With new web technologies and tools, creating websites has become more accessible – leaving more time for design. The steps outlined are to ensure a successful campaign and website launch.
Weโve said it beforeโฆ and weโll keep saying it โtil weโre blue in the face! The value your website has cannot be overstated. On the digital frontier, your website is arguably the most important asset your company owns โ who else will be available to advocate for your business 24/7?
And nowadays, standards on the web are higher than ever. You need a well-designed website to drive conversion and make your business stand out โ so itโs essential to ensure your own website is set up correctly.
A whopping 94% of first impressions for site visitors are based on design. Up to 75% of users trust a visually appealing website (founderJar). Thatโs why itโs essential to get it right the first time. You donโt want to lose the possibility of engaging with a long-term customer or client. Long-term clients are our bread and butter at Mighty Fine.
But we understand that getting started with your website can seem daunting. We wonโt sugarcoat it: There are quite a few logistics involved with the website design process, and itโs collaborative by nature, so it can take some work on your end as well, especially if you arenโt familiar with the whole process.
Donโt worry. Weโll break it down into easily digestible bits.
Don’t worry. Weโll break it down into easily digestible bits.
6 Key Stages of the Custom Website Design Process:
Table of Contents
Defining Purpose: Getting Started with the Web Design Process
We know itโs super exciting to get the ball rolling on your new website, but here are a few helpful things to know. These tips go a long way in helping you avoid potential pitfalls or unwanted friction in the website design process. Of course, a professional agency will guide you through these, but it never hurts to get a leg up!
What is a Web Design Process?
The web design process is like a well-choreographed dance, where each step leads to the creation of an exceptional website. Content management systems streamline this process by providing prebuilt solutions and templates, making it easier for users with varying levels of experience to create and manage their websites effectively. Itโs a series of carefully planned stages that web designers follow to bring a website to life. This process involves planning, designing, developing, testing, and finally launching the website. Each stage is crucial in ensuring that the final product is not only visually appealing but also user-friendly and tailored to meet the needs of its target audience. By following a structured web design process, web designers can create websites that captivate visitors and drive engagement.
There is no magic AI website builder that will build you something thatโs unique to your brand. It takes a team of professionals with years of design experience to compete on the global internet stage.
Define Your Websiteโs Purpose
Defining your websiteโs purpose is a crucial step in the website design process. It involves identifying the primary goals and objectives of your website, as well as understanding your target audience and their needs. A well-defined purpose will help guide the design and development of your website, ensuring that it meets the needs of your users and achieves your business goals.
To define your websiteโs purpose, start by asking yourself the following questions:
- What is the main goal of my website?
- Who is my target audience?
- What are their needs and pain points?
- How will my website address these needs and provide value to my users?
By answering these questions, you can develop a clear understanding of your websiteโs purpose and create a website that effectively meets the needs of your users. This foundational step in the design process ensures that every decision made during the website development aligns with your business objectives and resonates with your target audience.
Decide the right fit for your business.
Everyoneโs businesses and needs are different. But if youโre serious about building your brand presence on the web, youโll want to work with a reputable and top US web design agency that will build your website on a robust content management system like WordPress. Using a sophisticated Website Builder, rather than a templated theme. A WordPress Builder will give you all the tools to build a website without limitations. Ideally, a builder with great reviews from unbiased third-party platforms. When budgets are limited, we recommend looking into using services like Squarespace or Fiverr. Youโll be able to get something done cheaply, but sites made using these platforms are likely to have shortcomings in uniqueness, custom functionality/layouts, or the in-house resources a design agency has to make a website that can compete on a national level.
Establish who the project stakeholders are.
When there are too many stakeholders or points of contact involved, the website design process can become convoluted and drawn out. We find having only a couple of members to spearhead communications from both the agency and client sides helps keep the project moving forward. This will allpy to freelancers as well.
We appreciate feedback as any agency should becuase it’s your brand but sometimes everyone in the room becomes the “designer”. Which can unecessarly prolong the process. We work as a team to design and develop website projects and have already iterated on a number of concepts before submitting them for review.
Define new website expectations.
What do you need from your new website? And what do you want? Do you need custom functionality like Calendars, appointment applications, or Interactive maps? An online store might also be a crucial feature for listing and selling products, complete with various tools and features for operation and management. Laying out your needs upfront means fewer surprises down the road. You should develop a budget for your website so you can choose a creative agency that aligns with your values, mission and budget. You should always have clear and concise work agreement from whoever you work with that outlines all planned tasks, helping you stay on budget and on schedule. This approach benefits both the client and the service provider.
