A well-defined website design process serves as the backbone of high-performing websites, ensuring they not only look good but also function seamlessly to achieve their intended goals. By following a structured approach that encompasses a number of key stages, websites can transcend mere aesthetics to become powerful tools that effectively communicate a brand’s message, engage users, and drive desired actions.
We consider there are 7 fundamental stages to this design process.
- Strategy
It’s imperative to understand the purpose, direction, and scope of the website and to determine what goals it needs to fulfil, who the audience is, what they want to see and what is the measure of success.
- Discovery
Following the Strategy stage, research the various visual styles, imagery, colour palettes and typography relevant to the project objectives and prepare a detailed mood board will help with the general design direction.
- Structure
This stage is about defining a blueprint for the structure of the site to discover user flow, functionality and intended user behaviour. This is achieved with detailed site maps and wireframes to understand navigation and connectivity between pages and content, and how they interrelate.
- Content
Now that the architecture of the website is defined, content can be created for individual pages. This content, including headline messaging, needs to be compelling, concise, and informative and adheres to the brand’s tone-of-voice, narrative and positioning as well as best practice for search engine optimisation.
- Visual
This stage focuses on User Interface Design (UI). This is where things get visual by focusing on the look, feel and style of the website, exploring layout, colour, typography, imagery, interactions and calls to action. Design must have human behaviour in mind, with expert consideration to accessibility, patterns, spacing, interactions and colour to intuitively guide the user.
- Testing
It’s now time to make sure everything works and looks as it should. This is the point where any inaccuracies in the build need to be tweaked and rectified. Combine manual browsing of the site on a variety of devices with automated site crawlers to identify everything from user experience issues to simple broken links and other technical glitches.
- Launch
When everything is working well, it’s time to plan and execute the launch. This should include planning both launch timing and communication strategies to promote the new website.
Ultimately, this comprehensive process not only results in aesthetically pleasing websites, but also ones that effectively fulfil their purpose, resonate with their audience, and contribute to the overall success of the brand.