Four Phases of Web Design

Website development can be broken down in to four phases.

Each phase is briefly described below.

1. Discovery Phase

  • Initial phone calls, meetings, consultation
  • Research, planning, scheduling
  • Gather images, logos, color themes
  • Explore content
  • Develop site structure / sitemap
  • Project estimate
  • Discuss payment schedule

 

2. Creative Phase

 

  • User experience (UX) design
  • Visual design
  • Information architecture
  • Usability
  • Research
  • Content Strategy
  • Interface design
  • Wireframing / Web design mockups

 

3. Development Phase

  • Create the pages of the website
  • Research, install & configure plugins for specific functionality
  • Create eCommerce (if needed)
  • Create email accounts
  • Create mailing list (if needed)
  • Browser Testing – Desktop, Tablet, & Mobile devices

4. Launch Phase

  • Review / Q & A
  • Moving site from development staging server to live server/domain
  • Install SSL on domain
  • Configure all plugins that require SSL
  • Configure 24/7 security, and website backup
  • Basic SEO
  • Client training
  • Final Payment  (50%) completion of final deliverable