Assemble as much content as you can upfront.
This is a big one. We always ask clients to provide all their content upfront if we’re not handling a complete rebranding and messaging campaign. This lets us take a holistic approach, conceptualizing everything as a cohesive whole. Whether itโs custom photography, video assets you own, or the copy that will go on the website, having all these elements at the start helps your agency design a website with every piece of the puzzle in place.
You’ll get better results when everything is planned out from the start. Plus, sticking to budgets and schedules is crucial. In the past, we weren’t strict about this, which caused projects to drag on and led to a less optimal outcome.
The longer a project goes on, the more likely people will want to add things that weren’t in the original plan. Honestly, it’s almost guaranteed if the timeline stretches out. This can be really frustrating, especially if you’re trying to launch a campaign. Keeping everyone on track helps avoid these issues.
Our mission is to get everything right and on-time. We metaphorically follow the principles of Hick’s Law which basically state: K.I.S.S โ Keep it Simple and Straightforward.
Our Six Steps to the Web Design Process
This article will describe our approach to the comprehensive website design process. Each agency is unique, so you should anticipate some variation in the process depending on who you work with. However, these best practices are supported by over two decades of research and practice. This methodology carries a website from conception to completion without leaving anything to chance or guesswork.
Step 1: Website Discovery Process
We start the website design process with some self-discovery and introspection. First, take a deep breath inโฆ hold it, and then exhale. Just kidding! This isnโt yoga. That said, we spend a lot of time meditating about your company.
The website discovery process is the first and arguably the most critical step in the web design process. Think of it as the foundation upon which your entire website will be built. This stage involves diving deep into understanding your business goals, identifying your target audience, and gathering all the necessary content. By doing so, we can ensure that the website we create aligns perfectly with your vision and meets the needs of your users.
Before we even put pen to paper and sketch out our first design idea, weโll take the time to understand your business goals and needs as much as possible. Any skilled web design agency will make sure this step is never skipped.
Goal Identification
Goal identification is all about pinpointing the primary purpose of your website. Are you looking to increase sales, generate leads, or provide valuable information to your audience? By clearly defining your goals, we can tailor the website to achieve these objectives. This step also involves understanding your target audience โ who they are, what they need, and how your website can serve them best. Knowing your audience inside and out allows us to create a user experience that resonates with them and keeps them coming back for more.
Identifying goals is essential for us to devise a solution that will work for your business. Skipping this step is like throwing darts at a board and hoping something sticks.
No one can guarantee results with guesses. This is why we always design websites holisticallyโthis methodology lets us create a website that solves our clients’ problems and satisfies their needs.
Here are just a few examples of questions we would ask in our brief:
- Whatโs the primary objective of your site? For example, do you want people to download your app, buy products, raise awareness, or contact you for services?
- Who is the site for? Whatโs your target audience? What would be an ideal experience for them?
- Did you have any pain points with your last website?
- Is there content from your previous website youโd like to keep (text, images, videos)?
- What features do you need on your website? Just because you can have it doesn’t mean you need it or another expense. And what would be nice to have?
- Who are your competitors? Have you seen a site that you like? If so, you should share it with the creative agency you will work with. Examples are always welcomed.
Step 2: Defining Website Scope and Expectations
Now that weโve spent time immersing ourselves in your business and establishing the goals of your new website, we can move on to step two: defining the scope of the website and making sure expectations are crystal clear.
Aside from a written statement of the projectโs scope, we love to outline your website using sitemaps.
Sitemaps are like the specifications of your websiteโs architect โ similar to blueprints for a home, and they are a crucial part of your site architecture.
They outline your website’s information architecture and clarify the relationship between its pages. This makes it easier to determine the number of pages on your website, the features required on each page, etc.
Defining this up front helps our clients and us keep the project on time and within budget. It’s also crucial in developing your internal linking strategy and designing the best user experience for your clients.
To illustrate, think of building your website as if you were building a house. Making changes to the blueprint of your house after itโs halfway built is probably a recipe for a budgeting disaster (unless youโre Jeff Bezos). Moving the bathroom from one room to another after itโs built means having to readjust the plumbing, electrical, wallsโฆ you get the point. It would be a significant rework.
This isnโt necessarily an issue on the agency sideโwe can be flexible. We always want to stoke and delight our clients with the final delivery. However, increases in scope do mean increases in the budget needed to accommodate a higher workload. Depending on the scale of the increased scope, this can also mean adjustments to the delivery schedule.
This is why total transparency is key for both parties! Defining the scope upfront and sticking to it once work begins ensures no surprises are involved in the website design process. Itโs worth mentioning that you can always add to or adjust your website after itโs built.
