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CW&D Web development process
Designing and developing Web sites is portrayed as the cutting edge of the communications
revolution. In practice, there are unique challenges and problems to get to grips with.
Through our focus on Web development, CW&D understands the issues involved,
harnessing the essence of what makes a site look good and perform well.
Same old things?
ComputerWorks&Designs uses similar creative processes that are required to develop
designs for other media, for all its web sites.
However, unlike in other media, what we produce as designers may differ in some ways to what
the audience actually sees and experiences. Difference in computer technologies, browser versions,
screen sizes and operating systems are just a few of the variables that have an impact on how a
Web page is viewed. These differences can result in massive
variations, and can impact in all the wrong ways on the experience of someone visiting a site we
lovingly designed. It's crucial to know the
issues behind making a site work for the audience and the client, and to treat every project with the
reverence it requires.
CW&D understands that there must always be a trade off between the design and visual feel of the site, and its
actual usability and functionality. One of the main
challenges is in creating a design that's flexible enough to deliver the objectives of the site to the
audience in an interesting way, wrapped in the appropriate branding, while still remaining accessible and useful
when viewed with different technologies.
Types of Sites
There are four broad elements that can go into an Internet site: interactivity and relationship building,
straight information and content-based elements, entertainment elements, and transactional sales and
customer service elements.
Each Web development project requires conceptualisation - it will need a hook for the site to hang on,
and it will need intelligent, creative thinking about how the content is to be structured and presented.
How we charge
In the Web development industry, market value is hard to assess, and there are no hard and fast pricing rules.
Every Web project is different and it's impossible to give rough guidelines. However, there are a few
pointers we bear in mind in placing together our pricing structure. We estimate the number of days we
think the brief will take to complete, including all prototypes, development, testing, project management
and meetings.
CW&D's Web Design Process
To get to the finished product, CW&D follows a number of guidelines that are usually defined. These
are concerned broadly with visual concept and design, navigation and structure, features and functionality.
All three need to be brought together before work can begin on actual production. Technical elements - such
as database specifications, and the ways in which an e-commerce site might 'talk' to the bank - would appear
in our functionality guidelines.
Project management and planning
If everything else is great but deadlines slip, details are overlooked and no-one knows who's doing what and
when certain elements are to be produced, the project will fall apart. We make sure that both sides agree a strict brief and have it signed off.
CW&D will normally present two concepts as drawings or prints mounted on card, or as static screenshots
or web browser preview on a demo directory. Although the functionality won't be there, it's the simplest
means of explaining a creative thought for a number of concepts without spending days battling with the
intricacies of Web production, developing designs that'll be thrown away.
The concept for the site will include the structure of information and the way people navigate. Different
concepts may approach the situation from completely different perspectives. There's never only one way
to do it, but there's usually a clear leader. Once the winning concept is approved, the structure of the site
and information flow will be created. CW&D will produce a diagram that shows not only all the pages
and how they link together, but also the responses to various actions, and the places from which information
is gathered if the site is to be linked to databases. Before any actual production begins, CW&D will have
a detailed blueprint of how the site will look, how it will behave, and how it will interact with the people
visiting it. This is the Web equivalent of a movie storyboard.
Following the above steps of Web development the whole process from brief to site completion is reasonably
straight forward because we've put into consideration all the groundwork and planning. For a full impact web
site, you need to make sure all the parts come together at the right time, that everyone knows what they're
doing, and that what has been suggested is feasible in the time available. This is the biggest point of failure
with Web projects, and a common reason for them overrunning.
Maintenance
Don't underestimate the work required in maintenance.
While the elements of design and navigation won't require as much thought as the original concept, adding
pages and reorganising information is time consuming.
It is not advisable to up a site and leave it there for six months. Areas of development need to be highlighted
from the start, and the structure needs to take into account features that may come online in the future. Sites
always have problems with bits being bolted on, turning them into a Frankenstein creature that needs to be
killed off and started from scratch. Shaping the site for further development is a major task hence we
strongly recommend CW&D's
Web Maintenance Plan (PLEASE ASK FOR DETAILS!!)
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