GSI's Web Design Process

Preparation

Understanding the business is key to the success of  a website. Based on conversations with you, we'll plan the goals, target audience, functionality, visual design style and scope of the website. We'll give you a fixed cost and delivery timescale. Payment will always be agreed in two or more instalments. If you haven't got a quote yet and want an idea of price now, you can use our Instant quote website price builder page.

We'll add you to our Project Management CRM and provide you with your login details so you can upload documents and image files and content during the website build. 

Scope

Defining the scope of the project is important. We do like to exceed our clients' expectations. However, a common frustration with web projects is what's known as "scope creep". In effect, this means that when a project has not been properly defined and agreed in advance, there is a temptation to add features and functions to the specification after the event. A well defined website plan will ensure that the need for afterthought does not exist apart from the usual tweaks and adjustments required during the pre-launch phase.

Visual Design

Once the site structure has been decided, the next step is to create the visual style. The overall style will usually be determined by any existing brand or business style, The logo and brand play an important role in this part of the process, as they will largely dictate the graphic style, colours, fonts and font sizes to be used. If our brief is to include the logo and brand design, this will become part of the overall visual and graphics process.

Site Development

With the style agreed, we'll get on with the design and layout. The technical development starts at the same time. Preparation for this in terms of database installation and software configuration will have already started. At this stage, we build the website functions and processes and install the content management system together with your website admin management dashboard. 

Site Testing

The development will take place on our production server where only our team, you and anyone who you share the link with can view it. Testing of the site is critical as there will always be tweaks and adjustments to be made before the site goes live. There is nothing that kills a website more than processes that don't function properly or content presented with misspellings or grammatical errors. The website will be reviewed using all the most popular browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera) and at different screen resolutions as well as laptops, tablets and phones.

Launch

Once everything is tested and running as expected, the website can be launched at any time. The host account will be made live to the public and your control panel will be set up to handle email, visitor statistics and other processes. We'll provide you with live links to your website management dashboard together with login details and, if any training is needed, we'll provide it.

Site Maintenance

Websites are constant works in progress and need constant care and maintenance. Markets, styles, trends, technology - they all change and your business will often need to move with them. You will always be able to make changes to your website pages, prices and images within moments. But from time to time, you'll need to change some aspects of the overall design or style or you may need to add some additional processes to meet customer expectations. We develop long term relationships with our clients to advise, oversee or help with ongoing site performance, strategic digital marketing and search engine performance. We do not walk away from a website once it's launched.