Define Project Scope
Define and document website business goals and objectives– In the initial meetings with business lead, I will learn more about the organization, the project objective, who your target audience is, your expectations of what the website will do, as well as what content you want included in your website.
Current State Analysis
Research is focused on four main elements – People, Processes, Information and Technology, and involves the following specific tasks:
- Identify user groups, create user profiles, study usage metrics –page views, browser, platform and device usage, what key word searches brought users to your site, and geographical breakdown of the users
- Understand work flows and processes, if any, and create process flow charts
- List all website content, study existing site structure, media types and the existing strategy and process to manage this content
- Gather information about current technology, content management system and back-end processes.
- Identify and document problem areas and usability concerns (redundancies, inconsistencies, and incomplete information)
Design for Scalability, Accessibility and Marketability
The web design strategy should take the following into consideration:
- Separate content from layout – identify a content management system that facilitates quick upgrades, look and feel changes in the future, if required.
- Design for multiple device types and multiple browsers – Responsive web design should be explored as an option, as this emerging web design technology helps in rendering content layout based on the device type, and provides an enhanced user experience
- Design strategy should take accessibility standards into consideration
- Create a strategy to index and categorize old and new content. Content management system should provide for meta data and keyword tagging for Search Engine Optimization
- Define strategy to organize and migrate current content to new site. Create a hierarchy and assign a rank/level to each content item to create new site map ,
Website Architecture and Future State Mockups
- Translate business objectives into most appropriate architecture.
- Create future state site map, wireframes and mock-ups of navigation
- Create a unique design that reflects business image and provides a user-friendly look, create graphics and style guides
- The goal of this phase is to provide a future state mockup that is closest to what you had in mind. From there I will make additional changes until you are completely satisfied with the overall look and feel of your new Website Design
Coordinate Development
- Prepare UI Specs and functional requirements for the development team
- Work with business to identify and procure development team/resources
- Prepare schedule and checklist for website development
- Manage project through the development phase •Coordinate with developers, web hosting provider and technical teams as needed
- Monitor implementation of usability components, functionality and features
- Ensure smooth migration of content from the old site
User Acceptance Testing and Website Launch
- Perform Page Integration and User Acceptance Tests. Organize user groups for testing.
- Ensure that style guide is used throughout the site and content is delivered in a clean and consistent manner compatible with the most popular browsers
- Ensure everything is functioning as planned and every link is linked.
- Finally, install Google Analytics module on the site, giving you access to reports on your visitors