1. Analysis
Why do you need a website? Make sure you have an answer to that one before even thinking of going further. It is particularly important in the case of Business Websites. A business must analyze why it wants a website (a business model) - to promote the business, generate revenue or offer support to customers. The website is going to a part of the system. How the web based application or website will help the existing system or the business should be basis of the analysis.
After analyzing requirements from a business perspective, it is then time to focus on user needs. Make sure you can clearly classify your target audience and establish functionalities the user will require. Never assume that you know what a customer wants. In fact it will be a good idea for a business to consult actual or potential users and discuss key factors that might affect the website (from a client's perspective).
Input: Interviews with http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/?action=click&contentCollection®ion=TopBar&WT.nav=searchWidget&module=SearchSubmit&pgtype=Homepage#/Taxi Dispatch software clients, supporting documents and mails, discussion notes, model sites etc.
Output: Cost, Size of Team, Hardware-Software requirements, supporting documents, approval, work plan
2. Specification
A 'functional' specification is a blueprint or a detailed plan of the website. After carefully considering business and user requirements, the next stage will be to form a website specification. What should be included in the menu, how content will be structured, how tasks should be generated etc. are some of the questions to be answered at this stage. A designer gets information on what should be presented and the programmer concentrates on functionality. Prototypes, mocked up web pages or illustrations of how a website will work are also prepared at this step.
3. Design and Development
Drawing from the information gathered in the above two stages, it's time to determine the look and feel of your site. The web designer will create one or more prototype designs for your web site. A lot of suggestions and changes to be made are exchanged between the client and designer at this stage. Design is concerned with how the website looks and if it fits the client requirement. User Experience (UX) and Usability both come into play here. And once the layout/design is finalized, it will be safe to move to the next step of developing. The developmental stage is the point where the website itself is created. The developer takes all graphic elements from the designer and uses them to create an actual functional site. Developing requires a lot of technical knowledge and programming. Content writing for the website is also done in this stage. You can hire professional content writers or write the content yourself.
Close interaction between the design and development team is necessary at this stage. A well designed functional website should be the ideal output at this stage.
4. Testing and Delivery
At this stage, the entire web development team comes together to have a close look at minute details and test the website. Following is a checklist of things to test on your website before launching/delivery: (there are various tools and testers available online)
· Flexibility (Try varying window sizes and font sizes)
· Speed (access the site via a modem & check image size specification)
· Validation (validate HTML, CSS and check for broken links)
· Browser Independence
· Accessibility
Once the website passes the testing phase, it is time to deliver the site. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program is used to upload the website files to your server. After your website is uploaded to your server, the site should pass through a final last run trial to confirm if all files have been uploaded correctly and make sure the site continues to be fully functional.
This stage marks the launch of your website, its now viewable to public.
5. Promotion and Maintenance
Once a website is launched and visible to the public, the next step will be promoting the website to get visitors/traffic to the site. Various SEO/SEM techniques can be used to increase site visibility and drive targeted traffic (many web design firms offer these services). This is a very important step, because even though you have a website, it is important for people to find your site.Another important aspect is 'maintenance' of a website. Continuously upgrading a site with fresh content and features will increase traffic, popularity and visibility. You can continue working with your web designers to update information on your website (design firms offer maintenance services at reduced rates) or, if you prefer a more hands on approach, and update your own content whenever required, then a CMS (Content Management System) can be implemented to your website. Its implementation is decided at the planning stage where the designer will utilize software to develop a database driven site.
A website development process will obviously also pertain to company specific frameworks, methodologies, tools and languages, but the steps mentioned above are a broad outline of steps which are necessary to develop and maintain a website.
Before you actually finalize your site map, let's think in more detail about how a good direct response website should be organized.
Our first rule forbids the use of external links. Therefore you can eliminate any links pages, sidebars with site affiliates, advertising banners, or such things from your site map. Although selling advertising space on your website may seem like a good idea for building revenue, it distracts your viewers from your central goal: selling the product. So keep it simple, and leave the advertising off.
Our second rule dictates that content on your site should be limited to only that which is essential for persuading people to Chauffeur website designer buy your product. The policy that goes along with this rule is to consolidate most of your site's information onto as few pages as possible. This reduces the chance that viewers will come to your page, click a link that takes them to another page on your site about your product's features, and then forget to come back to your main page to actually buy the product. Of course, there are situations where you'll want to divide your content among several smaller web pages on your site as opposed to putting everything in one massive index page--if you have a wide variety of technical data about your product, as well as photos and testimonials, you run the risk of boring your viewer long before he gets to the crucial "Buy" link.
So follow this guideline: if your viewers don't have to scroll down more than one or two times in order to read all of your product information, put everything on a single index page. If you have to scroll down too often to read all of your site content, then split the content into separate pages--but make use of pop-up windows in order to keep your main page open, or make sure that there's a link to your actual "Buy" page in a prominent place on every one of your sub-pages.
Above all, remember our third rule: keep it simple, stupid. One easy guideline for doing this is to follow the three-clicks rule:
• Upon arriving at your site, your viewers should never have to click more than three links in order to buy your product.
One way to implement the three-clicks rule might be this: your viewers start at an index page that describes the product information. They then click a "next" link to take them to a page about prices and ordering information. They then click a link to start ordering the product. That's two clicks in total. Another way to implement the three-clicks rule: your viewers start at an index page that talks in general terms about the product. They click on one of your subpages (features, testimonials, pricing, etc.--whatever best suits your specific product) to learn more about the product. They then click on a "Buy Now" button to learn about pricing, and then they click on a button to begin ordering the product. Three clicks. There are any number of other possible configurations--experiment with your site map until you come up with something that gets across all of your information while maintaining this same simplicity. Your customers will thank you--and you'll thank yourself when you see the sales figures.