Any project, no matter how big or small, can benefit from research and planning before the work begins. I don’t believe in “too much information”. During the Exploration process, I make it my mission to find out exactly what you’re looking for:
- What are your marketing objectives for this project?
- Who is your audience and what are their expectations?
- What message are you trying to convey?
- What is your competition in the field and what are the industry best practices?
I want to make what we create together stand out, and the best way to do that is to find out what you hope to gain from the project. We need to figure out why your audience should care.
If there’s one thing I learned in school it’s that research always helps. Starting off the project with some reference material can not only save time, but also your funds. Driven by your goals for the project, I look through multiple resources to find styles others have used, then remix them to create the perfect base idea for the job. With that, I’ll grasp the following:
- Is the design/architecture usable and friendly?
- Have we successfully differentiated you from your competitors?
- Is what we’ve conceived getting the message across?
I gather what I’ve learned then start execution. It’s not the prettiest process, but it’s smart and efficient. That’s how I believe in working.
The big brainstorming sessions are over, and now I’ll get to work. At this point I’ll do everything I can to make sure that your vision comes to light and that every step of the production meets the highest possible standard of quality.
You can expect to find me working on:
- Constructing any navigation while maintaining optimal usability
- Designing inner pages with content and graphics
- Coding technicalities- such as SEO functionality, user login ability, inner-site search engines, etc.
- Checking all the “bells and whistles” like multimedia components and accessibility throughout the site
By the end of this step I will have gone through the site to confirm that I’ve met all standards by making the environment simple to use. Once this is completed, I will send the project to an outside resource to ensure everything is polished and ready to go!
The fourth and final chapter of your project is the Delivery. Whether we’ve created a new company logo or a non-profit website, my process is the same. I double-check my work and make sure I’ve accomplished creating the best possible design we could achieve together.
Before I hand the final product over to you, I’ll suggest ways to get the most out of our creation, and include ideas regarding future milestones to consider.
Lastly: I say we and together because throughout the whole process, I want you to know that you are my partner. What’s that saying, “there’s no I in we“? The only exception is in the rare case that you’d like to stay out of the production process and leave it all to me. This is no problem at all- just make sure you let me know what you want before I start throwing ideas at you.