We create websites with design systems in mind. Adding new pages becomes much faster! Design systems are the foundation on which your site is built. Think of it as a design library for your brand, which will be added to it throughout its life.
Research and Planning
Research and planning are the backbone of the website discovery process. This stage involves gathering detailed information about your target audience, their preferences, and the goals of your website. We also create a sitemap, wireframe, and prototype to visualize the websiteโs structure and layout. Think of this as sketching out the blueprint before building a house. By planning everything out in advance, we can ensure that the website is user-friendly, intuitive, and meets the needs of its target audience. This meticulous planning sets the stage for a smooth and successful web development process.
By following these steps in the website discovery process, we lay a solid foundation for the rest of the web design process, ensuring that every decision made is informed and purposeful.
Step 3: Website Content Generation
Content generation is about assembling written and visual content to populate your website. The written portion encompasses the text on the site, and the visual includes any photography, video, and so on. Visual elements play a crucial role in shaping the overall user experience and brand perception, contributing to a professional and appealing aesthetic that resonates with visitors.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial in content generation as it involves optimizing web content to improve visibility and ranking in search engine results.
Depending on your teamโs makeup and budget, you have a few options for completing this step. We can handle more or less of the work, depending on whether you need us to create content or if your team can take it on.
Or, if you already have content to supply, such as copy, video, and photography, you can leave the design to us. Any good agency will find the solution that best fits your business!
Regardless of your chosen method, we always require that all content be assembled before starting to build out your site. This is the last phase of website pre-production, so any deviations from the established and approved plan will result in changes to the scope. Of course, we are talking about significant changes like adding a new page or adding technology that takes days or weeks to implement.
As we mentioned before, the holistic website design process is all about removing all guesswork from the equation. Having all of the content upfront lets us get a birdโs eye view of where everything needs to go to achieve continuity.
Letโs take a quick look at both types of content that will populate your website.
Written Content
The written content of your web page, also known as copywritingโ not to be confused with copyright law. Is functionally the most important piece of the puzzle. There are three critical functions it serves for your site:
Driving engagement and action.
Dull and dense content is daunting and will make peopleโs attention spans drop like flies. Even if you have a lot of content, breaking things into โbite-sizedโ sections with catchy headlines helps keep things light and engaging. You should always have a professional copywriter create your brand messaging. They are the unsung heros of the business.
SEO.
Your written content is critical in defining the visibility of your website on search engines. Well-written content thatโs optimized for search engines will help your site rank better and become easier to find organically on the web, thereby attracting more website visitors. According to HubSpotโs data, the majority of users (75%) never go beyond the first page of search results.
Informing the design.
From a website development standpoint, written content directly informs almost everything about the design of web pages โ itโs impossible to design a page without knowing what purpose it serves, and the written content tells us exactly that. In all fields of design, the form always follows the function. The website design process is no exception.
Naturally, our company is always glad to provide our clients with excellent copywriting. If itโs within your budget, we strongly recommend itโthe more we can properly develop and improve your websiteโs written content to meet your brand and SEO strategy, the better.
However, itโs common for our clients to supply their copy. Sometimes, custom content generation may have already been assembled in-house, done by another agency, or not within budget.
Visual Content
The visual content for your website is pretty straightforward but shouldnโt be overlooked โ this involves any photography, video, or other visual medium that needs to be included. High-quality visual content, along with well-designed website elements such as color schemes, font choices, navigation menus, and visual hierarchy, does the following for your website:
Nail the first impression.
Users will form their first impression of your site in less than a second. Having professional, high-quality visual assets will ensure that they donโt immediately bounce from your site because they donโt think itโs up to their standards. The competition online is fierce but fortunately for you, many businesses donโt invest in good design!
Increases engagement and clicks.
Itโs widely known that visual content is a huge engagement and click booster. For example, people are 85% more likely to purchase a product after seeing a video of it. Think of your own purchasing habits โ assuming all else is equal, would you buy something off amazon that has a single low-quality image or one thatโs rich with images, videos, multiple product angle shots?
It helps convey your message.
A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a million words. People are able to process images and video much faster and in greater depth than text, so having great images or video assets helps convey your brand messaging that much clearer.
We always recommend going the extra mile for your visual content. The right media can elevate a design from good to great. Photography is an especially important element of your visual content. Hiring a professional photographer or a video production agency with a trained eye for composition and detail is instrumental in ensuring your assets are high quality. Remember, your brand is like a chain โ and a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Step 4: Our Website Design Process: Steps and Reviews
The pre-production phase of the web designing process is completeโweโve done our research, the blueprints are defined, and all content is assembled. Weโre ready to engage our design engines and go full steam ahead!
