the other part we’re going to work our way through during the process.

Q5: What do we do once we’ve cleared out the design and have all necessary info?

1. Tech Set up
We are starting with tech setup – hosting, domain, account info, WordPress & plugin installations, theme setup.

2. First Drafts – Home
This is the time that we usually start working on the homepage. The homepage is the page that represents your business at the first glimpse of the user. This is why we pay great attention to the home page, because it gives us important insight as to what you like. When we’ve figured out what direction your likings are headed to, we can create the rest of your website.

3. First Drafts – A single Post / Product Template
By this time we have already discussed the home page with different designs and we have decided on the overall one. The next thing we tend to continue working on usually are the posts or products, because normally they’re used as templates that you can copy after and create other blog posts or other products in your online shop. The same goes for your portfolio posts that are going to show your design works or the general portfolio for your work or craft.

4. Other Pages
We continue working on the other pages of your website and discuss with you all the time. During working on the website, we normally need several days, so that we can think about the process and about the design and figure out the best possible examples that we can show you. Normally, we’re going to give you an update of what we have done the previous week, what we are going to do this week and what is left that we actually need from you (whether it’s information or assistance, or feedback on some specific things that we’ve already shown you every Monday).

5. Responsiveness
After we are ready with the pages, we start looking through the mobile version of the website and check the responsiveness of the website. We finalize small details, we ask you to look through the website on a mobile device as well. We also check the website on all different browsers to make sure that it is compatible with whatever browser the user prefers.

6. Final Tech Setup
At the end of the project what we normally do is finalize the tech settings of the website. Such as speed optimization, cashing plugins, SEO optimization, etc. Also, if you want a multilingual website this means that this is the time that we’re going to create a second language of the website and we’re going to need all of the texts for the second language, so that we can put them in place and finalize the second language version of the website.

7. Finalize & Launch
We show you the final product and if you confirm and we are successful, we sign a protocol and we are ready to invoice you for the last 50% of the payment for the website. We also ask for your feedback, a quote to use on our portfolio and we are done 🙂 If you need our support – we send you an offer and another contract for the long-term support that you can rely upon us for.

An important note here is that if anything else comes up during the process that is new information, a new functionality, big changes of design, or anything extra that we haven’t included in the contract, this is the time that we are going to discuss it, give you estimations about the extra work that we need to do in order to complete the new assignment and after you agree, we’re going to continue with that when we have finalized the initial assignment.

We do this, so that we can really focus on the website and the initial creation of it and this way we are able to accomplish the deadline that we have agreed upon. For the extra work – we’re going to create an extra document and of course after you accept the finished tasks, we’re going to give you another protocol. We just want to make sure that you have everything written and that we’re going to do everything the way you want.

And this is it. Of course our process is quite flexible, so depending on your needs we can adjust it as we go. We just wanted to make sure that we have all that information out there and you understand the process. We do it like that to make sure that your goals are met. Sometimes, we need to start the project without any texts from our client or the design changes drastically in the middle of the project. This affects the deadline significantly, which makes both our clients and us nervous. This is why we tend to push towards having that process straight, so that we really can make our clients happy.

Thank you so much for reading this article! I really hope that this information is going to help you understand and we can work the best and give you the awesome website that you deserve. If you need any extra services from us, don’t hesitate to contact us here.

Who wrote this article

Learn more about the author

Polly Desheva

Founder

/ mathematics, informatics, spreadsheets, travel, eco, startups, design, handmade stuff and food lover
/ feminist, doer, freelancer, wanna-be-designer and activist ✌

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The Process of a Website Creation | Part 2