The team at WeAgile are always thinking about what insights you would find useful when it comes to your digital products. And we thought you might find a look behind the web design process curtains insightful.
Web design is essential – no doubt about that. So, we will take you step-by-step through our entire web design process in this blog article. From the original concepts to the finished, ready-to-use website. Whether you know nothing about web design or are a seasoned designer, this article is for you.
1. First Step – Grasp the Client’s Needs
It is crucial to have a clear grasp of the client’s objectives, target market, and brand identity before beginning the design process. The WeAgile team of designers always conduct discovery workshop with the client to collect all the information required. This always helps with producing a design that is in alignment with the goals and vision of the client.
2. Next – Research
We do thorough research to get ideas and insights into current design trends, industry norms, and competitor analysis. WeAgile team of designers are always on top of the design trends; however, it is always useful to do thorough research on your competitors. Also, our team would deep-dive into the websites which designs you like the best. So if you’re looking to redesign your website – make a list of websites you like the best. This list will become handy and the design concept will have a strong foundation thanks to this research phase.
3. Then – onto Wireframing and Prototyping
Our design team will start making wireframes as soon as they have a firm grasp of the client’s specifications and have gathered ideas. Wireframes are simply visual representations that show each web page’s structure and layout. This process is crucial as it ensures a logical flow of content and assists in establishing the information hierarchy. Very often, the initial wireframes will be drawn by hand (yes, also nowadays). No, we’re not as old as dinosaurs. There’s something in drawing by hand – the creative juices flow more freely. And then, designers will create interactive prototypes in Adobe XD or InVision after the wireframes have been approved so that clients can see the design and offer input.
4. More Visuals
With wireframes and prototypes in place, it’s time to bring the design to life through more visuals. We start by developing visual components that are consistent with the client’s brand identity, such as colour palettes, typography, and photography. For this stage, the designers often use Adobe Suite apps, e.g. Photoshop or Sketch. Several designers would have a look and give feedback before the designs go over to you – the client. We want to make sure that the designs adhere to the best design practices and are user-friendly and s***-hot (if that is what you wanted).
When you are happy and over the moon with the designs the WeAgile team has created…
We hand the designs over to your (or WeAgile’s) development team. So the next step is…
5. Web Development
WeAgile designers will work together with web developers to turn the visual design into a website. There are many programming languages (e.g. HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Python, PHP, Ruby, Java and so on). So our team of developers will choose the one which fits the client’s needs the best. Developers will make sure the website is responsive and works with a variety of browsers and devices. WeAgile designer will work closely with the development team to guarantee that the design is correctly implemented. In this stage, the WeAgile team will pay particularly close attention to the design’s user experience component. We use user-friendly forms, clear calls to action, and straightforward navigation. Your website users cannot feel lost or confused at any point. That is very important. So, in order to provide a seamless browsing experience across various devices and screen sizes, we will test the website’s usability. Then do final reiterations of the design and user experience (if necessary), taking into account the results from usability testing.
6. Next Step – Content Population
We make sure the content is well-placed and pleasing to the eye. By adding pertinent keywords and following best SEO practices, we may optimise the content for search engines. As always – it is important to ensure that there are no grammatical or spelling issues, we proofread the text too.
We’re getting close to the end…
7. Testing and Quality Control
WeAgile team will check the website carefully for any glitches, broken links, or compatibility issues and run cross-browser tests. We will also check the responsiveness, performance, and loading times of the website. Loading times are very important also for SEO – never forget that.
Then we will share the finished website with the client and ask for their final feedback.
8. Ta-da! Launch and Maintenance
The website can be launched as soon as the client approves the final design and development. WeAgile team of developers will sure the domain and hosting configurations are correct before deploying the website to a live server. Our SEO specialist will set up analytics software to track user behaviour and website performance. And, of course – to keep the website functional and up to date, WeAgile offers ongoing maintenance and support.
Undoubtedly, this could have been a much longer post with many more details. There are various steps in the web design process, starting with understanding the client’s requirements and ending with launching the finished website. A lot of things (brainstorming, reiterations, changes, fixes, updates, amends, etc.) happen in-between. However, we hope we showed you at least a little bit of how our team of developers and designers build websites that are user-friendly and pleasing to the eye. WeAgile’s mission is to provide outstanding web design and development services, keep up with modern design trends and constantly improve.