While we are busy behind the scenes (design iteration and exploration, in-studio review sessions, and so on), you can grab your favorite beverage, kick back, and relax. We’re here to simplify this process for you โ design is what we love and do best!
We created this one-minute video to explain design’s impact on your website.
A good team has a senior graphic designer, content specialist, and UX designer, who are overseen by a seasoned creative director. All team members are fluent in design and keep up with the latest website design trends.
Speaking of trends, website animation has helped modern websites stand out. You’ve probably seen a lot of it without noticing. It provides more engagement and interactivity for your visitors.
No-code website builders, new AI tools, and accessibility have increased online design skills and quality, ushering in a new era. The quality of well-designed and functional websites has improved so much that we’re looking for new methods to make the experience more enjoyable. While many uninspired or poorly executed website designs remain, great ones are becoming increasingly common.
Typically, the first thing weโll work on is your website’s completed landing page (or home page). This way, our clients have something concrete they can review. While rare, any desired changes to the design direction may be made here. This is also the time we begin building design systems that can be iterated on.
Our goal is to stoke our clients with a website thatโs on-brand!
Step 5: Final Design, Testing, and Reviews
Once the landing page design direction is approved, we will carry that aesthetic through every website page so your website has entirely consistent branding. Thereโs not much else to say about this stage โ we get the job done!
After we finish up the rest of your website, we review our work thoroughly. We run through our checklists to ensure everything is up to par, that all buttons work as they should, and that everything looks consistent from mobile to desktop. Your visitors should expect the same brand experience across all devices.
Of course, we ensure your website’s page speed is as fast as possible. This is critical in the hyper-real world we live in. People will bounce to another website if yours is too slow to load.
Sites that load in less than 1 second see 3x more conversions than a website that loads in up to 5 seconds.(Portend)
Once all of our checks are complete, we will submit the site to you for a final review.
At this point, we can make any smaller design or text changes to refine the site further. Once things look great and we have final website approval, we’re ready for liftoff. Itโs time to launch your website live!
Step 6: Website Launch and Maintenance
Awesome! Your website is finally ready to go live. We push everything from our development environment to go live on the web, and then we all pour a glass of bubbly to celebrate a job well done!
So, weโre all done, right? Wellโฆ yes! But not entirely. Like a car, a website requires constant maintenance to operate smoothly.
Ideally, you want to consistently update WordPress and any plugins youโre using, along with security checks, and create daily backups in case anything goes wrong. Our agency offers all our clients this and a complimentary year of hosting and maintenance as a thank-you for their business.
Of course, if our clients have their own hosting and/or maintenance company or want to take it into their own hands, weโre more than happy to hand the keys over โ itโs your site, after all! We want to ensure youโre thrilled with your new website and make the website design process as seamless as possible for you.
Ideally, your website should be adjusted constantly and updated with new content โ based on user feedback, further review, and page analytics.
Thatโs why we design our websites using design systems to make it easy for you to build on whatโs already there. So when youโre ready to tweak or expand your website after its initial launch โ the foundation for building something new is already there, ready to go.
A Racap: Tips for a Successful Website Design Process
In addition to defining your websiteโs purpose, there are several other key factors to consider when designing a website. Here are some additional tips to help ensure a successful website design process:
- Know your target audience: Understanding your target audience is critical to designing a website that meets their needs. Take the time to research your audience and understand their preferences, behaviors, and pain points.
- Choose the right website builder: With so many website builders available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. Consider your needs and goals, and choose a website builder that offers the features and functionality you need.
- Keep it simple and intuitive: A simple and intuitive website design is essential for providing a good user experience. Avoid clutter and ensure that your website is easy to navigate.
- Use high-quality visuals: High-quality visuals can help to enhance the user experience and make your website more engaging. Use high-quality images, videos, and graphics to bring your website to life.
- Optimize for search engines: Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for ensuring that your website is visible in search engine results. Use keywords, meta tags, and other SEO techniques to optimize your website for search engines.
- Test and iterate: Testing and iteration are critical components of the website design process. Test your website with real users and make changes based on their feedback to ensure that your website meets their needs.
Weโve just covered quite a bit of ground, so feel free to contact us if you have any questions about the website design and development process. As a Tampa and Atlanta-based agency that specializes in delivering websites with exceptional design and user experience, we at Mighty Fine are eager to assist you in elevating your business’s website to new heights.
